Hacker News Board Hacker News, browsed like a classic message board
Live data from Hacker News

FB users buying Oculus VR headsets to get customer service prioritization

npr.org

Post reply on HN
Print view View original

261–270 of 359 posts

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

#261

Post by zimpenfish »

rossmohax wrote: post #259
franga2000 wrote: post #210

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Email absolutely should be a utility and allow you to transfer your email address between providers just like you can your phone number. I understand the technical challenges associated with that due to how DNS and the email protocols work, but I don't particularly care. There should also be a legally required minimal level of customer support for email account issues - if I can't get access to my email for over a we…

DNS is used to figure out initial point of contact over SMTP, nothing stops said SMTP server to recognize recipient as transferred account and forward message to SMTP server account was transferred to.

That would only help if you transferred an entire domain, surely? The initial DNS lookup doesn't have the local part that you'd need to identify individual accounts, does it?

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

#262

Post by newsyyswen »

type_Ben_struct wrote: post #214
W-Stool wrote: post #129

I honestly do not understand why any sentient person would have anything to do with Facebook at this point, VR headsets or not. It is just an awful company, period.

It is, but because the majority of people are unaware (or simply don’t care) then it can be hard to avoid. During lockdown I deleted all of my accounts on Facebook owned products, including WhatsApp, but I began to feel increasingly isolated. Now life is more “normal”, it’s very difficult to meet someone in a bar/club and tell them you don’t have Instagram, Facebook or WhatsApp without sounding dodgy. Sad reality I’v…

Chin up, mate. In the US, I'm starting to hear a lot more "I wish I did that", and a lot less "that's weird what are you hiding?"

People are starting to come around as they and their family members start to have more acutely negative experiences with social media.

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

#263

Post by 5555624 »

Causality1 wrote: post #120
jpollock wrote: post #85

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Whenever someone's used my email address, I've used password recovery and taken ownership of the account. It's amazing the number of systems which don't verify email before giving out an account. I've taken control of: Disney DropBox Redbox ...

Having a firstnamelastname address will subject you to a truly baffling level of false accounts and misaddressed email. The worst was probably the time I got emailed an excel sheet containing the names, personal details, and logins for an entire layer of middle managers for a small banking chain.

> Having a firstnamelastname address will subject you to a truly baffling level of false accounts and misaddressed email

First initial and last name it even worse. John, Jonathan, Julie, Jacob, James,and more all start with "J." I've gotten rental agreements, investment reports, appearance contracts, song demos, family pictures (not my family), and more.

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

#264

Post by geofft »

malandrew wrote: post #165
jimrandomh wrote: post #88

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…

Genuine question - why wasn't it cheaper for that company to drop you as a customer?

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

#265

Post by ynx »

Causality1 wrote: post #118
torgian wrote: post #114

The real travesty is that you have to have an account to use the headset.

Yes, and nearly everyone called it the moment Facebook bought Oculus. That any journalists at the time actually gave credence to Facebook's claims Oculus would remain independent is incredibly shameful. As for me, my Rift sits unused in a box. The Oculus desktop software may be the worst piece of shit I've ever used and I can't lay eyes on it without wishing ill upon its developers.

This is a horrible, rude, and insanely demeaning take.

Formerly one of those developers, finally got fed up with the beast and left. I continue to do VR dev.

1. The internals were actually some of the most robust software I've ever seen.

2. People who worked on it originally were some of the best devs I've ever seen across multiple companies

3. They uniformly got burnt out by incredible harassment from people who hated facebook transferring their hate to people who cared about games or VR - or, ironically, wanted to transition away from the facebook teams...because facebook.

4. Don't ascribe to developers what was clearly forced commandments from deeply flawed leadership decisions.

Those people doing the forcing in #4 are the first in line for blame. Not the developers. Maybe a little sprinkling of people similar to you.

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

#266

Post by whywhywhywhy »

jrm4 wrote: post #9

Microsoft saw the concept of touchscreens and bought out "Surface" around 2003ish; and as a result, we didn't get widespread touchscreens until about a decade or so later. FB buying Oculus feels exactly like that for VR.

Have you used the product and the software and games they've been publishing?

Honestly they're the only players in the industry treating it as more than a hobby and the only viable headset for mass consumers. I think without their pressure Valve would have never bothered with the Index or HL:Alyx.

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

#267

Post by emdowling »

Impossible wrote: post #102
shoeshoeshoey wrote: post #24

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.

As of 2022, PSC is shifting to every 12 months not 6 in an effort to better support longer-term projects and thinking. Promotions will still be assessed every 6 months.

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

#268

Post by [deleted] »

busymom0 wrote: post #46
ilamont wrote: post #12

Before going to extremes, many hacking victims try the usual routes to get customer service but quickly find out it seems impossible to reach someone at Facebook to help fix the problem. Same story with AI lockouts at Google. Even if you do have access to "someone at Google" good luck getting a clear answer of what happened or how to fix the issue.

Yep. Even developers with apps which might have gotten wrongly flagged by the artificial unintelligence only get to talk to automated emails unless they can create a big enough shit storm on social media to get a few tech blogs to write about it. A very recent example was Droid script app on Android: https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=26956077

[deleted]

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

#269

Post by sandworm101 »

jimrandomh wrote: post #88

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…

At least someone has finally come up with a business model to bring about widespread adoption of VR. The next stage will be to force buyers to actually use VR: occulus/facebook support only availible through the headaet. The final stage will be to randomly changing facebook passwords of anyone who doesnt currenlty have an occulus 4 on thier head.
Post reply on HN