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I ended up in the same situation with my restaurant business. Personal Facebook account was suspended (which hadn't been used for anything except buying ads for

I ended up in the same situation with my restaurant business. Personal Facebook account was suspended (which hadn't been used for anything except buying ads for mentioned business for something like ~4 years), and I guess because of that, the professional Instagram account linked with the personal Facebook was also suspended. I had ads running and tried for ~2 weeks to do anything about it, but Facebook kept charging me and I kept being unable to resolve it by any manner at all. Eventually reached a real human via Facebook support somehow, and they said there was nothing they could do. Had to lock and block my card for the charges to stop. Wrote to my bank about them charging me even though I was suspended, I got all the money back from the day the suspension started (took screenshots from day one it happened) and I'll never use anything related to Facebook again. So I guess my advise is to lock the card, ask your bank nicely and if the bank won't help you, take it to court. Not sure what country you are in, but usually there are organizations that help you pro-bono for easy cases like this when huge companies try to take advantage of the small person, often leading to something called "small claims court".

eek2121 3y ago
Sounds like class action lawsuit material. Even if they have an arbitration clause, the contract likely ended when the account was suspended. Continuing to charge the card after the fact thus would NOT be covered by arbitration unless the contract explicitly covers this (unlikely). This is assuming you sue over the fraudulent charges and not to restore the account. The second you try to restore the account the original contract would be valid. Just my educated guess at least. IANAL, but I've participated in lawsuits and I have studied law and read tons of case law (had my development career not taken off I would have absolutely become a lawyer...and I still might). I would welcome for an actual lawyer to pitch in, however.
- vkou 3y ago
  Why class action this and not small claims? Does the OP have a burning need to wait four years and watch a lawyer take 90% of the bounty? Hell, even arbitration sounds quite likely to resolve the issue to his satisfaction. Am I missing something?
  - alsetmusic 3y ago
    > Why class action this and not small claims? Not OP but I’d think to hold FB accountable and stop this behavior.
  - Kon-Peki 3y ago
    All class action lawsuits have a named plaintiff that represents the class, and gets more of the settlement than the rest (how much is totally up to the agreement with the law firm). But in this particular case, a letter from a lawyer outlining some specific laws/contracts that FB is violating will get them to stop immediately.
    - Auracle 3y ago
      Keep in mind getting more of the settlement might still not mean much. I was the class representative for a class action against Sharp and I got…$1,000. Woo. The process was interesting, so there’s that. It does also take up quite a bit of time. I definitely got less than minimum wage.
- toss1 3y ago
  Also sounds like it would be appropriate to write to your state's Attorney General, maybe of several states. This is exactly the kind of widespread low-grade fraud that is suitable for them to pursue (much more legal overhead than worth it to each victim, but creating large damages in aggregate).
- capableweb 3y ago
  Sounds like something someone could do, yeah. But luckily the bank was understanding and gave me my money back, and I can't justify spending the time on trying to make things right with a party (Facebook) that has absolutely no will do make things right. It's someone else's battle to fight.

eek2121 3y ago

Sounds like class action lawsuit material. Even if they have an arbitration clause, the contract likely ended when the account was suspended. Continuing to charge the card after the fact thus would NOT be covered by arbitration unless the contract explicitly covers this (unlikely). This is assuming you sue over the fraudulent charges and not to restore the account. The second you try to restore the account the original contract would be valid. Just my educated guess at least. IANAL, but I've participated in lawsuits and I have studied law and read tons of case law (had my development career not taken off I would have absolutely become a lawyer...and I still might). I would welcome for an actual lawyer to pitch in, however.

vkou 3y ago
Why class action this and not small claims? Does the OP have a burning need to wait four years and watch a lawyer take 90% of the bounty? Hell, even arbitration sounds quite likely to resolve the issue to his satisfaction. Am I missing something?
- alsetmusic 3y ago
  > Why class action this and not small claims? Not OP but I’d think to hold FB accountable and stop this behavior.
- Kon-Peki 3y ago
  All class action lawsuits have a named plaintiff that represents the class, and gets more of the settlement than the rest (how much is totally up to the agreement with the law firm). But in this particular case, a letter from a lawyer outlining some specific laws/contracts that FB is violating will get them to stop immediately.
  - Auracle 3y ago
    Keep in mind getting more of the settlement might still not mean much. I was the class representative for a class action against Sharp and I got…$1,000. Woo. The process was interesting, so there’s that. It does also take up quite a bit of time. I definitely got less than minimum wage.
toss1 3y ago
Also sounds like it would be appropriate to write to your state's Attorney General, maybe of several states. This is exactly the kind of widespread low-grade fraud that is suitable for them to pursue (much more legal overhead than worth it to each victim, but creating large damages in aggregate).
capableweb 3y ago
Sounds like something someone could do, yeah. But luckily the bank was understanding and gave me my money back, and I can't justify spending the time on trying to make things right with a party (Facebook) that has absolutely no will do make things right. It's someone else's battle to fight.