I created an account on Opeinia and paid a $50 credit balance. When I tried to authenticate, there was a communication problem. They told me I should contact support to clear the process and restart it, but there’s no support available, and I can’t generate a ticket. So, am I supposed to open another account, pay again, and have the previous money stolen just like that?
It sounds like you are referring to *organization verification", found in your platform.openai.com profile (the “gear” icon at upper-right). Also “Organization → General”.
This screenshot is the goal if you want access to latest models that are gated behind this ID-collection method (an updated UI that now actually works to show the status, where the current status had been missing there for weeks):
Unfortunately, this procedure has been continually problematic besides being conceptually problematic.
If you are stuck in a place where you cannot restart the verification, a reload of the platform site and navigating to that page gives you a “failure” and not a “pending” or “under review”, you will need to contact account support. Their phone number is help.openai.com. Ensure you log in there also, and then use the help assistant at lower-right to send a message with clear information about the actual API site dialogs, messages, current status, and what you’ve tried to resolve it yourself, thus needing staff support.
The credit is not necessarily stolen; you just might have a limited selection of models to choose from on the API until this is completed. See “limits” in the platform site.