Calling on Vocal to Meet Expectations

Five months ago, before I agreed to $10 per month to showcase my work on Vocal as a Vocal+ member, I read all about the company on Creator 101 and the Policy tab.

Generally I have been happy with Vocal, but in June, their attention to meeting their own published expectations of a 24-hour moderator review was abysmal and their lackluster approach to rectifying or making amends for their failure has me miffed. I have been understanding about delayed publishing in the past due to high volume or etc., but the last three stories I submitted in June, challenges notwithstanding, all were delayed at least two days. The last one, The Emperors published in Beat, was submitted early Thursday, July 1 before the holiday weekend but wasn't approved until after 2 p.m. Monday, July 5. It appears that the anomaly of taking longer than 24 hours to approve a submission has become Vocal's new norm and I cannot be the only person angry about this considering it is a pay-to-use service.

Our moderation team will always review your story, and either publish it or send it back to you for edits, within 24 hours.

Under Resources/Creator 101 in Vocal - FAQ published 2 years ago, it clearly states that the moderation team will "always" review stories and either approve or send back for edits within 24 hours. It doesn't read "generally," or "most of the time;" it reads "always." I even got an email from Vocal once-upon-a-time apologizing for the delay in reviewing a story. At the time, I marked it up as good customer service; accepted their explanation and apology and thought nothing more of it. The story was published the next day. That was the last time I received an apology from Vocal, and many of my stories have been late since, including the last three. The Emperors was actually supposed to be submitted before my friends of Imperial Inc. Music performed at their hometown Independence Day Celebration, but alas, it came out late.

I have addressed this issue directly with the Vocal team, but their response has been enraging. Most recently, I began an email conversation with [email protected] after midnight Saturday, July 3 (Friday to Saturday). I expected I wouldn't hear from them over the weekend, but I wanted to express my displeasure with their delay.

I pay for this privilege! It is reasonable for me to expect that you meet your published responsibilities. The last three stories I have written have taken more than 48 hours to be approved. I understand that you may run into a high volume from time to time, and it may delay your publication, but when you habitually fail to meet the basic expectations that you published, yet you still charge me for the privilege, now I expect compensation.

That is part of my first email to Vocal. At the time I sent this email, The Emperors was already more than 36 hours past submission. It wasn't until Tuesday, July 6 that I received a response to my initial email. The story was approved after 2 p.m. Monday, July 5 and I responded to that notification with a more agitated version of my initial email. However, it is the response from the Vocal team to my first email that was especially enraging, a pull-off-the-shelf response -- one I've seen before -- to a legitimate customer service issue. Proof Vocal is not interested in addressing concerns.

Hi there,

Thank you for reaching out. Generally on Vocal, all stories are moderated within a 24 hour window; due to a huge increase in submissions over the past week, our moderators are working hard around the clock to ensure that all stories are reviewed as quickly as possible. Unfortunately, because of high volume, in some cases this means that the timing is currently exceeding the expected 24 hour window.

However, in order to be eligible for a Challenge on Vocal, a story must be submitted for review before the Challenge closes, not necessarily published. Rest assured that if your submission was submitted to a Challenge, it will still be an eligible entry and will appear on the Challenge page if published when it’s reviewed.

We thank you for your patience as our team works hard to make sure every story receives the attention it deserves. You’ll receive an email regarding your submission as soon as it’s been reviewed by the team.

When it comes to dealing with customer service, the only thing more infuriating than listening to elevator music for 90 minutes is getting a caged response to a legitimate customer service inquiry. I didn't ask about challenge submissions, and I previously acknowledged that I understand there are unique situations that might preclude their published expectations. However, I clearly indicated to them in my initial email that their excuse of "high volume" was overused to the point that the anomaly had become the new norm. Furthermore, this problem is one of their own creation that they have done nothing to rectify and should no longer stand on overused excuses without compensating those who have paid for certain expectations.

After reminding Sunny from Vocal that their own step-by-step process published in Vocal's Creator 101 tab, reads "will" or "will always" review stories within 24 hours, not "generally" as Sunny's email reads, I explained that at this point, I should be compensated for June's service interruption. I also explained to Sunny that it was necessary for Vocal to mitigate expectations if they could no longer meet them or to hire additional moderators if they could not keep up with demand, but balancing on a worn out excuse is unacceptable.

I like that Vocal is improving the platform. They've offered a quick edit feature now (though there is no moderation required on Medium) and a follow and comment capabilities are coming (also already available on Medium), but if in the process of improving the platform they run off their foundation, it isn't worth it. Vocal was designed as a moderated platform but to caveat that potential disadvantage, they have created the expectation to be reviewed within 24 hours. If Vocal cannot live up to the 24-hour review expectation, then the platform has slipped off its footers.