Forum Discussion
Account locked "We cannot send a text message to this number"
- Self Fixed
I tried following your steps but I don't see where's the form you were prompted to fill in, do you have the link for it? I ended up chatting with a Microsoft support agent but after 40 minutes of talking the answer I got was "Wait 24-72 hours till we reach out to you with an update on your case" and that's it, I still have no access to my account.
And I agree with you, this is really frustrating, I'm thinking of migrating to another company if this doesn't get fixed in the next 24 hours.
At the time, I went through the page and went through several links till I was prompted with that questionnaire.
Anyway, now I can tell you it was not the questionnaire, because this morning (8 days later, problem fixed already), I just received the feedback about that form I filled in. They sent couple of conflicting mails, one saying your case number is xxxxx and then another saying "we can't do anything for you, try the questionnaire again"... They did not even notice the whole thing was fixed for my account.
So I can tell you... yep it is based on sheer luck.
They are not even able to explain what exactly is triggering this issue. Is it a timer? is it a counter? Is it a combination? No one really knows. Someone believes it's time, someone says it a number of tried logons in a given time (no metric known), someone is ready to swear on their family "it must be the cookies", someone else says it's the browser, others blamed the IP, people report the need to change the device, others blame the OS, anyone says it's due on whatever they like, "is it raining today? ehhh then you can't fix it", "did you see a black cat? ehhhh can't fix it for a week from now at least, unless you see a badger meanwhile... then..."... basically superstitions and rituals. Nothing works "exactly for everyone". They lost control of the login system. There is no human who can do anything about it nor there is a valid process. Microsoft basically says "try again later, maybe it works, maybe not, we dunno".
As frustrating as it is, that's it really.