Let’s Go – First Attempt

Okay, here we are. If you want to know what this is all about, please read the about page.

Today I sent the following email to Facebook, both from my account address as well as another one:

Dear sir or madam,

after several unsuccessful attempts in the following months to contact you, this is my first open support request, which I also published on http://pleasedeletemyaccount.wordpress.com.

It concerns my account registered under hofi.facebook@mailnull.com, which since February 2009, you are blocking me from logging into, but which is still neither disabled or deleted.

I request that you delete this account (optionally you could grant me access to it again, but deletion would be a satisfactory solution).

With kind regards,
Andreas Hofmann

Any suggestions what I should write to enhance my chances for a response?

Update 1 (2009-06-18 09:52)

I received this automatic reply. Note that I only received it once, to the address that is not associated with my account. This confirms my suspicion that they block my account mail address as spam.

Hi,

The Facebook Team has received your inquiry. We should get back to you soon. In the meantime, we encourage you to review our Privacy and Security Help page (http://www.facebook.com/help.php?topic=privacy). There, you’ll find answers to many common questions.

Thanks for contacting Facebook,

The Facebook Team

Update 2 (2009-06-18 17:00)

So far so good, I received another reply:

Facebook users have the option to either deactivate or delete their accounts. The differences between the two options are described below.

If you deactivate your account, your profile and all information associated with it are immediately made inaccessible to other Facebook users. What this means is that you effectively disappear from the Facebook service. However, we do save your profile information (friends, photos, interests, etc.), so if you want to reactivate at some point, your account will look just the way it did when you deactivated. Many users deactivate their accounts for temporary reasons and expect their information to be there when they return to the service. You can deactivate your account through the “Deactivate Account” link on the Account page.

If you do not think you will use Facebook again and you would like to delete your account, you can do this yourself by taking the following steps:

1. Log in to your Facebook account.
2. Visit the Security section of the Help Center by following this link:

http://www.facebook.com/help.php?topic=delete

3. Click the “I want to permanently delete my account” link toward the bottom of the page.

Please keep in mind that once your account is deleted, you will not be able to reactivate the account or retrieve any of the content or information you have added.

If you are currently unable to access your account, you will need to reset your password in order to log in. In order to do so, click the “Forgot your password?” link that appears above the field where you would normally enter your password. Entering your login email address on the next page will cause a new password to be sent to that email address. Once you receive your new password and can log in, you can deactivate or delete your account using the steps outlined above. We apologize for any inconvenience this may cause.

Thanks for contacting Facebook,

No, I didn’t cut anything of at the end, it really is like that. Perhaps this was actually written by a human, or it is a faulty template. Whatever the case, the point is that I cannot reset my password, because they are blocking my email address. If I type my address in their reset password form, it says “invalid address”.

My reply:

Dear Sir or Madam,

I am aware of the distinction between deactivate and delete, but I can’t do neither myself. As described previously, the issue is that you are blocking my email address hofi.facebook@mailnull.com as “invalid”, and as far as I can tell this applies to everyone who registered with a mailnull.com address prior to February 2009.

If I try to use your reset password form, it claims my address is invalid. So I can’t do that. It would be of no use, too, because I know my password. The issue is with the email address, not the password. The same happens when I try to use your support form, it claims the address is invalid. But it is not, and Facebook notifications are still delivered to it. I’m just unable to login or do anything else. So I repeat my request for you to delete my account. Thank you very much.

With kind regards,
Andreas Hofmann

Update 3 (2009-06-19 10:00)

I received another reply, this time definitely from a human being. This is a first. Perhaps it is possible to solve this yet. Of course, there is once again this small problem:

Hi,

We can look into this, but for security reasons we need you to respond to this email from your login email address: hofi.facebook@mailnull.com. Also, please write your email address in the subject line and include all of our previous correspondence so that we can refer to your original inquiry.

Thanks for contacting Facebook,

Lauren
User Operations
Facebook

I can’t. I can’t respond from that address. Well, I can. But I never receive an answer. Because, you know, they are blocking that address. That’s why I can’t log in. That’s why I’m writing them. That’s why I want out. But before this was always told to me by an automatic reply, this is a human being I’m communicating with, so there is definitely hope now!

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