Plan #425: Involve A Third Party

Mildly annoyed at dealing with bots, and anxious to find any signs of life at all in the Facebook admin, I decided to contact the Better Business Bureau. That way, I'd know that someone would be physically contacted at the company. Plus, I personally felt that Facebook could try a bit harder to be a better business.

Being the sporting guy that I am, I gave Facebook a heads-up first:

Sent: Sun 8/23/2009 2:09 AM
To: disabled@facebook.com Cc: appeals@facebook.com
Subject: I Am Distressed At The Non-Response

To whom it may concern:

Four days ago, my account was disabled without warning. Since then, I have sent 5 emails requesting some sort of response, notification, indication of why I was disabled, or any signs of life whatsoever. In return I have received a single, generic, vague response, no doubt generated by a computer.

I have attempted to call Facebook support, but I received a pre-recorded message informing me to use the unresponsive email support. Facebook's lack of response is far more upsetting than the account deletion itself. This is the worst customer I have ever received from a business, and I have dealt with businesses renowned for poor customer service.

I am very, very disheartened by the virtual nonexistence of Facebook's customer service. If I do not receive a response or resolution on my account within the next 20 hours, I will file a claim with the Better Business Bureau. As this Bureau directly contacts companies, at least I can take solace in the knowledge that someone at Facebook will physically receive my complaint.

As always, I maintain that I have not broken Facebook's TOS in any way, and request that you fix the error by reinstating my account.

Thank you for the sixth time,

Jeffrey G*****

No reply. I guess the BBB didn't bother them. Maybe I just wasn't emailing the right addresses:

Sent: Sun 8/23/2009 3:48 PM
To: disabled@facebook.com; appeals@facebook.com; disabled@facebook.com; disabled@facebook.com; disabled@facebook.com; disabled@facebook.com; disabled@facebook.com; disabled@facebook.com; disabled@facebook.com; disabled@facebook.com; disabled@facebook.com; disabled@facebook.com; disabled@facebook.com Cc: info@facebook.com; login@facebook.com; abuse@facebook.com; privacy@facebook.com
Subject: FW: I Am Distressed At The Non-Response

To whom it may concern:

Four days ago, my account was disabled without warning. Since then, I have sent 5 emails requesting some sort of response, notification, indication of why I was disabled, or any signs of life whatsoever. In return I have received a single, generic, vague response, no doubt generated by a computer.

I have explained that I am a moderator for a Facebook application, and that my account was reported by a disgruntled player. I have linked Facebook to a list of 8 players who were all disabled in the past two weeks, all due to the same disgruntled party. None of these accounts violated Facebook's TOS, and I am shocked that Facebook did not even look at the claims before disabling the accounts.

I have attempted to call Facebook support, but I received a pre-recorded message informing me to use the unresponsive email support. Facebook's lack of response is far more upsetting than the account deletion itself. This is the worst customer I have ever received from a business, and I have dealt with businesses renowned for poor customer service.

I am very, very disheartened by the virtual nonexistence of Facebook's customer service. If I do not receive a response or resolution on my account within the next 6 hours, I will file a claim with the Better Business Bureau. As this Bureau directly contacts companies, at least I can take solace in the knowledge that someone at Facebook will physically receive my complaint.

As always, I maintain that I have not broken Facebook's TOS in any way, and request that you fix the error by reinstating my account.

Thank you for the seventh time,

Jeffrey G****

And it worked! I got a reply!

-----Original Message-----
From: abuse+ncc30mn@facebook.com [mailto:abuse+ncc30mn@facebook.com]
Sent: Sunday, August 23, 2009 4:03 PM
Subject: Re: I was mistakenly disabled.

Hi Jeff,

Thank you for your email. Unfortunately, we do not offer support for disabled accounts from this email alias. Please visit Facebook's Help Center to view frequently asked questions regarding disabled accounts. You can reach this section by clicking the link below:

http://www.facebook.com/help.php?page=45

From there, you will be able to take any necessary steps to receive additional support.

Thanks for contacting Facebook,

Oliver
User Operations
Facebook

Or not. But hey, I did learn two things from this:

1. There are real people at Facebook.
2. They only work for the abuse email.

Following this, I did indeed contact the Better Business Bureau. Sadly, I do not have a copy of the claim for you, but it basically echoed the sentiments in my emails. At the end of the report, I added that the ideal resolution would including restoring the deleted accounts, issuing an apology, and revising their customer service policy to better serve Facebook users in the future.