Paying Meta for 'Verified' Facebook customer service still can't restore stolen account

TRACY, Calif. -- Facebook and Instagram users have long complained there is no way to get help when hackers take over their accounts.

There is no phone number to call, and online help pages lead them in circles.

But, as we've reported, parent company Meta is now offering a paid-subscription service for personal customer care.

And victims are willing to pay.

So, is the problem fixed?

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7 On Your Side aired a story recently about an East Bay woman who tried for months to recover her stolen Facebook account. Nothing worked until she signed up for "Meta Verified."

She got her account back within a day.

However, since then, we've learned not everyone is so lucky.

We told you about Tova Ridgway who tried for months to recover her stolen Facebook account. She even marched to Meta headquarters in Menlo Park demanding help.

Nothing worked -- until she paid $14.99 for one month of "Meta Verified,'' giving her direct access to customer service.

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Within a day, a live agent on chat restored her account.

"I got all my memories back. My memories of my kid, me and my husband," Ridgway said.

Daniel Gomez of Tracy lost his Facebook account back in August, and he couldn't get it back either.

"She got help. I was like, 'What the heck? How come it didn't help in my situation?'" Gomez said of Ridgway.

"I lost all my family photo albums. A lot of important stuff was on there," he said.

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Facebook's automated help pages kept sending him in circles back to the error message.

So, he paid $14.99 for one month of Meta Verified. But his case wasn't so simple.

Hackers had used Gomez's Facebook profile to set up a fake Instagram account. Meta suspended the fake account and, in turn, suspended Gomez too.

"I'm here to tell you, Meta Verified does not always work," he said.

After nearly two dozen live chats with Meta Verified, he still got the same error message. So, he paid for a second month, then a third.

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"They can't solve anything too complicated. Maybe my issue is too complicated. Yeah, but it definitely didn't work for me after multiple attempts," Gomez said.

In the latest chat, an agent typed: "Hi Danny thank you for contacting the Meta pro team. May I confirm you are calling about bullying?"

"I don't think they understood what's happening," Gomez said.

Gomez replied: "No, not bullying. My Facebook account was hacked and suspended."

The agent typed: "Thank you for confirming your phone number and bringing this concern to our attention. We duly understand how important this is for you."

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"It feels like you're talking to a robot. it doesn't feel human at all. It feels like AI," Gomez said.

Was he chatting with a bot or a human? He wasn't sure, but the next message said: "The best way to submit an appeal for your account being hacked is at Facebook.com."

So it sent him back to the useless automated help page.

"They're basically saying, solve this yourself. I'm paying money to get nothing," Gomez said.

The next message said: "May I confirm that I was able to answer all your questions for today?"

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He replied: "Yeah, but it didn't help at all."

The agent typed: "It's been a pleasure having you today. This case will now be closed... Have a great and beautiful day."

We found many reports online and to 7 On Your Side from users saying the service couldn't restore their accounts.

We asked Meta for comment but did not hear back.

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But in a blog post announcing the service, Meta CEO Mark Zuckerberg wrote: "Verifying government IDs and providing direct access to customer support costs a significant amount of money. Subscription fees will cover this and will pace how many people sign up, so we'll be able to ensure quality..."

Gomez says he did get something out of this: verified status for his Instagram.

"Basically, I got a blue checkmark and that's about it," he said.

From what we saw on his chats, Gomez was getting responses from humans and bots, so the experience wasn't quite as personalized as you might want. The best solution is to use two-factor authentication to prevent a hack in the first place.

In a response, Meta told ABC7 News that it wants to look into the cases we've discovered.

We'll continue following this story and bring you more updates as we get them.

Take a look at more stories and videos by 7 On Your Side.

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