When a company has gotten so automated that the only way to get a solution is to beg and plead for help about it on social media, it's too automated.

I agree.

Although this particular thing may have happened because they got backed into a corner by the carriers. They might have been forced to scramble and suspend a bunch of accounts in order to protect themselves from being suspended. It's possible this might not have been a gambit to save money, but something they were almost forced to do without time to properly prepare. I'm just speculating, guessing.