Billing and support issues after change from post-paid to pre-paid

API
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Hi there,

I saw already many other threads with billing issues but was hoping that any team member or support member of OpenAI will read this.

I was using OpenAI in Tier4 on a regular basis as post-paid user for many months. I got a notification that there will be a date where they switch from post-paid to pre-paid, which was fine for me at this moment.

At the date of the switch, I had a usage of around 200 USD. The only problem was that the next day the API stopped working and said that the balance is not sufficient. Initially that made sense to me as it said in the playground / API that I had to top up money now in order to continue to use the API as my billing was now pre-paid.

As I was not 100% sure about all, I’ve contacted supported in that matter before proceeding to pay. The answer was a bit fluffy but sounded like that it will be necessary to pay now as it switched to pre-paid (End of March) and there will be no post-paid invoice anymore.

As I was still not fully trusting the process, I paid the outstanding balance + a small additional amount of 25 USD for further usage for some days. To my fullest surprise, the balance switched not from - 200 USD to 25 USD but to 225 USD in my balance.

At that moment I realized that I was trapped in a process hole which was not covered by internal processes. I could not continue to use the API without pre-paying the balance after the switch from post-paid to pre-paid. But also the post-paid still was running for the last invoice which I was not informed of.

I removed instantly my credit card as I realized I was trapped into this. Of course, after the next invoice came (post-paid after switch to pre-paid) the API was blocked because the invoice was not settled.

Immediately I contacted the support person which I’ve talked to already after the API was blocked on the day from post-paid to pre-paid. To my fullest surprise, the answer was that I should pay again the invoice. I said that I did not need at any time additional 225 USD on my balance and I just followed instructions to unblock my API after the switch from post-paid to pre-paid (which was enforced by OpenAI and not by myself).

There were many discussions going back and forth with the result that the balance could not be used to pay the invoice. I made very clear that I did not upload the balance to use the balance, but in order to unblock the API after their switch of the billing method.

Some weeks ago, I kindly asked to escalate this to the senior management / legal team, as I’m trapped in an internal processing error of OpenAI. I have enough balance to pay the bill - which was raised after the switch to pre-paid. Since this occurred (7 weeks ago) I also cannot use the API anymore.

I’m just surprised at this moment how I can land in just a loophole of changing billing methods initiated by OpenAI. And the bigger surprise is that there is no reliable support at all, which acts in a timely manner or on a level which could be expected from a company of this magnitude. If someone knows how I can get hold of proper support, please let me know.

Thanks

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Short update on this case - I have send 3 more messages (each weekly) via Chat. No response at all.

So we are waiting now already 12 weeks for a solution and that our API can be used again.

Had anyone else contact via chat because of billing issues? What was your time waiting for resolving the case?

I’m not sure what we should do now, especially also that our credits (which were meant to pay the bill of the last post-paid amount) will expire at a certain time.

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Customer support is horrible

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After almost 3 months without any solution from support and no further redirection to solution teams we have now send a formal letter to the legal department of OpenAI and opened the case there. Will keep you posted how this will proceed.

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Hey @tom135 Gokul here from OpenAI jumping in. We’re really sorry about the billing issues you’re seeing and for the long delay in getting back to you. We’re looking into this now and I’ll keep you posted as soon as there’s an update.

4 Likes
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Hey @gokulraya, thanks for your message. Yes, we’ve been into this rabbit hole since late March and just wanted to clear the situation since then.

Short recap what happened is:

22.03. Notification that post-paid changes to pre-paid on 25.03.
28.03. The account gets blocked, and we are asked to pay the outstanding amount first to continue to use the account. Apparently that made sense after the announced change
28.03. We paid the required funds to continue to use the account and pay the outstanding bill (like last payment before real pre-paid starts)
28.03. Our payment was just used for adding credits but not to pay the outstanding amount, account was unblocked
01.04. For the outstanding amount, an invoice was generated (which we intended to pay with our payment from 28.03). So basically until that, everything was processed since 25.03. like it was pre-paid but the invoice from 01.04 (post-paid) came after the change to pre-paid.
10.04. Permanent block of API due to open bill

We tried to clear this failure in the OpenAI billing process, but never succeeded.

Since our payment which was falsely taken as credits will expire as credits in March 2025 we have also contacted European Consumer Centres Network - ECC Net which will discuss this case with your Dublin Office soon.

So any clearing of this situation within the next days is highly appreciated as it will save a lot of time on your side and our side. The funds are there to pay the outstanding invoice. In July 2024 25 USD already expired (not at fault as we timely communicated all the time), so any missing amount for clearing should be accommodated.

1 Like
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Thanks @tom135 I’ve DM’d you the next steps. It should hopefully unblock you, let me know if you have any questions!

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I believe that OpenAI should seriously move away from AI for their billing support. Humans are the way to go.

Why should anyone get legal involved for a simple billing issue?