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Not receiving verification email to create Meta account, seems to be hyphen-related

hy.fiber
Honored Guest

Problem:

- I can't create a Meta account because I'm not receiving a confirmation code

Attempts:

- I tried using two different email addresses, each of which includes a hyphen. I never received a code.

- I tried using an email address not containing a hyphen, with the same domain name, and I immediately received a code. However, I can't use this address for my Meta account because I'm using it for other purposes, and it's less secure.

- I tried using the hyphenated account again but still never received a confirmation code.

Attempt at getting support:

- I contacted Meta support via email, using my hyphenated email address, and they replied: "Don't worry, the hyphen on your email address is not related in your issue that you experiencing right now." and "We expect this issue to be resolved as soon as possible because we are already aware of it and our engineers are actively working on it, but there is no specific timeline at this moment."

My concern:

- It seems obvious to me that the issue is with the hyphen. I think maybe support was cutting/pasting generic responses without actually finding out what's going on. I see a post here on the forums from September 8, 2022 mentioning a similar issue regarding hyphenated email addresses, but it's unclear whether it was resolved. The email provider that I want to use with my Meta account uses hyphens, and I would prefer not to be forced to use throw-away email accounts just to get a Meta account. I would also prefer not to have to return my unusable Quest 2 just because I can't create an account. Would someone or community manager here perhaps already know a solution, given that it's happened to others before?

6 REPLIES 6

MetaQuestSupport
Community Manager
Community Manager

Hey Hy.fiber, considering the research you've done and informed us of, it would be best for you to create an account using a non-hyphenated email address.

If you're the author of a thread, remember to mark a reply as the Accepted Solution to help others find answers!

hy.fiber
Honored Guest

Thank you for your quick reply! I really wanted to use the abc-xyz@***.com format because my email provider redirects them all to the same mailbox, which allows me to use a unique address for each company I sign up with. It's especially useful when signing up with companies like Facebook that have had large-scale data breaches in the past. I guess I'll use a throw-away email address for now, which unfortunately I won't be able to use to purchase apps from Meta. Hopefully the ticket I have with Meta Support will eventually get resolved and I'll be able to use my proper email address. It's somewhat disappointing that Meta Support is giving me the impression that they're just cutting/pasting generic responses without actually looking into the problem.

Hy.fiber, we do not see any tickets opened with the email address you are speaking of. Please open a new ticket with a non hyphenated address so we can verify you can receive and see our responses.

If you're the author of a thread, remember to mark a reply as the Accepted Solution to help others find answers!

Thanks, I'll open a new ticket with my non hyphenated address. Although, I've had no problem sending and receiving email with Meta Store Support using the hyphenated address. I even purchased my Oculus 2 using the hyphenated address. It's just the automatic confirmation code email that's never sent.

hy.fiber
Honored Guest

Here's a follow-up: Meta Support replied to my new ticket, saying that since it's the same issue as my earlier ticket, they'll merge them and that I should just continue to use the old ticket. They also suggested I try changing my email address on the non-hyphenated account to my desired email address, but when I tried, the interface said that the email is invalid. I wonder if the interface to change email addresses has been programmed to reject hyphens, but they never got around to modifying the new account interface to reject them. So, it looks like I'll still have to wait for them to find a solution to my original ticket, and I have no idea whether it actually will ever be resolved given that it's been happen for other people for the past several months.

By the way, here's a reddit thread with several other people having what appears to be the same exact problem, from 3 months ago up to as recently as 8 days ago, so this issue is certainly not unique to me:

https://www.reddit.com/r/OculusQuest/comments/x3z8v3/not_receiving_confirmation_code_when_trying_to

hy.fiber
Honored Guest

Hi, here's another follow-up: Yesterday Meta Support said "Don't worry, the hyphen on your email address is not related in your issue that you experiencing right now". Just now, they sent me another email saying "I would like to inform you that the hyphen on your email address might the reason why our system can't accept it. For you to be able to create a Meta account and receive the verification code you can use another email without a hyphen."

¯\_(ツ)_/¯