Wehelpen is a volunteer platform in the Netherlands that brings people that want to volunteer together with people that seek volunteers. The idea is really good, but the execution and then I'm specifically referring to the application of rules is devilish bad.
I admit I rely a lot on volunteers. This is for a number of reasons, and I assume you will be able to figure out which reasons if you have looked at other parts of my website. So what I did is make help requests on the platform. Help requests that are crystal clear and address the who, what, when, why, where, and how all at once. Then I send a polite message to participants on the platform with a message like this, or this, or this, or this,
But apparently, a lot of people on this platform can't say no, and they feel that the one reaching out to them with a help request is the perpetrator. What happens is that they do read it, then do not reply back, but are going to report the message. I think falsely reporting is weird and wrong, but as long as the customer service will whistle them back, I will be fine. But that's where things go wrong.
Customer service as batlers,
I have no idea how I should start addressing this. They reach out to me and say I have to stop. I refuse because I'm not doing anything wrong, I'm not breaking any kind of rules, and when I'm asking which rules I'm breaking, they cannot provide me with any but keep on repeating that I should stop.
My investigative nature quickly comes to the conclusion that it's because a lot of people on the platform cannot say no. I tell the customer service, explaining what is really going on here and that I'm being victimized caused by weaponized false reporting, and that the customer service does not want to take any stand against that..
It is apparently way easier to victimize me rather than tell their entire community that they have to grow up and act like an adult by just sending a message back stating: 'Hey Robert, sorry but I am unable to help you with that, thanks'.
But of course, the customer service does not want to do that and has set its sights on me. I am threatened with closing my account if I do not get a third-person to do the talking on my behalf. I was forced to be deliberately unclear to the ones asking for help to not step on their little egos and their inability to say no. Seriously, backward to no end. I was not able to find a suitable person to help me out. De facto, closing my account off.
Even the director of Wehelpen is an asshole, not willing to see the situation for what it is. They don't accept my version of the story. Not even after I have given visual proof multiple times, screenshots, screen recordings, anything to prove to them that I was not the perpetrator. But in the end, that doesn't matter. They have declared me their enemy and will do whatever it takes to keep me off their platform, even if I've done nothing wrong. They just cannot deal with taking a hard look at themselves and fixing their own incompetence.
Because it's such a complicated situation, I've created a real-time diagram where you can follow all the steps that I've taken to get things solved. In reality, nothing is solved. I am truly stuck. I'm not being heard, I'm not being taken seriously, and this unjust situation has already haunted me for 3–4 years.
To me, the desired solution is:
Wehelpen
My account gets unbanned
A formal apology letter with 500 euros as monetary relief
Pay for my lawyer's costs if I win the legal battle
In the meantime...
I am anticipating I will have to get into a legal battle to force Wehelpen to change its mind. Even if I start with mediation, that would cost me money. As a result, I've launched this crowd funding campaign.
Platforms like Wehelpen are so incredibly valuable for some people that they should be stripped of their right to ban accounts. Just like how having a weapon makes you use it quicker, the same is true for the ban-hammer. In addition, they should be punished for not following their own rules.