HN Explorer

Microsoft won't let me pay a $24 bill, blocking thousands in Azure spending

198 points by Javin007 ↗ HN
Two years ago, a $24 autopay charge on my Azure account failed. The invoice is now marked "Locked" in their billing portal.

I cannot pay this invoice. There is no button to pay it. There is no button to dismiss it. There is no way to interact with it at all.

Azure displays a banner: "You must pay all previous invoices before creating new subscriptions." Fair enough. I would love to pay it. Microsoft won't let me.

So I tried to contact support.

The Azure portal requires a "paid support plan" to create a support ticket. To purchase a paid support plan, you must create a subscription. To create a subscription, you must clear outstanding invoices. To clear outstanding invoices, you must contact support.

Azure on Twitter, as well as the website claims to have a "free support ticket" option for billing issues, but every possible link just drives you back to the same FAQ page while refusing to let you submit a ticket.

I called every number I could find:

1-800-867-1389 rings busy indefinitely. 1-855-270-0615 connects to an AI that asks what you need, tells you to visit the website, and disconnects. 1-800-642-7676 connects to a different AI that also tells you to visit the website. The website has a chatbot that redirects you to FAQ articles regardless of what you type. If you express frustration, it throws an error and stops responding.

I submitted feedback through the Azure portal every few days for weeks. No response.

I am a software engineer, so I did something ridiculous.

I wrote a PowerShell WinForms application that authenticates via device code flow, queries the Az.Support API for problem classifications, and calls New-AzSupportTicketsNoSubscription to submit a billing support ticket directly, bypassing the portal entirely.

Note the API name: NoSubscription. Microsoft has an explicit API for ticketing without a subscription.

It worked. The ticket was submitted. I felt briefly victorious.

The API responded: "Your support plan type is Free. To create and update support tickets, you need access to our high-tier support plans."

I had built custom software specifically to work around Microsoft's broken support infrastructure, and I still hit a paywall.

The total amount Microsoft is owed: $24.

The total amount Microsoft is preventing me from spending on new Azure services: thousands. I currently run numerous websites out of my house, and it's getting to be enough that I want to offload it to Azure VMs. Additionally, I was going to shift my development to Azure boxes, etc.

I have exhausted every official channel. Every phone number, every chatbot, every feedback form, every API endpoint. There is no path to a human being without first paying for a support plan that I cannot purchase because of the billing block that I need support to resolve.

Has anyone successfully escaped a loop like this? Is there a secret handshake I'm missing? Or is the only option to abandon this Microsoft account entirely, get a new phone, and start fresh?

45 comments

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monero-xmr
Some vendors I use force me to login via MS Live account. The new thing MS is pushing is "Microsoft Authenticator" where I have to use their specific authenticator app or I can't login anymore. No way they could just use TOTP standard like anyone else. Completely crazy. Nothing they do is surprising
viraptor
Why not open a new account? Surely for Azure you don't need a unique phone number for each one of them, right? You could run multiple companies after all. (I've got 5 independent AWS accounts, so expect some sanity like that)
joeframbach
Print out the invoice, write a check, and mail it in?
rdtsc
Do you have to use Azure? Maybe Azure is nice and signaling this way the state of the internals and how things will work from here on. So it's sneakily trying to help you move to somewhere else, before things become worse and you spend the thousands and then end up stuck.
jauntywundrkind
Hetzner has a similar loop. Autopay fails and they lock your account, keeping you from logging in to pay it.

I emailed support, &bthey insisted on a wire transfer. I sent that & they said they didn't get it. I sent them all the details my bank could find, but they kept asking for some paper document, which doesn't exist afaik because it was all done online.

Hetzner_OL
Hi there, (I am not trying to be critical. I am genuinely curious what could have gone wrong in your case.) Are you sure that they were asking for a *piece of paper*, or for a confirmation number for the bank/wire transfer? Our team will sometimes ask for the confirmation number to help speed up the process on our end. Some people also underestimate how much time it can take for a payment like this to arrive at our billing team. When you sent the payment, did you include your Hetzner customer number or invoice number in the reason for the payment when you filled at the form for the bank/wire transfer? If you didn't do that, it is much more difficult for our team to process that payment. --Katie
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bityard
You have a lot more perseverance than I do. I would have opened up an AWS or GCP account after step one. I'm the one with the money and any company that makes it difficult for me to give it to them isn't worth my time.
machomaster
Or even better, to use this opportunity to set up your own servers saving money and hassle in the long run.
SlightlyLeftPad
I had the almost same experience as OP. Only difference is that I really wanted to play Minecraft.
voidsnax
I recently tried to sign up for the Microsoft Partner Network and the entire experience was grueling and excruciating from start to finish. I wasted two days on it and never managed to sign up.
hostyle
Maybe don't use Azure? It's not like there are no other options ...
altairprime
You should probably consult a lawyer, or file a small claims court case for specific performance or refund of your $24 payment delivered by certified mail. In either scenario they will be motivated to accept and process your payment and restore normal services billing to you long before you see the inside of a courtroom, as lawyers cost them much more than $24/hour for an obvious fuckup on their side (and most likely they would have to send an actual executive to small claims court, where lawyers are unwelcome).
mrinterweb
I ran into a similar issue with Hetzner. I had an outstanding bill that I forgot about (going to an email inbox I don't check often). They closed my account, and I haven't been able to pay the bill. I've tried contacting support, but I haven't got anywhere. I would love to pay the bill. I would really like to use Hetzner again, but I think I accidentally got banned. Also, I'm talking about an $8 dollar debt owed I accrued while not realizing my autopay was failing on a VM.
Hetzner_OL
Hi there, I am sorry you had this negative experience us with us. For very late invoices, we lock accounts and ask that users pay using a bank/wire transfer. https://docs.hetzner.com/general/others/late-payments-faqs Was your account fairly new? We tend to be more careful with newer accounts because of fraud and abuse. If an invoice is very late, we do not re-open the account until the invoice is paid. (Again, because of fraud and abuse). But our support teams would very likely have asked you to pay using a bank/wire transfer. It's not that we don't want people to pay their invoices. We just want them to use a more reliable form of payment once that happens. If you still have access to your old invoice (perhaps you still have your email with it), you can still pay it. Your customer number will be on your invoice and you can use that or the invoice number in the reason for the payment. Since it is far in the past, we could not re-activate your account. It might be possible, however, to create a new account. --Katie
pavelevst
Look for cheaper alternatives (many of them in Europe and not only), smaller companies than Microsoft usually have a human to deal with such cases, also their services costs 5-10x less
LightBug1
I've had the same issue with Google.

I've not paid them a dime for 10 years because they fucked the payment system (imo).

It was just enough friction for me to mostly offload my data from Google's apps/cloud and run it myself.

So, in an odd way, I should thank them ...

jeffrallen
Could I interest you in some sweet data sovereignty? Try a medium size European cloud like Exoscale or one of our French competitors and you'll get better service, plus you'll know what privacy laws protect your data.
deepsun
Wow people love Microsoft so much that they are ready to go to such lengths to pay them money.
computersuck
Microsoft sucks, don't bother, use a different cloud. I hear good things about BuyVM
anonymousiam
Would you really stay with a cloud provider after they did this to you? I don't presently use Azure, but if AWS did something like this to me, I would be switching providers immediately.
PunchyHamster
Now imagine it's your paying customers infrastructure that got reverse paywalled behind some system bug. That would be reason enough to drop it.
bbayles
(channeling Patrick McKenzie) If you have an S&P 500 index fund, you're a shareholder in Microsoft. Call their Investor Relations people, or send them a letter with this description. They will probably be of some help!
smegger001
obligatory xkcd is today's oddly enough. is OP Randle Monroe?

https://xkcd.com/3175/

seriously though customer support from mega corps is almost non existent anymore unless you are big enough to have lawyers negotiating your support contract for you or you have a social media fallowing bigger than some world leaders.

Galxeagle
Have you tried going through Sales? Account teams can usually move mountains if they can see a clear path to a paycheque - you might have luck just by going to the 'chat with me' popup on the azure home page and saying you have thousands of budget and would like to chat with a rep.
BLKNSLVR
The universe is saving you from spending money on Microsoft services. This is a good thing, stop trying to fight it and find a better, more worthy alternative.
beefnugs
Funny enough i think AI everywhere will in fact give such a nice clear push with a smile on its face to small companies and individuals away from business with the big companies.

Divine goodness can find cracks through the evil veil of capitalism