OpenAI deactivated my account after I added $5,780 in credits

API Bugs
1

Not long after I added $5,780.00 in credits, OpenAI deleted/deactivated my account, and a series of red error messages appeared. The bot always give me following messages:

Dear User, Sorry for the trouble signing up! If you previously [deleted your account](https://help.openai.com/articles/6378407-how-can-i-delete-my-account), we unfortunately don't support creating a new account under the same email, or reactivating the old account since deletion is permanent. While we don't allow reusing email addresses for new accounts (even if you deleted the old account), you can still sign up for a new account by using a different email address. If you don't have an alternative email address, try using what's known as an email subaddress. Instead of: [jane@example.com](mailto:jane@example.com) try [jane+alt@example.com](mailto:jane+alt@example.com). Emails to this address should still go to the same inbox (everything after the + is typically ignored by your email provider), but we'll treat this email as a new account. Please keep in mind that we require a phone number to verify new accounts, and we only support [three accounts per phone number](https://help.openai.com/articles/6613520-phone-verification#h_8e4dcd5dc9). Since we use phone numbers for account verification reasons, we don't support changing numbers between accounts. If you're trying to make other changes to your account, we recommend taking a look at our [reset password process](https://help.openai.com/en/articles/4936828-how-do-i-change-my-account-password), [common billing questions](https://help.openai.com/en/collections/3943089-billing), and [other account FAQs](https://help.openai.com/en/collections/3675947-account-management). Regards,
OpenAI Support Team

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2

I would send a very clear follow-up message to OpenAI about the exact issue of improper account deactivation.

The official way to communicate is through the “help” system in a platform account. Alternately, you can use the help bot icon on help.openai.com. You will hopefully have obtained and recorded the organization ID somewhere so you can better communicate with them about the “container” for all billings and credits, rather than simply giving an email address. Talk of an email account may have provoked such a stupid bot response from the support team.

I could imagine that if you do not have a pattern of slowly-growing usage and payments, this large payment could be flagged as possible fraud risk. However, any fraud detection should at the minimum produce a reversal of charges.

It has been noted that some banking and payments through the Stripe backend stop working at $1000. This previously resulted in people not able to pay their large monthly bills. Or some banking may simply deny with their own fraud detection, and you have to call or get an automated call.

You are in a supported country with supported banking payment method you have used before? You have communicated the issue clearly again about your account that should be of high value to OpenAI? Clarified there is no actual “attempt to use the same email to sign up again”, but rather you are trying to recover your organization account to full operation? Then we can escalate this to a chain of other OpenAI staff to get things handled if there is no relief.