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.
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