SMS verification making it impossible for me to play

i have 3000 hours in overwatch and went to use the sms verification and it says i cant use a pre paid service even though i dont have a pre paid service, spent an hour trying to login does blizzard expect people to switch their service providers to play overwatch 2?

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If you don’t mind me asking, what provider do you currently use? I’m with Boost Mobile which I’m pretty sure is prepaid, and I’m afraid that I’ll just be in the same boat as you.

The issue I’m facing right now is that I have a really old phone number linked to my account and it is impossible for me to update the phone number without having a code sent to that number for verification… I’ve been waiting for 5 days for a response or help from the support team. Seems like everyone’s just jumping ship though…

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I have Cricket and am in the exact same boat, i’ve never been more livid with a game company in my life as I am right now. It seems they only want contract phone providers so no text apps (which I get), pre-paid and even land lines. I guess they really wanna kill they’re fanbase but I suspect this is mpre of an activison decision rather than a blizzard one. That said we’ll be kept oit of OW2, MW2 and Warzone 2…maybe even Diablo 4 when that drops :man_shrugging:

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I’ve had an open ticket about this issue for 3 weeks with 5 different GM responses that say they are using a third party service for SMS verification, are generally clueless about how any of it works, but one admitted there is a way to bypass it manually through live support. But live support has been down for weeks and I can’t find a way to initiate it. It’s the typical Blizzard cycle of bs. I’ve lost about 1,000 hours worth of Overwatch along with you. And the cost of the Legendary Edition and loot boxes…they just screwed us out of a lot of time, money, and effort with a half-baked, third party system.

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I’m from Korea, a place Blizzard treat like an alien planet.
I lived in NA and Brazil too.
In Brazil the vast majority uses prepaid phones. So, Blizzard is willing to lose a big chunk of their player base for this poorly implemented system?

I’m not against the binding our phones to the accounts, I have a postpaid phone, but the system doesn’t allow me to change the region.

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Same here. I’ve spent over $100 on Overwatch previously and I have Cricket phones. I’m not even on a pre-paid plan. They’re literally cutting (possibly, quite literally tens of thousands) of people with valid phone numbers from playing. I can’t just ā€œchange my phone provider.ā€

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Same. My family is on Cricket. We have four Overwatch players and we are all locked out now. We’re not just able to stroll over to another provider and switch off a plan we’ve used for years. (edit: spelling)

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I also use Cricket, unfortunately i have bought the Watchpoint pack and i cant even play the game i bought. They want you to get a new number for a game thats supposed to be free. I am ineligible to get a refund becuase i played the beta, yet i am supposed to get a new number to play a game i payed for. Blizzard needs to either get their game system together or refund every single person who bought the watchpoint and is unable to play.

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In the same boat, absolutely wild that this company blocks anyone who uses certain phone providers, even if its not prepaid. I have a regular phone plan, why are you blocking me from playing the game that I bought?

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my phone is on a plan my region is right and my number still wont work

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If you just issue a chargeback via your card issuer you’ll likely get a refund. Burden of proof is on the product provider, I’m not sure ā€˜beta access’ would suffice, even if they had a way of proving to the regulatory bodies that you played it.

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Same boat, I have been a Cricket Wireless customer for 4 years now unable to play a game I love. More then that I’ve supported Blizzard since the 90’s with a single Battlenet account as old as the Battlenet servers themselves, and they want to tell me that I am not eligible to play a Free To Play Overwatch 2 game.

The safest and most secure way to send Important account information updates is through Email, this has always been since the most secure way to inform people of important changes or relaying information to people. I don’t need a phone to receive these updates, but I would be willing to install an app on any of my devices so that I can receive the SMS updates you want to send me. That is an extremely easy and most logical approach to your problem.

To the people that spend money on the Game Packs and are not able to access the game because of the situation similar to myself, I really feel your frustration hang in their everyone.

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Same here. My account is a US account, but I’m in Korea with the US military. I do not have a US phone number. I’ve been overseas for 10 years. I’m just so absolutely tired, fed up, and exhausted with this company. I bought Overwatch and I preordered Overwatch 2. Why did you take my money if you’re not going to let me use the product I purchased? How is this even legal?

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This is Probably the most disappointing game launch I’ve ever been part of. Completely ridiculous that they don’t allow cricket phone #'s even though it isn’t pre paid. Blizzard is cut for good this time, untill they allow my phone number they will never get another dollar from me. Make noise about this people, otherwise they won’t listen. Terrible business practice and extremely scummy. Can’t believe I have 30 days of playtime on OW1 and I’m just locked out of OW2. Do they really expect me to change phone carriers for a video game? The worst thing is that I thought this was gonna be good to combat smurfs and such, and the only phones you wouldn’t be able to use would be legitimate burner phones. This is a complete oversight by blizzard considering 1/3 people in the u.s. use pre paid plans and 17+ million people are on cricket alone. Fix this Blizzard.

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Im on the same boat, my phone # is with cricket and i can’t play ow2 . And it’s just been a disappointment.

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Honestly it makes no sense whatsoever, I was also thinking … Do you know that even Verizon customers can literally just change their phone numbers whenever they want on the website… so technically they can literally get a brand new number in the matter of minutes. So potentially all these smurfs still have access to just change their numbers.

Meanwhile there’s actually long-term legit customers on pre-paid phones and family plans like Cricket Wireless who have had blizzard accounts for decades who cannot even gain access to play OW2.

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As a Cricket customer for four years, my number should be considered equally legit as a ā€œā€""ā€œpost-paidā€"""" phone. I’m not changing phone numbers and carriers just so I can play a game that will become unbalanced in a few months. Blizzard is shooting themselves in the foot.

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