How Do I Contact Facebook Support When I Need Help? – SocMedSean – Social Media Sean

I know…I know. You probably are having a terrible time getting in contact with Facebook support and you just want answers. Unfortunately, this isn’t an easy one and there are no easy answers. Facebook purposefully makes it difficult to get in touch with their customer support team. They DON’T want to dedicate resources to helping you. 

I know…that sucks, but it just is reality. I’ve experienced it for myself and on behalf of my clients. The key is to formulate a plan and then just go hard. Try everything you can.

This post is more than five years in the making and is an ongoing work in progress, and I have been diligently updating it whenever I receive comments about people trying to contact Facebook directly. The latest update is in early 2023, where I removed some options that don’t work anymore, so rest assured that this isn’t some out-of-date post giving you garbage advice.

Please note: Some of the links in my posts are affiliate links. I get commissions for purchases made through those links. As an Amazon Associate I earn from qualifying purchases when you buy something from those links.

Just read the comments and you’ll see how many people have contributed to the tips and steps for contacting Facebook. It’s become kind of a community post and I’m appreciative of everyone who has contributed.

IF you are absolutely stuck and cannot contact Facebook customer support, then the updates at the bottom of the post and in the comments are the best place to start since they have some of the more unconventional ways to contact Facebook.

Si deseas leer esta publicación en español, haz click aquí.

Below is just one example of the types of questions that I receive. This one came from someone based on another post about contacting Instagram support. Hopefully, my experience trying to get help from Facebook support will help others in need.

Hey Sean,

I saw your article about contacting Instagram, but I actually need help contacting Facebook customer service to get my password reset and regain control of my account. How do I contact Facebook support? Any inside ideas on good ways to actually get Facebook help? Is there an email address for Facebook? Or maybe a Facebook phone number to call? Even a Facebook support live chat would be helpful.

Thanks!
Davis

Just as with most of the big social networks, it’s pretty tough to get someone at Facebook to help you resolve an issue. Whether you are like Davis and have been locked out of your account or you have another reason for needing assistance, it can be rough going. Not everyone has a Facebook contact they can reach out to for support.

What’s worse is the fact that Facebook is supposed to be a communication channel. Just Because Facebook Is A Communication Channel Doesn’t Mean They Know How To Communicate

They operate one of the largest social networks on the planet, run Facebook Messenger and WhatsApp, two powerhouse communication channels, yet that cannot seem to even fathom how to answer customer support emails.

I get it. I feel your pain.

I know what it’s like to have a Facebook account locked and not be able to complete the steps to get it unlocked. I know that you are likely reading this article because you are frustrated and want answers.

Your account is locked, your Facebook has been copied or replicated by a hacker, or maybe you forgot your password. Whatever the issue is, you just need help. I hear you and I created this post as a journey through all the ways to potentially contact Facebook.

Along the way, the readers of this post have contributed a lot of different ideas and experiences. Hopefully, one of these approaches helps you. If it does (or even if it doesn’t), be sure to add your comment to the bottom so we can track what is and isn’t working.

NOTE: Facebook and Instagram are now owned by the same company, called Meta. Keep in mind, though, that just because they are owned by the same company, doesn’t mean they have the same customer support process. For those who are trying to get in touch with Meta customer support in order to unlock their Instagram account, there are tips on how to contact Instagram support in this article.

Some Of The Common Facebook Issues I Have Encountered

Over my many years working in digital marketing and social media, I have had plenty of reasons for contacting Facebook customer support. Whether it was for myself or helping on behalf of one of my clients, I have had several reasons for contacting Facebook in the past. These include situations like:

• I have another blog where I discuss the wonderful world of decorating with live and artificial plants and flowers and I was locked out of the Facebook page for that blog.
• I had a client who forgot the password for their personal Facebook account and no longer had access to the email address associated with their account.
• I had Facebook ads that were rejected and some that were discontinued after they had already been approved
• One of my clients was being harassed on their Facebook page and needed assistance
• Another client had their Facebook account hacked, which gave the hacker full access to their company Facebook page
• I actually had a situation where a scammer was replicating my Facebook posts and pretending they were me.
• A friend of mine had a relative die and needed help getting access to the deceased’s Facebook account.
• I had a friend who was being impersonated on Facebook and he wanted the impersonator’s account blocked.

As you can imagine, these issues required a bit more assistance than the Facebook forums offered. In each of these situations, though, I was able to determine a way to get someone at Facebook support to respond and get the issue resolved.

Facebook Customer Service Just Isn’t Very Good

Unfortunately, Facebook has a notoriously bad customer service system and there isn’t one “right” or “best” way to get a response. There isn’t a magic Facebook customer service phone number that anyone can just dial up and speak with the customer service representative.

Also, while there are several different Facebook customer support email addresses out there, they generally aren’t the most effective way to get assistance (more on that later).

This means you might have to try multiple different was to get in touch with them.

To help, here are several different ways that I have used to get in contact with Facebook. Hopefully, you won’ t have to try all of them.

PLEASE NOTE: I try to keep these contact methods updated as frequently as possible. Facebook occasionally disables email addresses or changes them. If you get a bounced email from one of the contact methods below, let me know via my contact form or in a comment and I’ll try to find an alternate. Also, if you have an additional contact method that you think would help others, be sure to share it.

Believe It Or Not, For Most Users, Contacting Facebook Is Relatively Easy

For most users, getting support from Facebook or contacting Facebook help is as simple as logging in to the Facebook app or desktop site and clicking your profile photo and then scrolling down to find the “Help & Support” option. From there, you can access many of the Facebook support features and get help.

The first step to take is the most logical. Facebook has built out a pretty robust help system, so try using it and see if some of their automated tools can help you out. Believe it or not, using Facebook’s Help Center to send your messages to the company can be a reliable way to connect with Facebook for some of the easier-to-resolve issues.

In many cases, Facebook has built communication bots to reply to the most common issues and respond with the steps to fix the problem. Facebook’s help center can help you address issues concerning:

• Account access
• Issues with Facebook ads
• Concerns regarding Copyright and Trademark infringement on Facebook
• General feedback about the Facebook platform
• Privacy concerns and issues relating to the violation or infringement of personal rights
• Email issues
• Login issues or problems
• Issues relating to names and/or usernames
• Questions or concerns about photos and videos
• Situations where death and/or disability might be causing issues

To use the help center, simply log into the desktop version of Facebook and navigate to the Facebook Help Center webpage. To do this, click the big question mark icon in the upper-right corner and click the link that says “Help Center”.

The “Help Center” link will get you to the Facebook Help Center.

Once you have access to the Help Center, simply review the options toolbar to determine which category your issue falls into.

Facebook help center can assist with a broad range of user issues

The toolbar is located at the top of the screen just beneath the search bar. You will have to drag the mouse cursor over every option to view their subsections.

You can also check out the “Popular Topics” or “Questions You May Have” sections on the webpage. These two sections cover a good number of complaints and issues.

The Facebook Help Center website has both these sections on its main page. You can then select the relevant section.

For instance, if your Facebook account has been hacked, go to the “Privacy and Safety” sections and click on “Hacked and Fake Accounts”. You will see a number of suggestions pop up in the drop-down menu beneath the search bar, just choose the one that fits best.

QUICK TIP: You can expedite this process by clicking on the search bar on top of the Help Center page and typing  in a few words related to your query. The Help Center will then try to get you to the correct help section as quickly as possible.

Facebook has more than 100 contact forms for just about any problems you may run into while using the platform. You can also try sending your message via the “General Feedback” link. However, Facebook does make it clear that you may not ever get a reply.

The company states that they cannot review and respond to every Feedback submission adding that they use the feedback to improve the Facebook experience for all users. This avenue can be very frustrating, but it won’t hurt to give it a try.

Note: Be prepared to wait. Facebook is notoriously slow in their responses to customer support inquiries. Sometimes you can get a response in a day. Other times I have heard reports of people’s accounts being unlocked after as long as a month of waiting.

For those who can’t login to their Facebook account, have had your Facebook hacked or you just cannot get Facebook to work, try some of the methods like the Facebook portal option below.

Note: There really aren’t any good Facebook contact email addresses, so that attempting to email Facebook support probably shouldn’t be high on your list.

If you are using the mobile app and that is where you’re experiencing issues, one of the best steps you can take to resolve a lot of issues is to fully uninstall the Facebook app and then reinstall it. BE AWARE, though, that uninstalling the app will remove all data from your mobile device, which means you will need to know the email address and password associated with your account. If you do not know or think you might not remember your Facebook password, then DO NOT uninstall the app. 

One additional word to the wise for those who have 2-Factor Authentication installed (aka 2FA). 2FA will require that a text message be sent to the phone number associated with your Facebook account. If you have 2FA enabled, but no longer have access to that mobile number, then either go into your Facebook settings and update your phone number to something you have access to or temporarily disable 2FA. 

If you are a business Facebook user, meaning that you have a Facebook page AND you pay for a Facebook advertising campaign, there is even a way to get in contact with a Facebook live agent using the Facebook chat feature. It’s only available for businesses and there appear to be some times that Facebook disables the feature, so it comes and goes. There’s more on that in the Facebook chat section below.

For Those Who Can’t Contact Facebook Using The Easy Ways It Can Be Tough Going

Unfortunately, the traditional Facebook contact methods don’t always work. If you’re stuck and you can’t, reach Facebook,  keep on reading or use the jump links in the Table of Contents widget above to find some of the traditional ways to get in touch with Facebook, as well as some “outside the box” way that have been recommended by other readers.

I probably get 5 emails every day from folks who are frustrated and can’t get anyone at Facebook to help them. Not only can they not get access to the Facebook support email inbox, but some folks are even doubting that Facebook support chat is still a thing (it is…see below for details).

Be aware, though, that navigating the Facebook support process can be a long, infuriating one and there is no guarantee that Facebook will every respond to your email and there is no timeline as to how long it will take for Facebook to respond.

Use Facebook Live Chat For Support

Facebook offers live chat as a means of getting help through their agents. Unfortunately, Facebook Live Chat is only available for business accounts. This is usually the best way to contact Facebook business support. They do not help with standard user accounts, which leaves the vast majority of their user population without a chat option.

If you do have a business, the live chat starting point is https://www.facebook.com/business/help/support.

Facebook chat support offers assistance to business users.

NOTE: Some users have commented that they don’t see the Live Chat anymore and it appears that sometime in 2021, Facebook started rolling back this feature. I just tried this for one of my business clients in February of 2022 and I was able to initiate a live chat, so the feature DOES still exist FOR BUSINESS ACCOUNTS. If you are an individual and don’t have an authentic Facebook page for a business, you cannot use the Live Chat feature.

Don’t believe me? Here’s a screen capture of the latest look and feel of the live chat, complete with the new Meta branding

Millions of customers use it to forward their queries to the company. The department that operates the chat windows handles issues including:

• Recovering hacked Facebook business accounts
• Recovering disabled Facebook accounts
• Resetting passwords
• Assisting when a business user can’t receive code to reset requests
• Problem with a Facebook business page

Be aware that Facebook live chat is not always available 24/7. If you don’t see the indicator as to the duration of the wait, then Facebook chat might not be available.

The department (located in the call centers in Greensboro, NC, and Belize) is open from 9 am to 5 pm from Monday through to Friday. The average wait time of Facebook Live Chat is about 3 minutes.

The Facebook Forums Can Be A Good Place To Get Help From Other Facebook Users

For those who don’t operate a business account, another way of getting help with Facebook queries is to connect with other users in the Facebook Community Forum.

To access the forums, log into Facebook and, from any page, click the question mark located at the top right corner of the web page. A drop-down menu will pop up, and at the top, you will see the “Help Center”. You can also just use this direct link to the Facebook Help Center.

Click and then scroll all the way down the page. Near the bottom of the page and to the left, click on “Visit Help Community”. This link will take you directly to the forums. If you want to bookmark a directly link to the forums, the URL is https://www.facebook.com/help/community/ .

In the Facebook help forums, you can browse queries by category/topic or utilize the search box on top of the web page. At the top right of any forum page, you will see a gray tab with the words “Ask a Question”. Click on the link and select the appropriate top or sub-topic on the next page.

The Facebook forum allows you to ask questions of other Facebook users.

Type in the question you need help with and be patient as you might have to wait a while for others to respond.

To monitor your question, you can review your “Support Inbox” by clicking on the question mark icon in the upper-right of any page and choosing “Support Inbox”.

The Facebook support inbox allows you to monitor and respond to any messages from Facebook support.

Here you can see if an actual Facebook staff member or useful member of the Facebook community replied to the problem.

Use The Facebook Support Email Addresses That Are Published

Another more reliable and convenient way of contacting Facebook is through a number of email addresses. The customer service agents usually reply on a first-come, first-serve basis. The departments are open 24/7.

However, if you send an email late in the night, don’t expect to get a reply until the following day. In fact, the customer service agents often take 24 hours or more to reply with the most likely time of response being around 3 pm.

The email addresses you can use to contact Facebook via email include:

[email protected] – You can use this email address to inquire about recovering disabled accounts, recover hacked accounts, resetting a password, receiving code to reset, and problems with the page. You can also try using this form if your personal Facebook account was disabled.

[email protected] – Use this for inquires about appeals if your content has been blocked or if your account has been suspended. You can also try using this form to appeal your personal Facebook account being suspended.

[email protected] – This is a very basis support email and you should be very, very detailed about your issue if you use this general email address.

[email protected] – This email address is specifically for financial issues that are related to your Facebook activities.

[email protected] – This email is monitored pretty closely, but don’t try to use it for situations other than reporting abuse.

Note that to increase your chances of getting a non-generic reply or getting a reply faster, ensure that your email is brief, concise, and straight to the point. Be descriptive and keep to the primary concern talking points.

If You Have A Business Account, Contact Your Facebook Ad Representative

In order for you to reach the Facebook Ads Support, you must have an active Ad account. The account also needs to have an Ad spend billed to the account.

If you have one, log into your account and navigate to the Ads Help Center. You can use this link – https://www.facebook.com/business/help. Scroll down and click on the “Still Need Help” section. Go to where it says “Contact Our Support Team”.

From there, you can click on the Chat button.

There are a number of questions that you can ask Facebook Ads support. The categories are broken down as follows:

• Policy and Account Security
• Billing and Payments
• Business pages
• Ad management tools
• Ads
• Measure and Improve Results

Even if your query does not fall into the above categories, you can choose the closes one, and the Facebook Ads support representatives will steer you in the proper direction (generally). This method is among the most reliable since Facebook knows you are a paying user.

You get access to features and tools you couldn’t before once you advertise with Facebook. Therefore, if you have a question regarding something that you deem essential, spending those extra dollars on an Ad can be your way through to Facebook support.

Note: Your Facebook ad spend doesn’t have to be a lot to get access to these tools. Once you run an ad, even with a total budget of $10, you are now a paid Facebook advertiser and have access to tools.

Use Your LinkedIn Network To Find Facebook Staffers Who Could Help

If you really need to contact Facebook, think outside the box.

You can use other social networking platforms to try to contact Facebook. One of the best platforms that can help with this is LinkedIn. You simply have to find someone in your network who works at or was a previous Facebook employee. Who knows, maybe they can help or at least point you in the right direction.

To find someone in your LinkedIn network who works at Facebook, follow these steps:

1. Log into your LinkedIn account and search for Facebook on the search bar at the top of the page. It will display the corporate LinkedIn for Facebook.
2. Near the top, you will see the option to view the more than 60,000 employees who work at Facebook. Click this link to get to a page displaying all users who have listed Facebook as current or past working experience in their profiles.
3. You can narrow your search results through the “filter connections” tab on the filter bar. Choose the option to only display the first and second level connections.

Need help with Facebook? Try finding contacts you are connected with on LinkedIn

Once the filter is in place, you will see the users in your network who are first and second level connections. Contact these people to determine if they can be of help.

NOTE: Don’t pester your contacts who work at Facebook with small issues like password resets or questions like how to show the Most Recent view of your Facebook feed instead of the Top Stories view. Save these types of contact for those issues where your business is locked out of their account or other critical issues

Contact Facebook Via Twitter And Try To Get Them To Respond There

I know…it sounds kinda crazy to try to contact @Facebook via Twitter, but sometimes asking a question in a wide-open forum like Twitter can get a lot of attention.

If you aren’t getting the answers you need using the standard Facebook help channels, try screaming it to the world on Facebook.  Either post your issue in a tweet and mention Facebook or try following them You may send a direct message to Facebook via Twitter.

If you can’t get help from the traditional Facebook channels, try tweeting them to get some traction.

Who knows, if your post happens to get sufficient attention, Facebook might pay attention to it.

Pro Tip – If you are experiencing an issue on Facebook, try doing some searches on Twitter to see if others are experiencing the issue. If there are others and some of them are famous, craft a tweet that mentions the problem and mention Facebook and the celebrities who are also experiencing the issue. By doing that, you potentially leverage their social following if they retweet your post.

Ask The Official Facebook Pages That Are Built For Certain Groups

Facebook has a number of official pages. Some of these pages not only post regular updates but also reply to comment from the Facebook community.

You can have some luck here. Ensure that you stay connected with the Facebook pages below and jump into the conversations whenever there is a post related to a topic you have questions about:

• Facebook – General Facebook page, not much support offered here.
• Facebook for Business – Offers information concerning business goals
• Facebook and Privacy – Explores how media companies are using the social media platform
• Facebook Media – Highlights the content strategists, designers and researchers that shape the Facebook experience
• Facebook Design – Focuses on building and growing apps with Facebook
• Facebook Engineers – Highlights the developers and site engineers

Send Facebook A Letter Via US Postal Mail

If you just can’t seem to get any traction and you are totally stuck….the last ditch effort might be to send Facebook a letter explaining your situation and seeking assistance. Here is the main address that you can try to reach Facebook via snail mail.

Facebook, Inc
1601 S. California Ave
Palo Alto, CA 94304

The Oculus Approach – When You Have Exhausted ALL Other Options

Okay, this one is for those who just can’t get Facebook to respond to you and you have tried everything else. The tip actually comes from one of my commenters who indicated that she went to Wal-Mart and took a picture of the serial number of an Oculus VR headset and then called Facebook support posing as an Oculus owner.

Honestly, I don’t recommend the Oculus method.

But…there is a more legitimate alternative so keep reading.

Keep in mind that Facebook owns Oculus. Oculus VR headsets are expensive. The Oculus Quest is about $400 on Amazon, so I don’t recommend running out and buying one just so you can call support.

If you DO choose to go the Oculus route, please pay close attention to this comment that was left by a reader who went that route:

Again, buying an Oculus is an expensive way to get customer support, but there is a less-expensive alternative.

The Facebook Mini Approach – An Alternative To The Oculus Approach

The less expensive option is to buy a Facebook Portal Mini for $80. By buying the Facebook Portal Mini, you now have a product that Facebook has a call center for support. In fact, the Facebook Portal Website even has a link to email the Portal team directly for support AND it has a chat bot that you can start a support chat.

Because you purchased their product, they’re going to do their best to get you set up and connected to your Facebook account. If your account is locked, they might be able to reach out to the Facebook account team to get it unlocked.

Best case scenario – You have a nice new portal device and your Facebook account is unlocked. If you don’t like the Portal device you can always return it under the return policy for the store where you bought it.

Worst case scenario – They don’t help you, your account is still locked, and you return the device.

Hopefully, it can provide another couple of ways to get hold of Facebook.

NOT AN OPTION – Contacting Facebook Support Via Phone

I hope you’ve made it this far in the post because this one is really important. I mentioned it above in a pro-tip, but it’s really worth repeating in its own section.

Facebook does not provide customer support via the phone. Again, there is no Facebook customer support number or a Facebook business support number.

What that means is that any phone number you see for “Facebook Support” is likely a scam. Don’t believe me? Check the image below out. This is an image of the Google snippet that shows when you Google “how can I talk to someone on the phone at Facebook”.

 

This snippet gives a phone number, which I have blurred out, as well as a link to a blog post that contains that phone number. It says it’s a toll-free number and makes it sound like it’s  an easy way to call someone on the phone at Facebook support.

It’s NOT.

In fact, if you Google that phone number, the results are a TON of reports of people’s credit cards being charged for the call. Not once, but over and over again. The scam effectively asks for your card in order to provide “support validation” and then fraudulently charges you.

So…again. IF you are asking yourself Does Facebook have a support phone number

Facebook does not provide customer support via the phone. Stay safe….don’t get scammed.

Another Potential Option – Having Someone Else Reach Out To Facebook On Your Behalf.

This was another great example of an email that I receive and I thought it was worth adding the response to this post so maybe someone might benefit from it.

Hi Sean,

I am also in Marketing and receive your newsletters. I have one question for you. I think from what I read before that you are familiar with this Facebook thing. Last year they disabled my account by mistake, they thought I was underage, I am actually older that Facebook employees! I did send my ID a few times over the last year, no response. I built up a following for many years and did a lot of posting for years. Is there someone I can contact, some V.P or Manager, that you know of in your vast contacts, that I can contact to see if they can reinstate me with all my data after so many years of using FP faithfully? Do you have a phone number to help me fast track this? Appreciate any efforts.

and this was my response. It was a situation that I had faced previously, so I thought others might benefit from it.

I wish I could give you a contact that would fix it for you easily.

Facebook

can be so frustrating in the slow rate at which they undo their mistakes.

 

The best piece of advice I can give you will only work if your account was an administrator of a business page AND there is another active

Facebook

user who is also an admin of that page. What you can do is ask the other user to go to the

Facebook

business center and initiate a chat. Have that user indicate that another administrator on the page was incorrectly disabled and they have submitted their account information but haven’t received any notification back. Have them explain that they need the other administrator account to be reviewed and re-enabled.

 

https://www.

facebook

.com/business/help

 

By having an active account that manages a

Facebook

page request help through the business chat, it adds some legitimacy to the request to re-enable the other account. Sometimes it works, sometimes it doesn’t. It kind of depends on how helpful the chat agent is feeling.

In other words, if you can get someone else to reach out to Facebook on your behalf, especially via business chat, it might get you past the Facebook automation process and onto the radar of an actual Facebook employee who might be able to help.

In Summary…

Reaching out to Facebook directly for assistance can be difficult. When you have a problem concerning your Facebook account, I would suggest taking several different avenues to get a solution. I have listed out nine different options, but don’t limit yourself to one. Try as many different approaches as it takes to get your problem solved.

If you submit the right contact form on Facebook, ask the Facebook Help Center community, start a relevant discussion on an official Facebook page post, and ask other Facebook users on various platforms, you are likely to get the support that you require. A good practice is to leverage the resources outside Facebook.

If you have a better way of getting in contact with Facebook support, I’d be really interested to hear it in the comments or via my contact form.

Also, let me know if you have had a nightmare experience with Facebook support. Maybe we can help each other solve some challenges getting in contact with the fine folks at Facebook.

Cheers!

–Sean