Hi all, I'm sharing my story to get some feedback since I have exhausted all of my other ideas, options, leads everything.
I am at my wits end.
Recently I have had to create a google account for work, one of the things my company does is develop apps for our clients. Usually, we do this using the client's Google Play account. This client, however required us to publish it directly. No problem, I thought, just create a Google Play account like I have so many times before.
How wrong I was...
The problems started immediately, first I tried to create a Google Play Console account. Simple enough process, Google now requires you to add a 2fa phone number to your account. Ok, I thought, I'll use my personal phone. Strangely I got an error, "cannot send SMS to this number, please try another number from another provider". For reference, we live and work in Slovenia.
In the coming days I tried:
- 2 landline numbers
- >8 phone numbers from all major Slovenian telecom providers, including brand new SIMs purchased just for this.
- different browsers
- Different computers
- Phones instead of PCs
- Different IPs (mobile data, home, work)
- Different emails (used google email, and two different domains for work email).
- Existing unrelated google accounts, with unrelated numbers, on unrelated IP addresses, no luck
Nothing worked.
Once, from my home IP i randomly input my personal phone and the 2fa code was sent (had to select Voice Call instead of SMS, but still)! Incredible! I was exstatic.
Finally I could create the account... or so I thought. Google now requires you to publish a phone number to your public google play developer account. Sadly I cannot publish my personal phone, so I provided the official landline of my company.
Then the final twist. Google requires you to verify that public number... Sadly only my personal phone number works.
At this point I am beyond frustrated, I have contacted google support and, while they were responsive they basically told me to try everything I had already tried.
I have no idea what else I can do, so I am hoping this reaches a passionate Googler who could take a look at the 2FA situation in Slovenia. As it is, I cannot even login to another of my accounts because Google is refusing to send codes to my phone number.
If anyone has any experience with situations like this I would love to hear from you.
Google rejects my SMS number and says I cannot use that number to verify the account. Ergo I cannot create a Google account. I have no other number to provide to Google, and if I did I wouldn't even bother. This has gone well beyond ridiculous. At this rate of change, automation and AI are going to ruin people.
It is probably for the best that I can't get Google since they just view us as chunks of meat with serial numbers.
What Google likely wants is for you to sign up using your phone rather than your phone number. If you sign up using the Google software on your phone, then Google can get your IMEI and device serial number data, which is what they seem to really want. The Big Tech panopticon serves as a surrogate for the military and police to track and store data of device serial numbers. They're not going to admit that, of course. They're rather implementing policies that force you into that as your only easy option.
You could try to use an old Android phone with the SIM removed then connected to wifi and sign up for a Google Account on that phone.