Customer service systems are built to exhaust you into abandoning your request. The UX Collective piece makes the core argument plainly: deceptive patterns in support flows are not bugs or oversights, they are deliberate design choices that reduce ticket volume by making help hard to reach.
The piece is worth reading in full because it names the specific mechanics, not just the outcome. Buried phone numbers, chatbots that loop without resolving, and confirmation pages that omit case numbers are not random friction. They are a cost-reduction strategy dressed as a user interface.
What comes next is the regulatory question. The FTC has already moved against dark patterns in subscription cancellation flows. Support access is the logical next front. This article gives you the vocabulary to recognize the problem before that conversation becomes unavoidable.
[READ ORIGINAL →]