Yes, it seemed like a good idea. It’s been a few years since I’ve advertised on FB, and though the process was a bit multi-layered, I got through it and managed to run an ad. It didn’t help!
But BLEAK HOUSE is a different project, and it was more about getting the word out a little wider than it was about making sales. I decided I could spend $91 on running this ad for a couple of weeks, fine-tuning audiences interests, geographical area, and other parameters.
Almost as soon as the ad started running, for a total of $8.96, I started getting numerous warnings and alerts from Facebook/Meta that my account was compromised, that I’m on double-secret probation, that my American Express card was no good at all, and on and on. Culminating in an actual PHONE CALL from Meta tech support (the phone number was from Germany, but apparently the tech guy was in Houston) on the morning of February 19 telling me that my account was permanently damaged and compromised and I would be going straight to Facebook HELL! (I just made that last part up, but it turned out to be true.)
But it was bad for sure. What followed was two solid weeks of messaging back and forth, trying to get a payment method, ANY payment method, to work.
Note the dates and times as you go. For the first week it was almost continuous morning-to-night texting.
Interspersed with this chat I kept getting emails from Meta telling me my account was completely healed and better and working just fine. Except it wasn’t. And Meta never, at any time, gave me any usable information about my credit cards, what the problem was, or anything about how my credit cards were compromised. I think they mainly thought I was typing in the numbers wrong.
After several day of radio silence, I got a query this morning (March 13) whether I had solved the “problem” with my credit cards. I responded that I have completely given up, and the response from Meta was a “thumbs up”. And that was it.
Thanks for reading. You can drop me a line at dickens@mooneyart.com
