Not Anthropic. One customer's complaint, with a parody attached. Real support: support.claude.com
Anthropic Support

The true story

The front page is a joke. This page isn't. Times are mine (IST), quotes are exact, and I've removed the agent's name and my IDs.

  1. I pay for Claude Max. Anthropic's agent later confirms the payment has been processed successfully.
  2. Claude shows Identity verification required. My national ID, the one my bank accepts, fails at the photo step several times. Then the Verify button greys out and does nothing.
  3. Three support chats. In each the bot says I will pass your conversation on to a human agent. Each is closed minutes later with a pointer to the Help Center for my phone verification issue. I never had a phone verification issue.
  4. The identity verification help form, which the bot calls the designated channel. No ticket number, no confirmation email. Its last screen thanks me for completing this typeform and adds Now create your own — it's free, easy & beautiful.
  5. Fourth chat. They work through these in order, so it won't be today, but your request is successfully in our queue and you don't need to follow up or resend.
  6. Anthropic launches Personal Finance in Claude.
  7. First human reply. It asks for screenshots of the error. I send them 14 minutes later.
  8. Second human reply, 22 hours after my screenshots. It opens Thanks for getting back to me. Thanks for reaching out! Step 1 is to submit the help form. Possible causes include wearing glasses in the selfie.
  9. I stay up in case someone answers. Nobody does.
  10. A new chat tells me I can see your organization is currently on the free plan, apologises, suggests clearing my cache, promises a human, then says I already have a conversation open.
  11. Third human reply. I'm looking into this now and working through it with my team.
  12. Anthropic launches Claude Fable 5.2 and Claude Mythos 5.2.
  13. Still locked out. 24 messages from me since the handoff, 3 replies, no fix. The support widget says Status: All Systems Operational.

Screenshots

Support bot message: I have handed your question to our human support team so a person can help you with your question. They work through these in order, so it won't be today, but your request is successfully in our queue and you don't need to follow up or resend.
5 Nov. The bot, after handing me to the human queue.
A form page with Anthropic's name at the top. It reads: Thanks for completing this typeform. Now create your own, it's free, easy and beautiful.
5 Nov. The last screen of the identity verification help form. No ticket number.
Chat. Bot: I will pass your conversation on to a human agent. I hope your situation gets resolved quickly. Me, three times: do not close this chat please. Bot: Thanks for reaching out. We took a closer look, and you can find more information about your phone verification issue by searching in our Help Center. Then: Your conversation has ended.
5 Nov. I ask it not to close the chat. It closes the chat.
Agent message: Thanks for getting back to me. Thanks for reaching out! I'm sorry you're running into trouble with verification. Here's how to get this moving: Step 1: Submit a help form request.
7 Nov. The second human reply, 22 hours after I sent what the first one asked for.
Support widget: Need support? How can we help? Recent message: Account Access Issue. Status: All Systems Operational.
10 Nov. The support widget, with my ticket on day five.

To be fair

I pay for Claude because it's good. Claude built this site in an afternoon. That is why being locked out of it, with nobody to ask, is so maddening.

Any one of these would have ended this on day one:

  • a ticket number when you submit the verification form
  • somewhere to see where your request stands
  • a person who can look at a paid account within a day

The hour my account works again, this site will say so.