This is likely not a bug, but the tags didn’t have anything related to ‘accounts and billing’.
Anyways, I lost access to a work account that has a subscription associated to it. I need to cancel it, but the support pages are circular… they say I need to raise a privacy request, but when you select privacy request, the options available are only for the account you can verify. I don’t want to cancel my personal account that is live… I want to cancel the other account…
All support articles point in this exact same direction, and it’s so annoying that there’s nothing I can access nor can you reach any support teams…
Again, it just forces you into predefined selections that only pertain to the account that you can verify (logged into). There is seemingly nowhere to simply email a request to…
It looks like you’re in a tough spot with that subscription tied to your old work email. I’m not affiliated with OpenAI, but I can offer some advice based on your situation and the information you’ve provided.
The support documentation you linked to is, unfortunately, the official stance. They’re very strict about account access and verification for security reasons, and that circular help system you’re experiencing is a common (and frustrating) outcome of that.
Since you can’t access the email associated with the account, proving ownership through their standard methods is impossible. They won’t be able to cancel it from your personal account, because they can’t verify that you are the owner of the other account. Think of it this way, if they did that, anyone could cancel anyone else’s account.
The core problem is this: Without access to the registered email, you can’t prove you own the account, and they won’t (and shouldn’t) bypass their security protocols.
Your best, and likely only, course of action is to force a payment failure. Contact the bank or credit card company that issued the card used for the subscription. Explain the situation and request that they either:
Cancel the card entirely: This is the most surefire method.
Block all future charges from [Service Provider Name - e.g., OpenAI]: This is preferable if you still use the card for other things. Be as specific as possible with the merchant name they use for billing.
When the next billing cycle comes around, the payment will fail, and the service provider will automatically cancel the subscription due to non-payment. This is usually a standard procedure for most subscription services.
I understand this isn’t a direct account closure, but it will stop the recurring charges, which is your primary concern. It’s the only practical workaround when you’ve lost access to the account’s authentication method.