Doggie day care owners ‘devastated’ as Meta deactivates Instagram account
Brooke and Jason have been running grooming and day care company Ooohh Yeah Dog Care for five years and like to post daily updates of their furry clients to social media.
But they’re having a rough time after Meta deactivated their Instagram account without any explanation.
Brooke and Jason have been running grooming and day care company Ooohh Yeah Dog Care for five years but Meta deactivated their Instagram account. Nine
“It’s your bread and butter really, that’s what you need to get out there. For it to be deleted in a minute, it’s just devastating,” Jason said.
In a typical day, they’ll have about 35 canines at their base in Alexandria, Sydney.
Son Kaius, nine, also helps organise the chaos before school.
The couple has more than 480 clients on their books.
Brooke and Jason like to post daily updates of their furry clients to social media. Nine
Client Zach said: “We’ve been to a couple of day cares and these guys are the best, they treat the dog like it’s their own.”
Among the clientele are labrador Vadar and her mum Virginia Meagher.
Virginia lost her husband Peter in the Bondi terror attack.
He bought the dog to keep him company in retirement.
“She’s my responsibility now. I want to give her the best care when I’m not available to do that 24/7,” she said.
Mums and dads are kept updated on their fur babies via the Oohh Yeah Day Care Instagram profile.
Client John said: “The Instagram stories are really good when you just want to check in during the day, see what’s going on.”
That was until last week when Meta deactivated their account after five years.
“Five years of content, contacts, followers, it’s pretty sad,” Jason said.
Brooke says she tried to appeal the decision.
Virginia Meagher lost her husband Peter in the Bondi terror attack. He bought the dog to keep him company in retirement. Nine
“It was so hard to get a human, it was all just chatbots,” she said.
Brooke contacted her Meta advertising manager in the hope that speaking to a real person would solve the issue, but that wasn’t the case.
She then got an email saying it was “finalised”.
“So, five years of nothing ... gone.” she said.
For the past 12 months, the couple’s been paying Meta for a blue verification tick and advertising.
“Why take our money and then, ‘Oh yeah, we’ll just shut you down when we feel like it’, it just doesn’t make any sense,” she said.
But Brooke kept hounding her advertising manager who eventually told her the account settings were under “creator” not “business”.
“There’s an internal switch that you can switch it over whenever you like. How are we meant to know you’re meant to have it in a business account?” she said.
Brooke has referred the issue to the Small Business Ombudsman. Nine
To dig an even deeper hole, Brooke says her account was deactivated the night before attending a social media workshop.
Brooke has referred the issue to the Small Business Ombudsman.
“They said they are looking into it, but they can’t give us a time frame,” she said.
Brooke and Jason aren’t alone, with 40 per cent of requests for assistance from Australian small businesses in the past financial year linked to digital platform disputes.
A total of 113 disputes were lodged last month alone, up from just 33 last year.
The couple considered creating a second Meta account, but they’re like a dog with bone on getting their old one back.
“You can’t just finalise it and close a case with no explanation,” Jason said.
A Current Affair has contacted Meta.
We’d love to hear from you
