When I upgraded to the latest version of ChatGPT, I had to log in again and then was required to verify my phone number. This was originally content needed only when using codex, but now does ChatGPT also need it now?! You should just issue an announcement: as long as you don’t use your phone, your ChatGPT account is very likely to be lost. I’ve paid for it, yet I still have to face this kind of discrimination?
That does sound unusual, @breestealth, especially if the phone verification appeared unexpectedly after an update.
Are you being asked to verify your number every time you sign in, or did it only happen once after upgrading? That detail may help narrow down whether this was a one-time security check or an ongoing account issue.
If anyone else is seeing the same behavior, please share what device, app version, and login method you’re using.
-Mark G.
This has already happened to my codex before, and it happens every single time! So I couldn’t use the codex before. Now that the two software have been merged, I thought they would abandon the f***ing phone number verification or let me set a new phone number, but no! Nothing at all!! I can’t even log in to the latest version of ChatGPT!! I originally thought I could give up using Codex and just use ChatGPT. Now? I can’t even use ChatGPT anymore! What kind of mess is this!
I have already initiated support multiple times, with the number being 10044877. However, your incredibly intelligent AI customer support can’t do anything at all. After several days of investigation, your smart technical support staff told me that I need to register a new account, and we are unable to do anything about the current situation!!
This is absurd! I’m paying, I’m using it, I’ve set up higher security settings, and then because I haven’t continued to use my phone number, you tell me “You need to register a new account, we can’t change the phone number!” I can hardly imagine such an absurd setting in any modern software. Imagine if the bank suspended my account because I gave up my phone number, if IG suspended my service because I gave up my phone number, if Claude suspended my service because I gave up my phone number. The most absurd thing is that you don’t even provide any service to change the phone number. Are you in some strange agreement with the carrier, making you particularly fond of and loyal to phone numbers?
Registering a new account is no problem, it’s just a minor inconvenience. But it directly leads to the loss of all the memories and conversation history I’ve accumulated over the years, and I can’t import them into the new account without loss. This loss is immeasurable to me.
If you’re worried about robots behind the accounts, then please implement KYC for everyone; if you think free users are harming your interests, then you can simply cut off free users, rather than imposing these strange settings on us paying users.
I’m not sure what your market strategy is, and I don’t know why you would use such a strange account management strategy, but it feels very bad for us who have been using ChatGPT from the beginning. We started using it when GPT 3.5 was mandatory for phone number verification. We cooperated, provided our phone numbers, and everything was fine over the years. Then suddenly, you started to require re-verification of the phone number, and you haven’t provided any method to change the phone number. What benefits does this strategy bring, other than harming old users? I don’t know.
Ask yourself, over the years, have you ever dared to guarantee that you have never changed your phone number?