Facebook: A Platform with a Customer Support That Doesn't Have a Face!

All the hard work of the product managers & developers goes in vain if the customer care is poor. My heart aches while writing this article because I started my career in digital marketing with Facebook page management in 2011. I have literally seen this platform grow and evolve day by day. From being a mere playground for virtual socializing to becoming a big shark in online advertising space, it has been like watching a new born child grow into a young and brilliant millionaire, or say, into a "Mark Zuckerberg"! But to my sheer disappointment, this young guy (Facebook), seems to have grown so arrogant in the journey, that there's no value left of the people who actually played a vital role in making him a millionaire -- the Facebook advertisers from its early-most days.

So let me tell you what happened with me. One of the Facebook advertising accounts of my agency was hacked one fine weekend evening, and within a day, around $800 were spent on a spammy ad (the kind Facebook would reject in a usual case). My agency card was charged, my account was disabled & I was left helpless without any clear communication from Facebook. Not only so, a few of my ad accounts went missing and a few that had nothing to do with the hacked account, were disabled as well. There was no email notification on my email regarding the enabling of this ad (which makes it a clear cut case of hacking and not password leak). To worsen my state of shock, the Facebook page that had sneaked into my FB Ad account to run its ads, had a Facebook verification badge. Spooky, isn't it?

This was the ad that was run using my account. You can see, it's in some unknown language. The page "So Human" that happens to be a music band page, has a whole load of spammy content. But still, to my surprise, as I mentioned, wears the royal blue tick from Facebook!!

Ok, so the next step was to find a way to contact Facebook support. There's a futile support inbox provided by Facebook on your profile (the ones using Facebook for business would know). Below are the problem areas:

• You don't have any button there to raise a ticket directly. You'll have to go hunting via Google to find the Facebook support link in order to raise a ticket. The process itself is mentally exhausting. To save you time, here's the link: https://www.facebook.com/business/help
• Once you go through the struggle and open a ticket, it will start reflecting in your support inbox. You'll get an unhelpful automated reply and the ticket will be closed without seeking your consent. They'll further give you an option to initiate a chat with one of their highly polite but frustratingly untrained plus clueless customer care representative. Also, if you miss the message from the representative, the chat will be closed within minutes. Which means, you have to go through the same painful process all over again and you have to sit tightly-tied to your seat so that they don't lock you out again.
• Once you catch hold of one of these representatives, they only paste some template responses as reply to your questions. It's very clear from their messages that they are not really listening to you. They'll collect some information and then they'll move the communication your email (the email ID that you have used to create your Facebook profile).

Now, after they moved the conversation to email, the process became even more painful. They asked for some more detailed information, which I provided ASAP as if I wouldn't within the defined time, they would block this channel of communication as well. After sending the requested information, since they had promised that they'll get back after 48 hours, I patiently waited for two good days with my money gone, my account disabled, and all my clients losing business in the peak holiday season. But unfortunately, I received nothing.

I followed up, I followed up and I followed up again and again for 7 days, only to receive repetitive, automated, useless responses with the phrase "we had not received any update from our reviewing team". I went through the same lengthy process and initiated the chat again begging for an update. But, again, the same template responses! I requested for a phone number where I could speak to a real person at Facebook and explain them the urgency of the matter. But, nothing!

This continued in loop for another 5 days, and finally in my chat with one of their representatives day before yesterday, I lost my cool and warned them that I will take this on Twitter along with the screenshots.

So, yesterday, my account in question was enabled and the unfairly deducted amount was refunded, finally. However, I didn't receive any communication from Facebook providing an explanation about the delay or informing what & how exactly had happened. Neither did I receive any response in the email thread, informing that the issue has been resolved. This means, if I would have not checked, I would never know and in all probabilities, I would have given-up on my long-optimized, very precious ad campaigns.

Overall, it was a mentally exhausting experience and it was like trying to throwing words into a deep & blind well. There's no clear way to get in touch with Facebook directly, even in the cases of emergency. What if instead of $800 it was $8000? What would I do? Where would I go seeking help? A few of my ad accounts are still disabled and a few are still missing, but honestly, I do not have the energy to go through this tiring & frustrating process all over again. I'd rather create new ad accounts.

Dear Facebook, it is unfair to leave your customers bewildered and helpless, especially the ones who trust you with their payment information. Please have a clear point of contact assigned to each of your advertisers. None the less, PLEASE have an emergency assistance team for such cases of hacking. It's a serious crime and cannot be taken so lightly. We at least deserve an explanation and confirmation that it won't happen to us again. If there are some specific safety measures that we can take in order to avoid this in future, please let us know. Also, Facebook page verification process needs clear attention. It's a shame that such spammy pages are verified by Facebook. I hope somebody at FB is listening (I can only hope though).

Even with my trust shaken in Facebook, as a digital marketer, I do not have an option to completely ignore or abandon this platform as of now. No doubt, the features and tools are topnotch. The targeting options for advertising are richly elaborate. The returns are great. But as I said earlier, a wonderful product with a lousy customer support is still a waste.

If anyone of you have had a similar experience with Facebook customer support, please do share this article with your friends and associates. Let's raise our voices together until it reaches the young and brilliant millionaire it is supposed to reach.