Is Facebook Tech Support Human?

I don't know how to summarize this surreal exchange between myself and a Facebook tech support bot.

I'm sure they aren't human. At first, I just figured they were doing "cut and paste" support, maybe in training, and responding to what they thought I was asking with canned answers.

Now I think that Facebook Tech Support is actually NOT human and consists of some kind of artificial (un)intelligence that picks up on keywords then spits out random canned answers just to keep you on your toes (or in my case, drive me up the fucking wall).

I will let this email exchange with Penelope, the AI Facebook Tech "Support" bot, speak for itself. Sorry it is so long, but this fiasco just went on and on and on.

NOTE: I was trying to separate a personal profile from a Facebook Page because that profile was for someone who already had their own profile - so was in essence, it was a duplicate personal profile but using my client's email address. Didn't want the Page and client's email address attached to a defunct profile.

Sales Support <sales-support+diipzc2@facebook.com>     Fri, Jan 16, 2009 at 12:01 PM
Reply-To: Sales Support <sales-support+diipzc2@facebook.com>
To: XXXXXXdotbiz@gmail.com

Hi,

Please reply to this email to verify that you are the owner of the account that you referenced in your Facebook support inquiry. This security step must be completed before Facebook can respond to your inquiry. We apologize for any inconvenience.

If this email address is not associated with your account, please reply to this email from an email address that is associated with your Facebook account, ensuring that this email is in your response (this may require you to copy and paste this text if your email client removes this email from your reply).

Thanks,

The Facebook Team

XXXXXX <XXXXXXdotbiz@gmail.com>     Sun, Jan 18, 2009 at 11:45 AM
To: Sales Support <sales-support+diipzc2@facebook.com>

Hi - I am verifying it! Thanks,

Aliza

Sales Support <sales-support+diipzc2@facebook.com>     Tue, Jan 20, 2009 at 9:09 AM
Reply-To: Sales Support <sales-support+diipzc2@facebook.com>
To: XXXXXXdotbiz@gmail.com

Hi Jane,

Per our Terms of Use, Facebook profiles are meant to represent a single individual. Organizations of any type are not permitted to maintain an account under the name of their organization.

If you would like to use Facebook to represent your entity, we offer Facebook Pages. A public figure, business, or brand can create Facebook Pages to share information, interact with their fans, and create a highly engaging presence within the social graph. These Pages are distinct presences, separate from user profiles, and optimized for an organization's needs to communicate, distribute information/content, engage their fans, and capture new audiences virally through their fans' recommendations to their friends. Facebook Pages are designed to be a media rich, valuable presence for any figure, business, or brand.

You will need to use your personal account to manage your Facebook Page, as we don't allow users to maintain multiple accounts for any reason. The fans of your Page will not have visibility or access to your personal account, or know that you are a Page admin. You can create your Facebook Page at http://www.facebook.com/pages/create.php.

Let me know if you have any further questions regarding setting up a Facebook Page for your organization.

Thanks for contacting Facebook,

Penelope
Customer Operations
Facebook

XXXXXX <XXXXXXdotbiz@gmail.com>     Tue, Feb 10, 2009 at 2:39 PM
To: Sales Support <sales-support+diipzc2@facebook.com>

Hi Penelope,

I guess I'm not clearly explaining the situation.

The initial account was set up by an individual using the organization's email.

When we realized that the policy had changed and that organizations could NOT have profiles but pages instead, we deactivated the FB account then tried to set up a page. However, Facebook keeps trying to attach that page to the defunct profile account. Activating that account would then violate the FB TOS.

Therefore, how would you propose setting up the Page using the organization's email address w/o attaching it to a defunct profile?

On another note, this Page exists but it seems to lack an ADMIN. I've joined it to see if I can find the admin, however, there seems to be no one with Admin ability. This Page should be the organization's page that I've been talking about:

http://www.facebook.com/pages/XXXXXXXXX

How can we obtain Admin privs to our organization's page?

Thanks,
Aliza

Sales Support <sales-support+diipzc2@facebook.com>     Wed, Feb 11, 2009 at 7:31 AM
Reply-To: Sales Support <sales-support+diipzc2@facebook.com>
To: XXXXXXdotbiz@gmail.com

Hi Jane,

Your account is now associated with the Page you are discussing. You can access your Page at any time by clicking the 'Page Manager' or 'Ads and Pages' link appearing in the Applications menu, or at http://www.facebook.com/pages/manage/. Let me know if you have any further questions.

Thanks for contacting Facebook,

Penelope
Customer Operations
Facebook

XXXXXX <XXXXXXdotbiz@gmail.com>     Wed, Feb 11, 2009 at 2:30 PM
To: Sales Support <sales-support+diipzc2@facebook.com>

But Penelope, that account does not belong to a person, that is, no human being is associated with that account.

Isn't there a way to create a Facebook Page for a government agency and not have a personal account attached? For example, what if that person changes over time? What if their personal Facebook account should not be connected to their agency's professional site?

This email address is the social media email account for the government agency, not an account for a single individual. It should be associated with this page:

http://www.facebook.com/pages/XXXXXXXXXXX

And it should provide admin access to the social media point person on the Web team at the government agency.

How can this be rectified?

Thank you.

Aliza Sherman
consultant

Sales Support <sales-support+diipzc2@facebook.com>     Thu, Feb 12, 2009 at 1:19 PM
Reply-To: Sales Support <sales-support+diipzc2@facebook.com>
To: XXXXXXdotbiz@gmail.com

Hi Jane,

It appears as if the email address XXXXXXdotbiz@gmail.com is associated with the Page you are discussing.

You can access your Page at any time by clicking the 'Page Manager' or 'Ads and Pages' link appearing in the Applications menu, or at http://www.facebook.com/pages/manage/. Let me know if you have any further questions.

Thanks for contacting Facebook,

Penelope
Customer Operations
Facebook

XXXXXX <XXXXXXdotbiz@gmail.com>     Fri, Feb 13, 2009 at 8:30 AM
To: Sales Support <sales-support+diipzc2@facebook.com>

Hi - my name is Aliza, not Jane.

So back to the beginning:

How do we remove the profile for Jane Smith associated with this page? There is not a single individual who will be responsible for the page and do not want to associate it to an individual in case they leave the agency's employ.

How can we deactivate the personal account details while maintaining the page? Jane Smith already has her own personal profile and it is not connected to this Page and should not be.

Aliza Sherman
consultant

Sales Support <sales-support+diipzc2@facebook.com>     Wed, Feb 18, 2009 at 1:50 PM
Reply-To: Sales Support <sales-support+diipzc2@facebook.com>
To: XXXXXXdotbiz@gmail.com

Hi Aliza,

At this time, I have added your name to this account. Please keep in mind that you will need to use your personal account to manage your Facebook Page. The fans of your Page will not have visibility or access to your personal profile.

You can access your Page at any time by clicking the 'Page Manager' or 'Ads and Pages' link appearing in the Applications menu, or at http://www.facebook.com/pages/manage/. Let me know if you have any further questions.

Thanks for contacting Facebook,

Penelope
Customer Operations
Facebook

XXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXX <XXXXXXdotbiz@gmail.com>     Thu, Feb 19, 2009 at 7:13 AM
To: Sales Support <sales-support+diipzc2@facebook.com>

Penelope,

I'm not sure why you would add my name to the account when I already have a Facebook account and this page is not linked to it?

If my understanding of Facebook rules are correct, haven't you have caused a Terms of Service violation by putting the profile under my name when I already have my own profile on Facebook?

Is there a way to unlink the Personal Profile from the Page?

Or could you at least link it to my actual Facebook profile?

Not sure if this was the best solution but open to ideas.

Many thanks in advance for your help so far.

Aliza Sherman

Sales Support <sales-support+diipzc2@facebook.com>     Thu, Feb 19, 2009 at 3:29 PM
Reply-To: Sales Support <sales-support+diipzc2@facebook.com>
To: XXXXXXdotbiz@gmail.com

Hi Aliza,

At this time, I have disabled your account associated with the email address XXXXXXdotbiz@gmail.com, and your Pages are associated with your other account.

Please keep in mind that per our Terms of Use, users aren't permitted to maintain multiple accounts for any reason. Rest assured that the fans of your Page will not have visibility or access to your personal profile, or be able to see that you manage the Page. Additionally, you can add other users as admins on your Page without giving them access to any part of your personal account.

Please let us know if you have any further questions.

Thanks for contacting Facebook,

Penelope
Customer Operations
Facebook

Comments

[Sheila Stokes]

I know that is not funny because you were trying to get help but that is funny. Facebook tech support definitely needs help. If it wasn't artificial un(intelligence) then it would have to be someone who doesn't really understand the English language and what you were asking got lost in the translation. I have had some of the same trouble with other companies tech support for my computer. They would tell me to do something that had nothing to do with my problem and when I would protest and ask a question about how that would help with my problem I would get a preset answer that didn't answer my question. I like talking to a REAL person when I need help that can understand what my problem is and is willing to help resolve it. I hope you never have to deal with Facebook support again.

[brad]

I did have a business name (also my nickname) set up as a profile without realising I was breaching any rule. It was mainly for fun but I recognised the value of having my business name out there. I decided to sign up for Facebook Ads to help promote my business, so I filled all the on-line forms in and submitted. Next day I could not log in - my profile had been disabled completely. I managed to find an email address for Facebook to ask why I'd been disabled. They explained the rules and told me I had to start a new profile, I couldn't use the old email address, and all my data, pics, Friends etc could not be transferred. I had to start again. I did, and also started a Fan Page for my business. But after several weeks of being offline, being treated like a criminal, starting all over, do you think I was interested in giving Facebook money for advertising? Not likely..

[Jack Yan]

I have stories to tell about this, too, but they didn’t get to this point. I put it down to the fact that Facebook support staff are illiterate.

Shame, really. When I first joined up I had real human responses that were actually addressed to me.

[Nung Warman]

Hi Jane, i ve letter of facebook team re;Sign up,reactivied disabled account, Letter exactly like above previous ; Please reply to this email...etc inconvinece....than If this email is not associated with youre account....see above....Also i was display my email address on facebook as well my birthday party photos, i assume could eassy other person acting on in facebook as me. I am much confuse now ,how to get back to facebook ,which i love doing its part the daily life, please help me, expected good news from you , thank you, sincerely nung warman

[nicholas wilson]

im replying to verify my account

[Computer Tech Support]

An interesting and informative post. Thanks for sharing this post.