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Still locked out of my AWS account

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Re: Still locked out of my AWS account

#141

Post by stickydink »

I've been locked out of my AWS account for almost 3 years now. I have 2FA enabled, tied to a phone number I no longer have access to.

I receive two emails per month. One invoice, for $0.80 (I cannot remember what is running on there, but I guess it must be something). One threatening, "Your AWS Account is about to be suspended". I've been "about to be suspended" for the entire 3 years.

I want to pay the bill, I can't log in.

I emailed, I phoned. Eventually I spoke to somebody, who told me the only way I could access my account was to fill in "some paperwork"[1]. They emailed that to me. It has to be notarized. I called again, they absolutely will not accept this if it is not notarized.

I've explained to them that all I want to do is pay the ~$30 in bills I've accrued for 3 years. I don't mind if I never get access to the account - let me pay the bill and shut the account down, they won't have it. I don't have any free notary access, and I'm not willing to pay more than the AWS bill amount just to be able to pay the bill. I've explained that to them, and they don't seem to care about that either, they'd rather not have the bill payed and continue piling it up.

[1] https://s3.amazonaws.com/AWSCS_CustomerForms/IdentityVerific...

Re: Still locked out of my AWS account

#142

Post by ignoramous »

falcolas wrote: post #105
Twirrim wrote: post #77

Earlier quoted context omitted.

In all seriousness, email jeff@amazon.com. The most likely outcome is that some relevant managers will receive one of the infamous "?" emails from him. If so, that'll result in two things: 1) Your problem will be resolved ASAP, managers right up the chain will be tracking it extremely closely, as they'll have to justify every action to Jeff. Everyone goes scrambling when one of those emails goes out. 2) A post-mortem…

I think that's gone the way of the dodo. Last I remember, he didn't read those anymore, and they were automatically just shunted into the normal escalation flow. Too many people got wind of it and abused it.

Nope. Those still work the way OP described, if my recent experience is anything to go by. Not sure if @jeff reads all the emails... but he may have assitants that do and send those out, and track them?

The managers in the escalation chain might tend to panic when the "?" comes about like the OP claims going by the # of emails and phone-calls I recieved from them.

Re: Still locked out of my AWS account

#143

Post by raesene6 »

Whilst this is more about AWS accounts, the ability of Amazon (and other cloud providers) to lock you out of an account with very limited recourse does present some other problems.

I've got quite a few ebooks I've bought via Amazon Kindle. If amazon one day decided to delete/lock my account, I would lose access to all that content which I had "bought".

The more data people store in various cloud providers systems, the more the need for some kind of recovery mechanism / dispute resolution process becomes apparent.

Whilst its relatively easy, in many cases, for more technical users to ensure they have backups of data that they control, less technical users could have a lot of their information tied up in these systems, and loss of it could be quite bad for them.

Re: Still locked out of my AWS account

#144

Post by otoburb »

stickydink wrote: post #141

I've been locked out of my AWS account for almost 3 years now. I have 2FA enabled, tied to a phone number I no longer have access to. I receive two emails per month. One invoice, for $0.80 (I cannot remember what is running on there, but I guess it must be something). One threatening, "Your AWS Account is about to be suspended". I've been "about to be suspended" for the entire 3 years. I want to pay the bill, I can't…

The problem is that as they get bigger, they may soon automate delinquent account notifications to debt collection agencies which could impact your credit rating sometime down the line.

You are unfortunately on the wrong side of an asymmetric relationship here.

Re: Still locked out of my AWS account

#146

Post by yellow_postit »

stickydink wrote: post #141

I've been locked out of my AWS account for almost 3 years now. I have 2FA enabled, tied to a phone number I no longer have access to. I receive two emails per month. One invoice, for $0.80 (I cannot remember what is running on there, but I guess it must be something). One threatening, "Your AWS Account is about to be suspended". I've been "about to be suspended" for the entire 3 years. I want to pay the bill, I can't…

at what point does the debt get sold to a debt collector thus causing you more trouble and pain than paying for a notary would cost? Also if you're in the US and maintain a bank account, many banks offer free notary services.

Re: Still locked out of my AWS account

#147

Post by bitJericho »

yellow_postit wrote: post #146
stickydink wrote: post #141

I've been locked out of my AWS account for almost 3 years now. I have 2FA enabled, tied to a phone number I no longer have access to. I receive two emails per month. One invoice, for $0.80 (I cannot remember what is running on there, but I guess it must be something). One threatening, "Your AWS Account is about to be suspended". I've been "about to be suspended" for the entire 3 years. I want to pay the bill, I can't…

at what point does the debt get sold to a debt collector thus causing you more trouble and pain than paying for a notary would cost? Also if you're in the US and maintain a bank account, many banks offer free notary services.

I love your willingness to be blackmailed.

Re: Still locked out of my AWS account

#148

Post by ccleve »

stickydink wrote: post #141

I've been locked out of my AWS account for almost 3 years now. I have 2FA enabled, tied to a phone number I no longer have access to. I receive two emails per month. One invoice, for $0.80 (I cannot remember what is running on there, but I guess it must be something). One threatening, "Your AWS Account is about to be suspended". I've been "about to be suspended" for the entire 3 years. I want to pay the bill, I can't…

You can get something notarized, at least in Illinois, for $1. Just go to a currency exchange. Most banks will do it for free.

Re: Still locked out of my AWS account

#149

Post by andrewvc »

stickydink wrote: post #141

I've been locked out of my AWS account for almost 3 years now. I have 2FA enabled, tied to a phone number I no longer have access to. I receive two emails per month. One invoice, for $0.80 (I cannot remember what is running on there, but I guess it must be something). One threatening, "Your AWS Account is about to be suspended". I've been "about to be suspended" for the entire 3 years. I want to pay the bill, I can't…

The UPS store will notarize stuff for like $10-20 bucks FYI.

Re: Still locked out of my AWS account

#150

Post by mobiledev1 »

stickydink wrote: post #141

I've been locked out of my AWS account for almost 3 years now. I have 2FA enabled, tied to a phone number I no longer have access to. I receive two emails per month. One invoice, for $0.80 (I cannot remember what is running on there, but I guess it must be something). One threatening, "Your AWS Account is about to be suspended". I've been "about to be suspended" for the entire 3 years. I want to pay the bill, I can't…

your bank can usually notarize the document for free.
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