And never is heard a human-spoken word · 3:33am Jun 2nd, 2018
I have, for lack of a better term, a Facebook placeholder page. It doesn't have a true profile. I try to keep as much personal information out of it as I can. I've never posted on it or made a single link. It exists for only one purpose: to protect my mobile game data. Multiple such services will only use Facebook for backup and in order to avoid losing all my progress, I eventually created a page to do just that.
Well... today, I found myself logged out of all of my games. Why? Because Facebook had detected unusual activity on my page -- they did not tell me what this was -- and logged me out. When I tried to get back in, they demanded my mobile number. I sighed, provided it, and was sent a security code. The code was then put in the appropriate box.
They then asked for the code again.
And again.
I left the tablet, went to the desktop. Tried to log in. Change your password. Okay, fine. And now give us your mobile number. Fine...
Guess what? The mobile number, which they had just sent a message to, is now invalid. They don't recognize it as a phone at all.
Is there any way I can log in without the phone? Apparently not any more.
I tried to provide a different number: a friend's phone. This number was taken as valid. The text message, however, never came through.
So this is the point where you try to ask someone for help. I looked for the customer service number.
They don't have one.
I looked for the customer service Email.
They don't have one.
I looked for live chat.
You may be starting to sense a pattern.
I searched for my issue in their FAQ help page. No solutions. I did find a bunch of people saying they'd had this problem and were wondering if anyone at the company bothered reading their complaints. The issue had been labeled as closed, and that had been applied two years ago.
So the games which rely on that backup won't let me log in. And the company which lost the data won't let me talk to them.
And you wonder why it was just a placeholder page.
Woah. That seriously sucks.
Yeesh. That sucks. Gotta say, so many mobile games being locked in to a single third-party service for backups is just bad practice. What are the games/developers in question, in case I want to avoid them?
surfingmylife.com/wp-content/uploads/2018/04/oh-no-1.jpg
4874525
MyVegas (a free-to-play slot app which lets you earn free casino show tickets and meals -- I've never spent a penny on it and just potentially lost a couple of hundred dollars in earned restaurant credit) and -- *sigh* -- Marvel Puzzle Quest.
I have to clarify here, before the screaming starts. Unless I can find some way of logging back in, the MyVegas earned points are gone. My MPQ data is not -- but it's going to happen eventually. I can continue playing without Facebook verification, but my progress is no longer saved anywhere except the Kindle, and I can't log in from another version of the app or transfer my status. So when the Kindle dies, so does all of that advancement.
Pretty good reason to stop playing.
Not that I'm abandoning ship just yet. But realistically, unless I can get back in over the next few days, it'll probably be time to walk away.
facebook is shit anyway i hope it burns to hell and i'm sorry that happened to you
They are now telling me that my friend's mobile number is invalid.
They will send endless password reset codes to my own phone, but won't recognize it as a valid number for account verification at login.
Oh, and then I gave them a landline number. They are currently happily sending confirmation codes to a landline which can't receive them, because that's a valid destination, whereas the actual mobiles don't exist, even though they've been sending password resets to one of them.
Wow.
ETA: Called around: got two more mobile numbers to try. Both were rejected as invalid.
Okay, now we're at comedy.
4874540
I just checked google, and there are Facebook forms you can fill out to report problems. Also, do not repeatedly try to login in a short amount of time. That is what gets the phones declared invalid.
4874546
Estee has been made aware, but for the general benefit, here’s a link to the facebook reporting form:
https://www.facebook.com/help/contact/283958118330524?u2u
4874529
That is so nasty. Facebook is a shitshow. I hope you can find a way to save a copy of the data. You try hooking up it up to your computer with a usb? I do that with my phone to save stuff.
Oh and what 4874546 said, maybe try again tomorrow or give it like 30 minutes before doing it again.
4874546
Too late. It's been hours of this already, and attempts at resends counted.
At this point, I'm going to sleep on it and if nothing can be done in the morning -- well, it's Facebook. I wouldn't be the first.
You’ve already done magazine subscriptions, and the DMV, and cellphones...
How do ‘verse ponies prove they are of age to drink/smoke/gamble/buy platinum/visit escorts... And how would they cope if it all went away?
(This will be filed as more proof of why Facebook sucks.)
Tweet Ajat Pai, head of the FCC. He doesn't think that there is a problem
https://www.npr.org/sections/thetwo-way/2017/01/23/510844936/trumps-telecom-chief-is-ajit-pai-critic-of-net-neutrality-rules
I LOVE those "prove that you're human" tests. According to them, odds are I'm not.
I hope you can eventually get that squared away.
I went through similar BS with Facebook about 7 years ago. They locked my profile and refused to unlock it without my providing a picture of a government issued ID. Which of course could be faked, but that's beside the point. I had family and friends vouching for me, and gave them a clear, logical case for why they didn't need my driver's license or passport. They refused. I told them to permanently lock the account, because there was no way in hell I was going to give them even more personal info, especially that. Then I opened another account, added friends and family back, and have almost never used it for anything since then, for which I am very happy right now.
If I think of Google as a silent, symbiotic bacterial colony, then Facebook's service metaphor is a pool full of leeches. Can you tell that I despise Facebook? I guess it shows.
4874574
... I'm imagining the Manehattan branch of the cmc attempting to fake cutie marks to buy booze and/or ponygraphy.
Eh, its not enough that they access any and all info/files on whatever platform (PC/Mobile) you access facebook on, now they want it on all on even stuff you dont/wouldnt use for facebook? ugh
Reminds me of the "send us nudes! No one will look at them we promise! *Disclaimer: lots of people will be looking at them*" stunt to "fight revenge porn".
4874627
This is pretty much where I'll likely wind up at. The restaurant credit is a loss in the same theoretical as its former existence. (I'm not going to Las Vegas any time soon.) I would hate to delete MPQ and kick all that game progress away -- I'm not going to start over -- and I'll fight a little to keep that from happening.
But at the same time, "You can't verify a phone number that's been used for the last four years as being valid, and now you want me to trust you with a copy of my driver's license?"
No. I'd just wipe the game and call it a playing career. That's not worth it.
Another reason I'm glad I don't use Facebook.
...and now I shall go through my Google Docs and back up everything onto a thumbdrive.
4874529
Could you create a new Facebook page (just as blank as the last one) and save your MPQ data over there instead?
4875004
I'm not sure. I think already having linked it to the one account would block me. And the restaurant credit is definitely associated with that page only: those apps reset themselves to the New Player levels. I've taken them off the tablet until such time as I never hear from anyone: no point in looking at the icons.
Still no word from Facebook.
4875008
If it's any help, I found an old thread from 2013 that says you can just log into a different Facebook account (presumably your new one) and not lose any progress (and says so quite explicitly in this comment).
Whether that's changed since 2013 or not I could not say.