A few days ago I wrote about a problem with registering an account on Facebook. This morning, I’ve got the reply:

Hi Robert,
Welcome to Facebook. We have confirmed your account, and you should be able to access it now. Sorry for the delay!
Login:
New Password:
Please note that Facebook passwords are case sensitive (FACEbook is not the same as facebook). If you’re having trouble with this login/password combination, I suggest copying and pasting the login and password into the appropriate fields.
Once logged in, you can change your password from the “Settings” tab of the Account page. Let me know if you have any further questions.
Thanks for contacting Facebook,
Sadie
User Operations
Facebook

Not a word on what was causing the system to reject my registration. At least, I’ve got one “sorry”.

Well, I have my Facebook account now, so if you’ll excuse me, I’m off to find some long lost friends :)

I tried to register on Facebook. I filled up the register form, typed all the information, double-checked for errors… Clicked “Sign up”, and they gave me a big read box saying:

Our automated system will not approve this name. If you believe this is an error, please contact us.

Wtf?! My name is wrong?! How could it be wrong?! I checked it again, refilled the form, and… same error again. OK, their system is messed up, I don’t like those troubleshooting systems, those are never helpful, so I’ll try again later. A few minutes after, I tried again. Same thing. Weird. Then I did a Google search on “Robert Basic Facebook” terms. First hit: a Facebook profile for Robert Basic. Yep, there’s a person, with same name as mine, registered on Facebook. So, I used their troubleshoot system, which ended up writing them an E-mail:

Hi there!
I am Robert Basic, from Serbia, age 22.
Well, I’m having trouble registering on Facebook. There is already a guy registered on Facebook, we share the same name, so maybe that’s the problem. Anyway, we are two separate persons, he lives in Germany, I live in Serbia. Is there a solution for this problem? Oh, and the error I got was:
“Our automated system will not approve this name. If you believe this is an error, please contact us.”
So there. I’ve made contact. I come in peace.
Regards,
Robert

The E-mail is sent, now I’m waiting to see what will happen next.

Frankly, I don’t give a damn about having a Facebook profile; well, not anymore. Now, I just want to know, how could this happen? They never thought about this scenario when two persons have same names? OK, maybe, I’m wrong and this error comes up because of something else, but for me, this is the only reasonable explanation.