Live data from Hacker News

FB users buying Oculus VR headsets to get customer service prioritization

npr.org

161–170 of 359 posts

Re: FB users buying Oculus VR headsets to get customer service prioritization

#161
post #110

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Apparently Virgin Mobile doesn't verify email addresses nor does it let you reset your password by email. I assume they send you a text or something. So I've been getting billing notifications and other garbage for someone else's account for years.

My email address is temporal at gmail.com. "Temporal" was my teenage gamer tag. It also turns out to mean "temporary" in Spanish. Ever since the Spanish-speaking world started using gmail, people have been signing up for stuff with my e-mail address every single day. Any new service I want to register an account with, I first have to hijack the existing account holding my address and delete it or change the email add…

> (I'm unsure whether the school fixed it or Zoom fixed it after I made an angry tweet that went viral; whoever fixed it never bothered to follow up with me.)

If it was someone at Zoom: getting past the company's lawyers and PR people might have been too much of a barrier to bother.

Re: FB users buying Oculus VR headsets to get customer service prioritization

#163
post #155

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Are you saying projects are highly encouraged to be completed within just 6 months?

FB policy says they want to reward results and not effort. But it makes it hard to reward people for making progress on things that can't be done in 6 months. It also makes for shitty service quality around the end of June and December, as people rush to push things to prod. (I've heard this may have changed, but it's hard to notice good service quality). (Former FB employee)

It might be an interesting experiment to have each employee start their cycles (review cycle, or quarterly numbers for sales etc) on a random offset.

Re: FB users buying Oculus VR headsets to get customer service prioritization

#164

Utility services start off as luxuries, and are private and unregulated. This was true with telephone and electric companies. When these services get to a certain point where there are real consequences for not being able to access the system, they need to have public regulation to ensure access and customer service. ISP internet service has definitely reached this point, and I think that there's a strong argument th…

Bread! We should definitely regulate bread that way.

It's way more important than Google and Facebook.

Re: FB users buying Oculus VR headsets to get customer service prioritization

#165

There's a bit of a story behind this. Oculus is owned by Facebook, but the Facebook website and the Oculus headsets/software are by different teams working in different states. When Facebook bought Oculus, they decided to get rid of the Oculus-specific account system and use only Facebook accounts. The Facebook account requirement took effect with the launch of the Oculus Quest 2, which launched in October 2020. Octo…

I pay for a cold calling service that lets me look up emails and phone numbers for many professionals of import. These days customer service gets two shots to get it right before I start calling the personal cell phone numbers of the C-suite, board of directors and everyone with the word director in their title. I'm absolutely over shitty customer service and it's not fair to subject customer service representatives to well deserved vitriol. Well paid execs getting the big bucks and making the decisions to under-invest in customer service and driving down defects? Fair game.

With the last company whose customer service messed up badly, I reached out to the head of e-commerce for the company. I was nice and pleasant and explained the dilemma, but then he tried to pass the buck back to support which did not have the resources to solve the problem to which I replied "You're the head of e-commerce for company X, the buck stops with you. This is your problem to resolve. If you don't take ownership, I'm perfectly capable of escalating this issue myself, first to A, your CEO (personal cell number (xxx) xxx-xxxx and personal email foo@bar.com), then to B (...), C (...), or D (...) on the board of directors, then E, the CEO of the company that owns your company (...), and then F, who is on his board of directors (...) and happens to live 2 miles from me.".

...boom, problem resolved immediately. Not just for me but for other customers. Changes were made to their website within days. When warranted, you just have to go absolutely nuclear and make it clear as day that solving your problem personally is far cheaper than you escalating the the issue to anyone and everyone with power at the company whose customer service is jerking you around.

You have to make the cost of not providing customer service well the first time around so expensive that they don't see any other option than to invest in doing things right the first time.

Re: FB users buying Oculus VR headsets to get customer service prioritization

#166
post #154

Earlier quoted context omitted.

The question is whether using someone else's email address is equivalent to an implicit grant of the account to someone else's control.

I doubt it. What if it's a typo? There are at least 3 people who I get emails (and bank statements) for in my first.last@gmail.com address, and from what I can tell it's because they dropped the middle initial when signing up or the person mailing them did it manually and messed it up. And because Gmail treats that dot differently else I have some interesting cases like where I have 2 Instagram accounts under my emai…

> tempted to log in and shut these down, but I'm pretty sure that is illegal

Ehh. Intent matters a lot. I'm not saying someone couldn't go after you, but as long as you weren't actively trying to make off with their data or impersonate them I think you'd be in the clear.

Imagine you got such an email and were confused. So you went to log in but couldn't. So you reset the password in confusion. That's not illegal, it's a very reasonable response to being notified of an account that you don't remember creating. If contacting the service provider fails, closing the account would seem to be the only remaining reasonable course of action. It's not your fault the service provider doesn't verify things.

Re: FB users buying Oculus VR headsets to get customer service prioritization

#167

FB had an internal help system called "Oops". It was meant for employees to get help for friends they knew in real life. It was discontinued not long ago (EDIT: maybe not according to a child comment). There were just too many requests for help. Facebook has a corporate structure that simply will not prioritize any effort longer than 6 months unless a senior company executive (Mark, Sheryl) supports it. Even if it af…

The 6 month priorities are due to PSC, Facebook's performance review cycle. Work that took more than a half effectively doesn't count for bonuses or promotions and could possibly get you fired, so it's disincentivized.

[deleted]

Re: FB users buying Oculus VR headsets to get customer service prioritization

#168
post #148
post #141

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Please drink a verification can

It's not coincidence that Baja Blast is back.

It's possible it's just a coincidence, but I agree it's likely cause and effect.

Re: FB users buying Oculus VR headsets to get customer service prioritization

#169

Earlier quoted context omitted.

It does, but "requires a Facebook account" doesn't entirely capture the nature of Oculus' requirements. If, for instance, Twitter sold hardware that required a Twitter account, that would indeed be the beginning and end of it – create a new Twitter account for the hardware, and off you go. What Oculus requires, however, is your Facebook account, as in the one you created over a decade ago and never use but is full of…

> Creating a separate account just for using the hardware is not only expressly forbidden, but can result in you being locked out of your device: I'm not one to defend Facebook, but what you've said is just not true. That only happened to a handful of people at the very beginning and was likely a moderation bug. People aren't getting banned for having burner accounts.

It's not important what is or is not happening right now, or even a little while ago.

The TOS expressly allows them to lock you out of your account if they detect you using an account that is not your Facebook Real Identity (tm)

They are allowed to brick your Oculus at any time, with no recourse.

See "I want to use a name different from my legal name for my Facebook account." Here https://support.oculus.com/fb/

And "If I’m having problems accessing my Facebook account, can I still use my Oculus device?" here https://www.oculus.com/blog/facebook-accounts-on-oculus/

https://www.facebook.com/help/112146705538576/ https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Facebook_real-name_policy_cont... https://www.wired.com/2015/06/facebook-real-name-policy-prob... https://media.business-humanrights.org/media/documents/files...

Re: FB users buying Oculus VR headsets to get customer service prioritization

#170
post #65
post #6

Earlier quoted context omitted.

This recall is only for the foam face insert. It's removable and probably very inexpensive to make / replace. Oculus is sending free replacements to folks. I am an avid Quest 2 user since ~October. I play Population:one and _love_ it. It's a team-based Battle Royale. I am just blown away by how much fun and social it is. It's been a godsend during the pandemic. The Quest 2 is only $300 - I strongly recommend it!

If anyone else is on the fence about the Quest 2, I received on as a gift, and it has totally blown me away. I was previously somewhat skeptical of VR, but it's so fun. FWIW, it also feels a bit _different_ than normal video games, because you're on your feet, moving your body, etc.

Yes, I used a friend's, and it really is great.

However, you must link it to your facebook account that is connected to your true friend graph, and they can deactivate your account at any time.

I highly recommend that no one buy one.

Post reply on HN