Facebook Users Are Buying Oculus VR Headsets To Get Customer Service Prioritization (npr.org) 82
Some Facebook users are so desperate to retrieve their hacked accounts that they're buying Oculus VR headsets to get prioritized by customer service. NPR reports: When Marsala got hacked, she tried dialing Facebook's headquarters in Silicon Valley. But that number yields a recording that says, "Unfortunately we do not offer phone support at this time." Instead, Facebook tells users to report hacked accounts through its website. The site instructs them to upload a copy of a driver's license or passport to prove their identities. But the people NPR spoke with said they had trouble with every step of this automated process and wish Facebook would offer a way to reach a real person. "I sent these forms in morning, noon and night multiple times a day," Marsala said. "Nobody got back to me, not once."
[...]
Brandon Sherman of Nevada City, Calif., followed a tip he found on Reddit to get his hacked account back. "I ultimately broke down and bought a $300 Oculus Quest 2," he said. Oculus is a virtual reality company owned by Facebook but with its own customer support system. Sherman contacted Oculus with his headset's serial number and heard back right away. He plans to return the unopened device, and while he's glad the strategy worked, he doesn't think it's fair. "The only way you can get any customer service is if you prove that you've actually purchased something from them," he said.
When McNamara, the Facebook user in Canada, first heard about the Oculus trick, she thought it was a joke. But she said, "Once I started thinking about it, all my memories, I really realized that I wanted to do whatever possible to get it back." So she, too, ordered an expensive gadget she never planned to use and returned it as soon as she got back into her Facebook account. (A warning to anyone thinking about trying this -- other Reddit users have said they tried contacting Oculus support but were unable to get their Facebook accounts restored. Also, last week Facebook said it was temporarily halting sales of the Oculus Quest 2, which retails starting at $299, because its foam lining caused skin irritation for some customers.)
[...]
Brandon Sherman of Nevada City, Calif., followed a tip he found on Reddit to get his hacked account back. "I ultimately broke down and bought a $300 Oculus Quest 2," he said. Oculus is a virtual reality company owned by Facebook but with its own customer support system. Sherman contacted Oculus with his headset's serial number and heard back right away. He plans to return the unopened device, and while he's glad the strategy worked, he doesn't think it's fair. "The only way you can get any customer service is if you prove that you've actually purchased something from them," he said.
When McNamara, the Facebook user in Canada, first heard about the Oculus trick, she thought it was a joke. But she said, "Once I started thinking about it, all my memories, I really realized that I wanted to do whatever possible to get it back." So she, too, ordered an expensive gadget she never planned to use and returned it as soon as she got back into her Facebook account. (A warning to anyone thinking about trying this -- other Reddit users have said they tried contacting Oculus support but were unable to get their Facebook accounts restored. Also, last week Facebook said it was temporarily halting sales of the Oculus Quest 2, which retails starting at $299, because its foam lining caused skin irritation for some customers.)
This makes sense despite the shityness (Score:5, Informative)
The reason Oculus owners are getting priority is two-fold: as many know, Oculus accounts are now required to be linked to Facebook. But at the same time Facebook as been suspending accounts specifically used for Oculus registrations due to their strategy of having real users associated to their Oculus devices and not fake accounts. Since this was inducing in people being locked out of their 300USD purchases because they were depending on a Facebook support action to reactivate accounts (which was dumb since Facebook needs to ban millions of bot accounts every week), they had to expedite it for owners of actual hardware which is much harder to fake. So every request for Facebook support that goes ***through*** Oculus will usually be handled more swiftly.
I do see this as an unfair priority for those that purchase the device, but the fact remains that buyers of the hardware are more easily identifiable as actual human beings than most service support requests that get to Facebook. It's a but like "proof of work" or "proof of stake" in crypto: people actually paid 300 bucks for something else, and that something else proves they went through something that is "socially difficult" hence they must be real people with real problems.
The underlying problem, of course, is Oculus requiring Facebook accounts in the first place. This wouldn't be an issue of discrimination if the hardware company didn't depend on the social web media giant...
Re:This makes sense despite the shityness (Score:5, Insightful)
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this is about people willing to buy into social media as a requirement to use hardware they have spent money on and own, and about people that just can't get over their addiction to social media to the point of spending money on hardware they don't want for the mere chance of getting attention sooner.
i mean ... these people are the problem, their money is wasted anyway and their privacy is (apparently) worthless, so let them just get ripped off and rot in user support hell forever. :-)
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Facebook should just get a paid account tiers that actually come with technical support service included.
Excuse me?
Who actually needs "technical support" from Facebook? I honestly can't imagine.
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People who have been locked out of their account. At least read the whole summary!
Re:This makes sense despite the shityness (Score:4, Funny)
To clarify, they consider this a problem, not a solution to a problem, right?
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As strange as it seems, that's what it sounds like.
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Apparently, though I'm not sure why.
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There are plenty of "influencers" out there whose accounts boast a significant number of frends/followers, and the individual has been able to monetize that account in one way or another. In some situations, it could be a bit like a business whose ERP was shut down by malware and they're losing money by the hour. They're in recovery mode. If they're facing significant losses, buying an Oculus device is an easy decision.
On the other hand, some people just "need" their Facebook. They arguably have a ton of "r
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Who actually needs "technical support" from Facebook? I honestly can't imagine.
It's almost like there's a Slashdot story you could be reading which could answer that question RIGHT NOW!.
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I can't believe that people need a facebook account so desperately that they go and buy a VR headset that they don't intend to use.
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I can't believe that people need a facebook account so desperately that they go and buy a VR headset that they don't intend to use.
We should start a meme: "Facebook is the new Big Tobacco".
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Facebook is the new Big Tobacco
How do you mean? It costs a bundle to do Facebook every day, it makes you stink to high heaven, it yellows your teeth and your facial hair, you have to step outside and freeze your balls off to do Facebook, and you look like a complete moron doing it?
I'm confused by the analogy - apart from the looking-like-a-complete-moron bit.
Re:This makes sense despite the shityness (Score:5, Interesting)
Facebook is the new Big Tobacco
I'm confused by the analogy - apart from the looking-like-a-complete-moron bit.
Facebook is clearly addictive to the point where people suffer withdrawal and go to great lengths to get their 'fix'. And there's been a lot of talk about Facebook's negative impact on (mental) health. So I see parallels between FB, (and by extension other social media), and other addictive things. Big Tobacco seemed like the best comparison because there was a conspiracy to keep their customers hooked, to the point of manipulating the product to make it more addictive. Facebook does precisely that, according to both former employees, and psychologists who have analyzed how FB keeps people engaged and coming back for more.
Re: This makes sense despite the shityness (Score:2)
Many people have their social and even professional lives tied to Facebook identities. Thry are known more by their social media identities than recognized by a friend passing them on the street.
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Facebook is clearly addictive to the point where people suffer withdrawal and go to great lengths to get their 'fix'.
I wonder what lengths you'd go to if we took your phone off you, blocked your phone number and erased your contact list.
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Facebook is clearly addictive to the point where people suffer withdrawal and go to great lengths to get their 'fix'.
I wonder what lengths you'd go to if we took your phone off you, blocked your phone number and erased your contact list.
For me it would be a real pain in the ass, but not panic inducing. I have my contacts backed up locally, and I could get another phone with another number and start contacting people with the new number. I don't live and die by my phone the way most people do, and in fact I very seldom have mobile data or WiFi turned on.
That said, I do take your point. And it simply supports a contention I've often made, that Facebook and their like have essentially become societal infrastructure and ought to be taken out o
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That I actually agree with, that Facebook is too critical to be in private hands.
I only used contacts as one example, but when you see them also a market place where people make money, an event organisation system which in many cases is the only way to find out information about what's going on in many scenes (such as comedy, local music, etc) and add all that with a long history of group association and contacts. Facebook very much becomes critical.
Personally I would be in a bit of a panic because I have s
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That I actually agree with, that Facebook is too critical to be in private hands.
I only used contacts as one example, but when you see them also a market place where people make money, an event organisation system which in many cases is the only way to find out information about what's going on in many scenes (such as comedy, local music, etc) and add all that with a long history of group association and contacts. Facebook very much becomes critical.
Agreed. That's one of the things that makes me wonder at people who use FB for those things. They seem never to have asked "I'm not forking over money, so how am I paying for this?", and it seems they never stopped to think that it could all disappear in a heartbeat and on a whim.
Personally I would be in a bit of a panic because I have some $1000 invested in VR hardware and games I'd lose access to. These companies need to be heavily regulated considering their breath of service.
None of my business for sure, but I'm just curious - did you have an FB account before you bought Oculus? As for heavy regulation, I think that would have happened at one time. Then the elites up and bought the gubmint.
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I'd vote for that to happen.
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I can't believe that people need a facebook account so desperately that they go and buy a VR headset that they don't intend to use.
To many people, losing Facebook is the equivalent of losing their harddrive or shoebox full of family photos.
You could argue that they should never have trusted a free service from a third party with their prized memories but that is what many people are doing.
Re: This makes sense despite the shityness (Score:2)
To be fair, they buy it with the intention of returning it unopened.
Total out-of-pocket expense is $0.
It's actually a clever way to get phone support from a company that doesn't offer phone support.
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I wonder if this works with other companies that have notoriously crap customer service, like Google. If you own a Google phone you get priority support and can talk to an actual human being.
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It probably does!
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So... To whom is a Facebook account worth $300? There are exactly two people in my Facebook that I don't know how to reach outside Facebook (I mean, people that I care to reach). Would I pay $300 to get back in touch with them ? Ehh.
To many people, losing Facebook is the equivalent of losing their harddrive or shoebox full of family photos.
You could argue that they should never have trusted a free service from a third party with their prized memories but that is what many people are doing.
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Wow, déjà vu!
Re: This makes sense despite the shityness (Score:2)
They return the headset unopened, it doesn't cost them $300.
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It's an interesting proposal. Hard to imagine any one of them being worth $300, especially if your connection is so weak it's only through facebook, but I imagine for many people this is a dozen or so social-friends.
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Besides what others said (photos and memories...), a lot of people use facebook for work. Be it for marketing or just business connections. Remember Facbook plays a big part in developing countries' digital business.
Everything's connected (Score:5, Interesting)
Also, last week Facebook said it was temporarily halting sales of the Oculus Quest 2, which retails starting at $299, because its foam lining caused skin irritation for some customers.
It would be so awesome if that whole thing was the result of people returning the devices they only bought to unlock their accounts clicking 'skin irritation' as the reason for the return.
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Yea maybe that would be awesome to you, but the truth is they used cheap shit they knew in advance was toxic.
"Customers" (Score:5, Insightful)
People told you and told you, and you didn't listen.
You're not their fucking customer. You don't pay Facebook for their service.
Facebook's customers pay them for you.
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Yeah but Facebook should still be interested in helping you get back onboard: you're their product and their source of revenue. If you can't get back in, they lose money.
Oh and don't kid yourself, even if you buy something from them, you're still their products.
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Yeah but Facebook should still be interested in helping you get back onboard: you're their product and their source of revenue. If you can't get back in, they lose money.
Do they, though?
We're speculating on whether or not the "value" they provide to their "customers" alters based on a single individual.
So while an interest may exist for large-scale problems... it's entirely possible that individual cattle in their herd... are literally meaningless.
Oh and don't kid yourself, even if you buy something from them, you're still their products.
Can't argue that.
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My guess is that they earn small amount of money per Facebook member, but not enough to pay for support that deserves the name.
Stuff that can be automated like a password recovery service? Yes. A human that actually looks at your problem? No.
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Nah, the account exists and it looks like a real person, so they got what they needed. If they could send you to the glue factory for a little residual income, they would.
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Well yeah, but they don't get to know about your latest bowel movements, and your liking patterns, and your compulsive browsing habits no more. It's a real account but if it's stale, it's worthless. Or so I would think.
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They'll just fluff it up a bit and use it as filler in the marketing stats, the people who actually give them money won't know the difference. Besides, the scammer that hijacked it is probably making it look alive enough.
It's like the old trick of folding up 30 $1s with a $100 on the outside so you look flush with cash.
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I would argue that if you buy something from them, you become their client as well as remaining their products.
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Facebook should still be interested in helping you get back onboard: you're their product and their source of revenue. If you can't get back in, they lose money.
A few broken eggs are not worth the cost of paying someone to glue them back together.
Re: "Customers" (Score:2)
Try telling that to the king when humpty fell off that wall.
He reallocated his entire army to try and glue that poor guy back together. Left the whole kingdom vulnerable.
Only made the problem worse though, have you ever seen a horse try to pick up an egg shell? Does more harm than good.
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you're not their customer, you're their product
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Buying a piece of gear to recover a FB account??? (Score:5, Insightful)
Most of the world's ocean's flotsam is more valuable than a Facebook account. Are these people truly that addicted to FB? That's unbelievable.
Me, it's the other way round: the Occulus looks attractive and I would like to own one. But the Facebook account thing is a real turnoff and prevents me from buying one.
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Maybe they built up lots of contacts and content on Facebook. That could be painful to lose, but to some extent it is avoidable:
Not every of your Facebook buddies may want to give out a different contact address, such as e-mail.
But not having local backups for the stuff you upload? Big mistake. No backup, no pity.
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Facebook accounts are valuable for scammers. Impersonating friends and family is a classic technique they use.
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Most of the world's ocean's flotsam is more valuable than a Facebook account. Are these people truly that addicted to FB? That's unbelievable.
Define valuable? You think Facebook is a social media company where you post pointless shit? How quaint.
For me Facebook is the arbiter of an account for which I've spent hundreds of dollars buying games and VR hardware. I couldn't give a fuck about about social media, that doesn't mean I wouldn't be royally pissed if my account got hacked / suspended. And no this wasn't voluntary, I had the headset before the Facebook account linking requirement.
For many others Facebook is the arbiter of their online accoun
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You think Facebook is a social media company where you post pointless shit?
Er.. Most of what I see on Facebook is exactly that.
I couldn't give a fuck about about social media, that doesn't mean I wouldn't be royally pissed if my account got hacked / suspended.
Blame it on Facebook to tie two things that have nothing to do with one another.
And no this wasn't voluntary, I had the headset before the Facebook account linking requirement.
That's called getting shafted. Since you bought the device before getting the shaft, I'm genuinely sorry for you - unlike those who bought after, and in full knowledge of the requirement.
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Er.. Most of what I see on Facebook is exactly that.
"What you see on Facebook is a great way of saying you didn't read my post. Try again.
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Fuck Facebook and fuck the excuses. "Stay in touch with friends"? Please.
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Who made any excuse for Facebook? Facebook's actions are inexcusable and they are fucking evil. None the less they remain a communications platform, one that gets largely used due to network effects.
"Stay in touch with friends"? Please.
I'm open to suggestions. What do you propose? Just post fuck you to all of them and never talk to them again? Adopt a new communications platform which they don't use and talk to myself?
Your post wreaks of someone who doesn't understand how or why people communicate with each other. No doubt you're some kind of
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Most of the world's ocean's flotsam is more valuable than a Facebook account.
The thing you're missing is that "value" is relative, subjective, and arbitrary. One man's trash is another man's treasure.
The importance of this realization goes far beyond the current discussion, and beyond even the roots of our culture, to the underpinnings of civilization itself. It shows up in really obvious places, such as people paying hundreds of thousands of dollars for baseball cards, NFT's, and other such inherently worthless artifacts. It also appears, (less obviously to most people), in much mo
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Some people drink Bud Lite, other people are on Facebook constantly. At least one of those is relatively inexpensive, assuming a person's time is worth zero.
Haha oh noes (Score:3, Informative)
There are actually people who upload government issued photo ID to Facebook?? As soon as Facebook felt that my real name wasn't Jus D'Orange, they made me change it. I was Jus de Pomme for a week until I got locked out and needed to upload ID. Haha no. So my account has been locked that way as the only thing you can do upon logging in for the past five? years. Makes it the most secure account I "have". Can't even delete the account instead since that's deeper in settings
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Re:Haha oh noes (Score:5, Funny)
I was Jus de Pomme for a week until I got locked out and needed to upload ID.
Well no shit you were locked out, you obviously were in cahoots with their sworn enemy, Apple.
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They don't let you live in fictional locations either, I tried to say Arrakis but they weren't having it.
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Yep, that happened to me like 15 years ago. :(
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And yes, that is abuse and deserves prison time.
Oh I don't know about that.
While trying to design your bait to be addictive to your prey so that you can sell them to predators may be evil, it's hardly illegal. If anything, it's the American Fucking Way.
Remember when we were supposed to have 100M sets? (Score:1)
https://slashdot.org/comments.... [slashdot.org]
Oh ho ho oh oh oh ah ah ah ha ha ha!!
For "education"!
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https://slashdot.org/comments.... [slashdot.org]
Oh ho ho oh oh oh ah ah ah ha ha ha!!
I don't have 'actual' data, just an anecdote: Both my next door neighbours ~3 years ago had VR headset add-ons for their mobile phones. If I were to attempt to scale that up to a global level I could easily imagine that 100 million VR sets existed 5 years after that post.
For "education"!
Well, 'games' can be educational...
Poor attempt at humour aside, I think the linked poster might have been onto something, if slightly ahead of his time. There's certainly a gap in the market there, but there's also a fairly high barrier to
There needs to be legal requirements for support (Score:2)
It's frankly unacceptable for any company to ghost customers, much less a company the size and with the resources of Facebook. It's about time there was a legal requirement to offer phone support for all customers.
Also the resolution should reasonable. Facebook's ID system while harsh I can understand as at least its a good way of preventing some fraud. But take for example Epic Games' response to their hacking 2 years ago. In order to reset your account you need to provide ID, and the credit card number li
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a person or organization that buys goods or services from a store or business.
Facebook would never ghost one of their customers.
However things get weird if you form a relationship with your cattle.
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Indeed. What are people "buying" from Facebook's social media side? Aside from lots of attention from their friends and family.
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Like a customer who would swap privacy and accessibility for a social media service?
Or are you another one of those people who believe that there was no trade between sentient beings before the introduction of the MasterCard?
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Like a customer who would swap privacy and accessibility for a social media service?
A customer generally has informed consent.
Facebook does as much as they can to make sure your consent is not informed.
Further, even if you remove consent altogether, that won't stop them from continuing to associate information about you with your account.
You're stuck on this idea of you being a customer of theirs, but your attempt at backing it is based on some pretty thin logic.
Their customer relationship is with the people who pay them for access to you. You are prey that has been baited and kept il
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Facebook does as much as they can to make sure your consent is not informed.
Hardly. You not reading the ToS or understanding the basic principles of trading of privacy and security does not make Facebook the evil party here. Customers do have informed consent, but Facebook just like everywhere else it is entirely up to the customer to actually inform themselves.
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I said they do as much as they can to make sure your consent is not informed.
Frankly, if you're arguing that point, you're just a fucking idiot.
Have you ever felt walked through a TOS?
Or was it as easy as humanly possible to bypass?
Have you ever encountered clauses in a TOS where you seem to have accepted them before you even read them? (Whoops, shouldn't have clicked that button)
Get the fuck out of here.
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A customer generally has informed consent.
Indeed they do. I was heavily informed when I signed up to Facebook years ago. Over the years every change introduced resulted in more information and additional requests for consent. You seem to be complaining about the fact that some people are stupid morons who don't understand basic business theory much less read TOS. That's not a Facebook problem. That's an individual problem.
Further, even if you remove consent altogether, that won't stop them from continuing to associate information about you with your account.
The laws of my country. The punishment for failing to remove info is quite severe.
You're stuck on this idea of you being a customer of theirs, but your attempt at backing it is based on some pretty thin logic.
Indeed I am, because I am using every possible
Please, Please, Please (Score:2)
Someone make these people get a life!
Oh goody! (Score:2)
Now you can pay to be a product.
Does it come with a free paddle? So you can do the "thank you, can I have another one" routine at home, too?
They can also improve their automated service (Score:3)
My sister had her account stolen. Some bot logged in at 4AM her time, changed the password and removed her "trusted friends" or whatever they call the people that can vouch for you to retrieve the account. It changed the account e-mail address and mobile phone number.
So she woke up, locked out and with an e-mail about suspicious activity. There was a link to click to report the activity as fraud and retrieve the account. However Facebook would not sent a password reset link to her address or phone - only the current accounts owned by the bot. So what was the point of detecting and reporting the suspicious activity if they will not let you use the accounts from before the suspicious activity? Not even the e-mail address they sent the suspicious e-mail report to?
They allow bots to immediately disable all of the protections you an set up. No customer service is reachable. The bot spammed her contacts with messages for some COVID-related fund scam. Friends reporting her account as stolen did nothing.
We saw the Oculus trick then but didn't bother. After maybe two months, when I guess the bot was done spamming and the account was done boosting the reputation of whatever accounts they were getting paid to like, Facebook finally contacted her to retrieve her account. Probably more to boost their account use figures more than due to any reports about the account being stolen.
No shit (Score:2)
Don't expect customer support if you're not a customer.
Facebook users are not customers, they're no more than stock on a shelf to be sold to Facebook customers, aka advertisers.
You wouldn't expect a supermarket to support the vegetables on their shelves, they'll simply throw away the bad ones.