Levine told The Atlantic that Ford does not “encourage or measure ‘sludge,’” and that “there was zero intent to add ‘sludge’” to my interactions with Ford.

Here’s the catch: odds are that what Levine is saying is technically correct - truthful, but misleading.

Sure, they (people in those big businesses) might not be active and directly adding sludge. They might not be encouraging it. Or measuring it. But it’s there. Because they created the perfect conditions for it to thrive, as the author shows.

And, sure, odds are they are not targetting the author; that sludge is for every single body in a similar situation.

Why this matters: because any potential law punishing sludge should disregard esoteric concepts like “intention”, and focus solely on what the customer gets. If the customer is getting sludged, it doesn’t matter if the business says “trust us ( = be gullible filth), we don’t have the intention!” - the business should get the short end of the legal stick.

Paywall

they call it something else. I worked in programming a customer support system, the motive for putting so many fucking barriers before you reach a person is so that you can fix your own issue without costing them resources.

On the other end, there are goals that each case and etc has, which may include calls. If you call them and fuck it up, the case milestones stay positive, instead of not calling on time and getting the goal fucked.