Ask HN: How can I get an OpenAI account bug in front of an engineer?

I'm trying to reach someone at OpenAI regarding what appears to be a bug in their phone verification flow.

The issue is not related to my normal account login or 2FA. I can successfully log in to ChatGPT, and my authenticator-based 2FA works as expected.

The problem occurs during OpenAI's phone verification flow (which is seemingly now required to use codex) at https://auth.openai.com/phone-verification

For phone verification, I'm required to receive a verification code via WhatsApp.

However I don't receive any verification codes in WhatsApp.

Furthermore, I've never setup WhatsApp as an authentication method, and I'm not located in a country that OpenAI lists as supporting WhatsApp verification. My phone number is also not associated with a country that OpenAI lists as supporting WhatsApp verification. For what it's worth no SMS or call options are given as a fallback either.

So as a result, I can't verify my phone number and cannot access Codex, despite being able to authenticate successfully with my ChatGPT account. I've been using Codex for ~12 months, so this is not a new account. I was also on the Plus $200 plan.

I have contacted OpenAI Support and provided details of the issue. The support agent issued me a refund and cancelled my subscription, but I still can't access codex anymore.

I don't want to create a second account at the risk of tripping any fraud things, and I have ongoing work threads that I don't want to lose context etc on too.

I have a full screen recording I can share, timestamps, reproduction steps and even a HAR file if needed.

Posting here in case someone from OpenAI sees this, or if anyone knows how to get a genuine bug in front of the engineering team.

I have a contact email in my profile.

Thanks in advance :)

1 points | by _kyran 2 hours ago

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