Critical ChatGPT Business Issue: Workspace Invitations Are Failing for Most of Our Users

[MarcusJ]

Most likely, both your domain and workspace has crossed a certain threshold and has since been flagged. Simply purchasing additional seats may not resolve the issue unless the restriction is lifted or your domain is removed from the flagged list.

[isobellpdeely7147]

How can I request a refund?

We are experiencing a serious issue, and the problem is not caused by us.

We have contacted your support team via email multiple times, but the issue has been handled extremely slowly. This has significantly affected our company’s operations and caused serious disruption to our work.

I no longer wish to use OpenAI’s services, and I would like to request a full refund. @OpenAI_Support

[sergiovr]

Initial Context

I have a ChatGPT Business account that I subscribed to during a promotion where I am entitled to two seats for the price of one.

Before the issue described below started, my workspace was working normally. I was using the two included seats and I was able to:

• Invite new users to the workspace;

• Have users accept invitations normally;

• Allow users to automatically join the workspace through a verified domain;

• Add users even when doing so temporarily exceeded the number of seats already included in my subscription.

This entire flow was working correctly.

Timeline

1. Workspace was working normally

Initially, I had my usual two ChatGPT Business seats.

At one point, I invited two friends to test the workspace, which temporarily brought the total number of users/seats associated with the account to four.

At that time, invitations and workspace access were still working normally.

2. Account was blocked because of the additional seats

Because those two additional users remained in the workspace longer than the allowed period without the extra seats being regularized, my account was eventually blocked and I was asked to pay for the two additional seats.

The important point here is that the entire workspace was blocked, including the seats that were already contracted and fully paid.

In order to restore access, I paid the amount requested for the two additional seats.

3. Account reactivation

After the payment, my account was reactivated.

However, this is exactly when the invitation issue started.

Before this incident, everything worked normally. After the reactivation, new users could no longer successfully join the workspace.

4. Current issue with new invitations

At the moment, I am still able to create invitations normally.

The flow works as follows:

1. I access the workspace admin settings;

2. I send an invitation to a new user’s email address;

3. The invitation is created successfully;

4. The user appears under the Pending Invitations section;

5. The user receives the invitation email normally;

6. In the email, they click “Join workspace”;

7. The invitation link opens normally;

8. The user logs in using the exact email address that was invited;

9. The login is completed successfully.

This is where the process fails.

Instead of joining my Business workspace, the user is simply redirected to a regular/free ChatGPT account.

The workspace is never associated with the user’s account, the invitation is not properly completed, and the user does not become a member of my workspace.

5. The same issue occurs with the verified domain

I also tried using the automatic join/provisioning through a verified domain.

Before the billing/blocking incident, this feature worked normally: a user would sign in using an email address from the verified domain and would automatically be associated with the workspace.

After the account was reactivated, this flow also stopped working.

So currently, both of the following are failing:

• Manual invitations;

• Automatic joining through the verified domain.

6. Current seat situation

While trying to troubleshoot the issue, I removed some of the users who had previously been part of the workspace.

At the moment, there are only two accounts inside the workspace:

1. My original account, which is the administrator account;

2. A second account that had already been added before the issue started.

In addition, I currently have two extra seats that have already been paid for and are available.

For that reason, the issue does not appear to be caused simply by a lack of available seats.

Also, before this incident, the system itself allowed me to send invitations even when the number of users temporarily exceeded the number of seats available.

7. Troubleshooting performed with DevTools

I also tried to investigate the problem technically using the browser’s DevTools.

Before opening the invitation link, I did the following:

1. Opened DevTools;

2. Went to the Network tab;

3. Enabled request recording;

4. Only then opened the invitation link;

5. Completed the full login process;

6. Monitored all requests generated during the process.

The strangest part is that there is no explicit HTTP error or clearly rejected request.

For example, I did not find any request obviously returning a 403, 401, 500, or any similar error that would directly explain the failure.

However, I did notice some responses and data that appear to be inconsistent or conflicting, which makes me suspect there may be a state or association issue on the workspace backend.

In other words, the frontend appears to complete the login normally, but at some point the backend does not actually complete the association between the invited user and the workspace.

Summary of the Issue

The key point is:

Before the account was blocked because of the additional seats, both invitations and automatic joining through the verified domain were working normally.

After the following sequence:

account blocked → requested payment completed → account reactivated

the system stopped allowing new users to join the workspace.

Invitations are still being sent and received normally, but the user goes through the following flow:

receives invitation → opens the link → logs in → is redirected to a free account → never joins the workspace.

The exact same issue also occurs when using the verified domain.

Because of this, I suspect that after the account reactivation there may be some inconsistency in the internal state of my workspace, subscription, or in the association between workspace, billing, seats, and memberships.

At this point, the issue is preventing me from using seats that have already been paid for and is directly impacting my work.

[tarik.vodila]

I also bought a business subscription through promotion (one free seat). Perhaps this plays a part, and that’s why there’s a restriction on the account/workspace.

[tarik.vodila]

And yes, they’ve changed the site’s code; they’re now making it much clearer to us that something is preventing the invitation from being accepted. “Invite can not be accepted.”

[songoku200794]

I’m feeling that I got scammed badly:

• It’s saying 8 members in the list
• But 9 seats got used (???)
• With 10 purchased seats, which isn’t letting anyone else joining
• Got charged $120 extra this month (???)
• Not getting the free reset yesterday

For the same price, we could just purchase and share a same 20x profile, and even got the free reset. I’m disputing the charges from the bank and waiting for the result.

[tarik.vodila]

The seats show up fine for me, but unfortunately, no one can join.