$17,493 in Undisclosed Marketplace Charges with No Cost Visibility, No Recourse, No Accountability
I'm a co-founder of a 13-person startup in the Microsoft for Startups Founders Hub program. I'm posting here because after two months of support tickets, calls, and emails across both Microsoft and Anthropic, I have been unable to get anyone with decision-making authority to address this issue. I'm hoping this reaches someone at Microsoft who can help, and that other affected founders in the program will share their experiences. What happened: In February 2026, we deployed Claude Opus 4.6 and Sonnet 4.6 through Azure AI Foundry as part of a migration of our AI infrastructure. We are active users of our Azure sponsorship credits and assumed, as anyone would, that these models were covered the same way Azure OpenAI models are. There was no indication otherwise during deployment. In early March, we received our first invoice: $1,078.07 (invoice G144899694, billing period 02/01–02/28). We were shocked, but we paid it immediately and removed all Anthropic model deployments from our account to prevent further charges. It didn't matter. On April 9, we received a second invoice: $16,414.94 (invoice G151890529, billing period 03/01–03/31). Despite removing the deployments in mid-March, charges had already accumulated for the first half of the month. We are unable to pay this invoice. Our total exposure across both invoices is $17,493.01. Why we had no way to prevent this: No billing distinction at deployment. Azure AI Foundry presents all models (Microsoft-native and third-party) in the same unified interface. There is no warning, label, or confirmation step indicating that certain models are excluded from sponsorship credits. No cost visibility whatsoever. The Azure AI Foundry monitoring dashboard has an "Estimated Cost" section that is completely blank for these models, with a disclaimer: "Cost monitoring is available for Foundry Models sold directly by Azure only." We could see token counts but had zero visibility into what we were being charged. Token counts that don't explain the charges. The dashboards show our Claude Opus 4.6 deployment used 63.4M tokens and our Sonnet 4.6 deployments used roughly 170M tokens combined. At published rates, that should be in the low thousands, not $17,500. My analysis shows the dashboard hides billions of cached tokens (prompt caching reads and writes) that are invisible in the monitoring UI but account for the vast majority of the bill. There is no view in Azure that provides a breakdown of these charges by token type. No alerts or notifications. There were no cost alerts, no threshold warnings, and no notifications at any point. No indication in any Azure portal that charges were hitting our credit card. There was no line item, no pending charge, no Marketplace spend summary - nothing anywhere in the Azure ecosystem that showed dollars accumulating against our payment method for these deployments. What happened when we asked for help: Azure Support (TrackingID#2603090040002936): After a month-long wait, a support engineer told us Microsoft cannot issue credits for Marketplace charges and directed us to Anthropic. The first version of the response email referenced "Azure DDoS Protection Standard" instead of our actual issue, suggesting the volume of similar cases in the queue. Anthropic: Their AI support bot responded within one minute with a blanket statement and closed the ticket four hours later. I escalated, but have still not received a response over a month later. Microsoft for Startups Team (TrackingID#2604070040009778): Told us they cannot apply Marketplace charges against sponsorship credits and referred us to a Marketplace billing contact. Azure Marketplace billing contact: Pending response. The pattern is clear: Microsoft directs us to Anthropic. Anthropic directs us to Microsoft. The Microsoft for Startups team directs us to Azure Marketplace billing. No one takes responsibility. What I'm asking for: A full refund of $17,493.01 across invoices G144899694 and G151890529 That Microsoft implement clear billing warnings in Azure AI Foundry before deploying models that are excluded from sponsorship credits. That Microsoft provide actual cost visibility in the monitoring dashboard for all models deployed through AI Foundry, not just first-party models. To other founders in the program: If you have experienced this same issue, please reply to this thread. I know I'm not alone because this has been covered by The Register, InfoWorld, and Computerworld, and at least 20 founders have signed a Change.org petition about it. The more founders who come forward with specific amounts and case numbers, the harder this is to ignore. We joined Microsoft for Startups because the program was supposed to help early-stage companies manage infrastructure costs during the most financially vulnerable period of our growth. Instead, the program's own platform generated charges within 2 weeks that exceed the total sponsorship credits we've consumed over the past year, with no visibility, no warning, and no path to resolution. With Further Inc. | Microsoft for Startups Founders Hub Azure Support TrackingID #2603090040002936 Startup Support TrackingID #2604070040009778
No Decision After 7 Working Days + Portal Loop Issue – Rain Stella Technology
Hi Microsoft for Startups Community & Team, I am following up on my Microsoft for Startups application submitted on behalf of Rain Stella Technology, and would also like to flag a portal issue I experienced after the application was submitted. --- Application Status --- I received a confirmation email acknowledging receipt of my application, however it has now been 7 working days with no further communication — no approval, no decline, and no request for additional information. According to Microsoft's own guidelines, applications are typically reviewed within 3 business days. We are now more than double that timeframe with no update. Application Details: • Applicant Name: Khalid Adine • Startup Name: Rain Stella Technology • Status: Receipt confirmation received, no decision communicated since • Days Elapsed: 7 working days --- Portal Issue --- During and after submitting my application, I encountered a frustrating portal bug where, instead of displaying a confirmation screen or application status, the portal kept redirecting me back to the "Apply Now" screen — as if my submission had not been recorded. I received the receipt confirmation email, which confirmed the application went through, but the portal still does not reflect any application status. This caused significant confusion, and I wanted to flag it in case it is a widely known issue affecting other applicants. I also attempted to contact support via email (email address removed for privacy reasons), but the address returned a bounce error, leaving the forum and contact form as my only available channels. --- My Requests --- 1. Can someone from the team confirm the current status of our application? 2. Is any additional information or documentation required from our side? 3. Can the portal loop bug be investigated and fixed for other applicants facing the same issue? 4. What is the correct and currently working support email or channel for urgent queries? We are actively building our product and are eager to move forward with the program. Any update would be sincerely appreciated. Thank you for your time and support. Khalid Adine Founder, Rain Stella Technology
Founders Hub billing issue - stuck between Microsoft and ISV with no resolution path
Hi everyone, I'm reaching out to the community because I've hit a wall with standard support channels and hoping someone from the Founders Hub team or other founders who've faced similar issues can help. QUICK SUMMARY I'm a Founders Hub participant who got charged ~€1,000 for using Claude (Anthropic) models through Azure AI Foundry. I assumed these were covered by my $25k Sponsorship credits since: • I used ai.azure.com (not a separate marketplace) • There was no clear warning about separate billing • There's no way to monitor Marketplace spending in Founders Hub THE PROBLEM: I'm stuck in a loop: • Microsoft says "contact the ISV for refund approval" • Anthropic says "billing is handled by Microsoft, not us" • The "Support" link Microsoft points to redirects back to Microsoft Support I've sent detailed emails explaining this circular situation. Support keeps responding with the same copy-paste policy text, ignoring my request for escalation. MY ASK 1. Is there a dedicated support channel for Founders Hub billing issues? 2. Has anyone from the Founders Hub team dealt with similar Marketplace confusion before? 3. Any founders here who successfully resolved unexpected Marketplace charges? I'm not trying to get something for free - I already paid the first invoice (€460). I just want help with the second invoice that surprised me a month later. The Founders Hub program has been great otherwise, but this experience has been really frustrating. Any pointers would be hugely appreciated. Thanks! Bartek
Business Verification failure, no reason?
I've tried repeatedly to verify my business which is failing. My credits are expiring soon so I need urgent help. I have not received a reply from the support ticket in the founder's home. My company is registered in the UK with Company House, it's clearly visible publicly that I am the owner. I've submitted a unified PDF with the Articles of Incorporation, Company Certificate showing it's address and company number, and everything else. These match the exactly details I put in the Founder's Hub. Yet I keep being rejected. I only have 2 appeals left. I do not know what to do when I'm not even told what the rejection reason is? How do I find out why my business verification is being rejected? The box states: "Unfortunately, we are unable to verify the information provided. Please provide documentation (tax invoices, bank statements, business registration certificate, etc.) that displays the registered business name and address to complete the verification process. If the business information was entered incorrectly, you can update the account information and restart the verification process." I have provided exactly this information. What do I do?
OneDrive Issues
The OneDrive on my laptop isn't allowing me to upload any files as it is saying I don't have any storage available, but when I open OneDrive on the browser, it shows more than sufficient storage as I pay the subscription fee. Is there any reason as to why this is happening? I have contacted Microsoft support, which have been no help at all, giving solutions to problems which is not the issue I'm experiencing. The Microsoft support page is no help at all and trying to raise a support ticket is more or less impossible as the website keeps blocking the request. Now bear in mind i have went again and paid the subscription fee now for a second time to see if this fixed the problem, and no luck, took the money and no difference. I have uninstalled OneDrive from my laptop, I have reset the onedrive, i have tried all imaginable tasks, with no help from Microsoft Support. Does anyone have any solutions to this? Also, would anyone know how to get in contact to get the refund for the duplicate subscription fee?
Data Lost on OneDrive and NO RESOLUTION
Not sure how my 7 years of professional data got deleted from OneDrive. Tech support is not available for OneDrive as per Microsoft Support Team and max restore available is 30 days which is not helping. Need a saviour please! Sincere request!! How can a premium service has no support? Regards, Shruti
Issue with Teams Mobile Notification
Anyone else facing this issue with Microsoft Teams notification. I'm getting the notification banner on my notification panel.But there's no sound. All the notification options are turned on for both teams and phone settings.Phone is not on silent mode. Tried clearing cache, restarting, uninstalling and reinstalling. I saw on other forums that many others are also facing the issue, but couldn't find any solution. I'm facing the issue on my work profile. I tried contacting the work tech support, they said its an issue with the app. Call notification is working fine, issue is for chat and activities. Any help regarding this would be so helpful. Thanks in advanceAufnahme in Skype for business nicht gespeichert / can't find my skype for business recording
We recorded a one-hour research talk on Skype for Business yesterday. However, I cannot retrieve the recording and it is not displayed in the storage folder. When I look in the recording manager, I see our meeting under title, status "ausstehend" (= upcoming?!), size and length are 0. I'm sure that I did everything right when I recorded it. And think that Skype for Business will usually be able to provide the file within 20 hours as well. How can I get the recording now??? If this is available for 30 days and stored in some cloud with you, it must somehow still be possible to receive it. It would be really important! So please contact me to find the mp4 file. Gestern mittag haben wir ein einstündiges Forschungsgespräch über Skype for Business aufgezeichnet. Die Aufnahme kann ich allerdings nicht abrufen und sie wird auch nicht im Speicherordner angezeigt. Wenn ich im Aufzeichnungsmanager nachsehe, bekomme ich unter Titel unsere Besprechung angezeigt, unter Status "ausstehend", Größe und Länge liegen bei 0. Ich bin mir sehr sicher, dass ich bei der Aufnahme alles richtig gemacht habe. Und ich befürchte, dass Skype for Business normalerweise auch in der Lage ist, innerhalb von 20 Stunden die Datei zur Verfügung zu stellen. Wie kann ich nun an die Aufnahme kommen??? Wenn diese angeblich 30 Tage verfügbar ist und bei Ihnen in irgendeiner Cloud gespeichert, muss es doch irgendwie noch möglich sein, diese zu erhalten. Es wäre wirklich wichtig! Ich bitte Sie also, sich mit mir in Verbindung zu setzen um die mp4-Datei ausfindig zu machen.