Claude Account Suspended Seconds After Purchase?

I literally created a new account, pressed submit on the credit card dialog, the purchase goes through and i get logged out. I try to log in, and it says I'm banned. I check my mail box and I see an email with an invoice and another that I'm in violation of the ToS, submitted within the same minute LOL.

Is this some kind of joke? :O

60 points | by AnthropicWHAT 1 hour ago

19 comments

  • Crystalin 34 minutes ago
    We got the same issue. Some credit cards get automatically banned. We had to create another account (same info) but use a different credit card. (BTW: you will be charged even if they ban you)
    • pixl97 30 minutes ago
      >(BTW: you will be charged even if they ban you)

      Lol, wtf. I'm guessing some jurisdictions would consider that theft.

    • AnthropicWHAT 30 minutes ago
      Did you attempt to appeal? support@anthropic.com is just an AI bot that refuses to connect me through to human support :'(
      • Crystalin 20 minutes ago
        We did try to appeal.

        First reply: > Earlier this week, your account was disabled by an automated system for being in violation of our Terms of Service or Acceptable Use Policy. Upon further investigation, we believe this was an error and your account has been reinstated. We apologize for the inconvenience and thank you for your patience.

        We were still banned after few days so I sent another email to ask to be unmanned.

        Second message:

        > Thanks for getting in touch. Please visit our Safeguards Center for more information about our approach to user safety, warnings, and appeals.

        I tried more and more but only got only replies to visit more and more links. I gave up at some point

      • mingus88 24 minutes ago
        Chargeback. Literally the purpose of it is when you were charged for a service you never received

        Enough chargebacks will threaten their merchant account

        • fweimer 17 minutes ago
          What do people in countries where chargeback is only possible for unauthorized transactions (which wouldn't apply in this case)?
          • gpm 0 minutes ago
            [delayed]
          • cpach 8 minutes ago
            If it was for personal use, surely there would be some kind of consumer organization or ombudsman one could contact for advice?

            For B2B, I guess the local chamber of commerce might be able to advice.

      • dmd 23 minutes ago
        Anthropic does not offer support to anyone but their largest enterprise clients.
        • Steve16384 18 minutes ago
          Why is it that the larger the company, the less likely they'll have proper support?
    • spoiler 31 minutes ago
      The achievements of thousands of of agents vibe coding in parallel. Marvellous, simply marvellous. And the news fearmonger how AI will replace jobs. Lol
  • AnthropicWHAT 5 minutes ago
    https://i.imgur.com/Udlfmh0.png

    ^ the automated system banned me so fast, that the receipt email was delivered after I was banned :')

  • foenix 28 minutes ago
    I'm considering starting my own new thread about this, but I can't even unsubscribe or use my account without doing a Persona ID check -- something I absolutely refuse to do but have no way to opt out of.
  • godzillabrennus 49 minutes ago
    Congratulations, you are part of the world's most advanced paid beta. So advanced that you ended up testing the fraud system unwittingly.
  • DiabloD3 51 minutes ago
    Not surprised.

    Anthropic dogfoods their own product, and, unfortunately, this is what their product produces sometimes.

  • flowghost_24 10 minutes ago
    Something similar happened with me a couple of days ago, but I submitted a request through email, their AI responded back even before the 3 second mark. Mine was an API vs ClaudeCode issue it tangles the account sometimes. Got fixed in a few.
  • seanhandley 21 minutes ago
    There's so much model distillation and token reselling going on, I imagine they've enabled a lot of automated checks to keep bots out. Depending on where you are and who you bank with, you might struggle to get any kind of access.
  • swader999 46 minutes ago
    Kudos for going public with it. Likely the only way to get it resolved.
  • garyfirestorm 42 minutes ago
    Are you located in a country that is sanctioned by the US?
    • AnthropicWHAT 41 minutes ago
      no - i'm in europe :/
      • petcat 39 minutes ago
        Have you created multiple accounts? And possibly one of more or the others were banned before this?
        • AnthropicWHAT 35 minutes ago
          Nope, I have an enterprise account that I use heavily during my day job.

          I registered it for my personal business, using my business credit card and I see the payment has been reserved in my banking app, but it hasn't fully registered yet?

          It was a Mastercard credit card, and I'm wondering if something along the likes of "3D Secure" credit card protection did this..

        • AnthropicWHAT 32 minutes ago
          The only other explanation I have is that I was trying to connect Zed with Claude, so that redirected me to the Claude site, I registered an account and it said it needed a pro license, so I plugged in my CC details and off it went.

          Upon returning the OAuth (or w/e auth it is) back to Zed; it logged me out and told me i was banned.

          • throwaway2027 28 minutes ago
            That's probably why. You're not allowed to use the subscription with any other coding harness other than Claude Code.
  • hootz 23 minutes ago
    Why is Anthropic fumbling so hard their boost they got from OpenAI fumbling hard? These companies suck... I'll stay with the open-weight models.
  • mixtureoftakes 22 minutes ago
    anthropic really needs to just make a great, personalized customer support experience where you get a couple dollars worth of opus credits that has some authority and ability to help with your issue.

    "it couldnt be that simple because xyz" why not? I'm yet to see any big ai company actually try this

  • lukewarm707 39 minutes ago
    i know only this:

    anthropic does not let you use their service if you are physically located in china

    however, anthropic does not actually ban chinese people.

    so, you can still use it provided you make your request from a 'democracee' country

  • subhobroto 14 minutes ago
    It seems Anthropic has taken an aggressive stance on their buffet, flat rate plans being used in any tool not created by them, where they immediately ban such accounts.

    I believe they still allow API usage in this manner though.

    In this case, the OP attempted to use Zed with Anthropic's $20/mo plan and was banned immediately. I imagine if they had went the API usage route, this wouldn't have transpired.

    Surprisingly, I wonder if this will push more people to use Cursor because they allow you to use a variety of models, including SOTA. That, or manage your own API key subscriptions with a middleware like LiteLLM that also monitors usage so that your coding frenzy doesn't turn into a $20k bill. Or maybe OpenRouter where you manually top up the account.

  • HyperL0gi 36 minutes ago
    I’ve heard that using a VPN might cause in a ban. Considering they probably use an LLM to determine if you're a bot or something, you got unlucky with a possibly Haiku 4.5 hallucination ¯\_(ツ)_/¯
  • OutOfHere 18 minutes ago
    Anthropic has always had a wide variety of customer-disdain issues. When will people get it through their heads that Anthropic was meant to be a product for large enterprises, certainly not for individuals.
  • bsenftner 35 minutes ago
    The same thing happened to me. It's a fucking joke. Located in Denver.
  • saghm 24 minutes ago
    Another A/B test that affects 2% of users, maybe?
  • throwaway613746 24 minutes ago
    [dead]
  • taylorhou 47 minutes ago
    [flagged]