If you’re having trouble with Pinterest, you may soon be able to go directly to the online image board for help.
The fast-growing site just launched a comprehensive support center to help its millions of new users resolve technical bugs and submit feature requests, supplementing an email inbox and Facebook page. But it looks like this new channel for help will soon be overwhelmed, too.
Pinterest itself, which has grown notorious for its tight-lipped nature, hasn’t announced the help site. But Pinner Claire Isabel Hutchison reported its existence in Pinterest Enablement and Support, a Facebook group dedicating to chatting about Pinterest, and members of #PinChat, a Pinterest community on Twitter and Facebook, also confirmed that the support page was brand-new.
Users began to discover the support center through a recently added link on the bottom of Pinterest’s Help page.
The support site is a big step up from Pinterest’s previous strategy for question resolution, which was primarily not to answer them. The site’s Facebook page, which last posted a bug message on Feb. 17, has left technical questions unanswered since, and an email address meant to field help requests hasn’t been responsive, users said.
“I’ve emailed that [official Pinterest] address about 8 times and received no response,” wrote Kathryn Taylor, who has been unable to get assistance on a technical problem.
Now, pinners can use the support center to discover “Instant Answers.” The FAQ is divided into two sections: one for the “basics,” another for “sites, brands & businesses.”
That separation is itself a revealing step in Pinterest’s evolution—an acknowledgement, however quiet, that businesses large and small, not just individuals, are active on the site.
If users don’t see their question in the FAQ, they can also “Submit a Request” to open a ticket on the issue. However, don’t expect to hear back overnight. Our tipper, Hutchison, opened ticket #7308 on Friday, and hasn’t heard back.
When the Daily Dot used the ticketing system to ask for a comment, our ticket was #11065. If Pinterest is labeling tickets numerically, that means Pinterest’s small staff is fielding more than a thousand requests a day—and that was over a weekend.
New help site or not, we’ll be waiting a long time for that reply.
Photo by dolmansaxlil