Nothing to see here. Move along please.

Facebook is at it again …

Facebook has long been known for not taking sufficient care with users’ money and privacy, having hit the news headlines on several occasions. Seems they’re at it again.

Yesterday, I *tried* to get a simple ad running on their system, just a test really — though I did attempt to complete payment for a real ad. I tried three times, each time receiving various, different error messages and automated apologies, with messages like “we’re working to fix this problem …”, etc. At no time did I receive any message saying that my credit card had been charged and at no time did I see anything to suggest that the ads had in fact been accepted and lodged for running.

Today, I see that Facebook managed to fix the problem (I’m assuming), gather up the broken database data from my broken orders and then go ahead and charge me for essentially the same ad, run at the same time, to the same audience (all the same settings), three times. It’s not really the exact same ad, since I tried three times to get the ad to be accepted, each time having to re-enter all the data from scratch and each time receiving errors messages. So, technically, the ad was re-created three separate times.

Now, with any decent and reputable online vendor, you’d be able to contact them to query or complain about what had happened and get something down about it … maybe a refund or some credits or something. But not Facebook.

With Facebook, when you reply to a billing email, you simply get a message back saying that they don’t accept email responses to billing notices. They provide a link to a ad-related help page. Of course, every last character of text on that page is about assuming YOU, the user, have done something wrong or don’t know what you are doing.

There is no way to raise a specific request for help, only the FAQ. There is a message that reads…

Please note that if you choose to contact the Facebook Ads team, we’re only able to provide support for inquiries in Dutch, English, French, German, Italian, Spanish, Swedish, Arabic, and Turkish.

… but there’s no way to contact them, that I can find. They further state …

We’re also unable to offer phone support at this time, but will be happy to respond to questions submitted through contact forms on this site.

… but again, there are not, in fact, any “Contact Us” links anywhere “on this site”.

None of this is in compliance with laws designed protect online consumers and credit card users of course. It’s just Facebook, being their usual half-ass selves, making a mess of things.

What’s the one big lesson Facebook keeps kicking back in users’ faces, concerning both privacy and monetary transactions?

IF IN DOUBT — DON’T!

I suppose its only fair that I also point out that the ads did actually run and did in fact gain some 81 clicks at about $1.23 each. So not all was lost, though the cost was 3x the intended budget.

But sorry, Facebook. Your credibility just went down yet another notch. Very, very poor.