do not have access to phone number so cannot log in

[Soldier.2560]

Himy son does not have access to his old phone number any longer so how do we go about removing the sms authentication ?we have heart of thorns dlc on so dont really want to lose this.

support has not been helpful as it is asking for serial key from years ago and the date it was registered.we may have the date registered if email hasnt been deleted but so far support has been poor.

i would have thought an email from 2 of the players who are on his friends list would suffice as mine has sms authentication

we have email for the accountthe password for the accountthe friends on the account who can verifyalso have the account name with the numbers on the endshould be able to find serial key for heart of thorns which is on the account

[lagrangewei.8516]

if it is purchase on credit card, providing the credit card number should do.

[Just a flesh wound.3589]

The HoT serial number should be what they need as it overrides the original serial number. When I had my sms removed that was the serial number I gave (be sure to state that it’s for HoT)

[StinVec.3621]

I may be mistaken, but I believe some form of 2-step authentication is required. It may not be, but I think it was something they started to enforce quite some time ago.

If you do not want to use SMS as your 2-step authentication, WinAuth authenticator can be used.

• https://account.arena.net/
• Login
• Click on the 'Security' tab
• In the right block, note this section:

  You can always edit your verification details. If you get a new phone number or change authenticators, you will need to unlink and relink your account.

• The "unlink and relink your account" is a link that you can click to change authentication method

On the left block is also the "2-Step Verification" that you can also hit "Edit" to switch to the WinAuth Authenticator App for authentication.

I personally use WinAuth for the 2-step authentication as I am on a (mostly) fixed IP/range for my network. If your IP changes outside of the saved/permitted networks range shown in your account settings (like if you alter router settings/reset network/etc), you can remove the old saved IP/network and generate a new WinAuth key for the computer's new IP.

I've not had to mess with WinAuth for I think about 2 years as my IP does not change often, let alone to one outside of my saved IP range, so if your IP rarely or never changes, it is a set-it-and-forget-it kind of thing. (but be sure to save your WinAuth details someplace)

[Just a flesh wound.3589]

@"StinVec.3621" said:I may be mistaken, but I believe some form of 2-step authentication is required. It may not be, but I think it was something they started to enforce quite some time ago.

If you do not want to use SMS as your 2-step authentication, WinAuth authenticator can be used.

• https://account.arena.net/
• Login
• Click on the 'Security' tab
• In the right block, note this section:
  You can always edit your verification details. If you get a new phone number or change authenticators, you will need to unlink and relink your account.

The "unlink and relink your account" is a link that you can click to change authentication method

On the left block is also the "2-Step Verification" that you can also hit "Edit" to switch to the WinAuth Authenticator App for authentication.

I personally use WinAuth for the 2-step authentication as I am on a (mostly) fixed IP/range for my network. If your IP changes outside of the saved/permitted networks range shown in your account settings (like if you alter router settings/reset network/etc), you can remove the old saved IP/network and generate a new WinAuth key for the computer's new IP.

I've not had to mess with WinAuth for I think about 2 years as my IP does not change often, let alone to one outside of my saved IP range, so if your IP rarely or never changes, it is a set-it-and-forget-it kind of thing. (but be sure to save your WinAuth details someplace)

He’s saying that he no longer has that phone number. He can’t log on because he can’t get the authorization. He has to contact support to remove the phone number and they aren’t taking his HoT serial number.

[StinVec.3621]

@Just a flesh wound.3589 said:

@"StinVec.3621" said:I may be mistaken, but I believe some form of 2-step authentication is required. It may not be, but I think it was something they started to enforce quite some time ago.

If you do not want to use SMS as your 2-step authentication, WinAuth authenticator can be used.

• https://account.arena.net/
• Login
• Click on the 'Security' tab
• In the right block, note this section:
  You can always edit your verification details. If you get a new phone number or change authenticators, you will need to unlink and relink your account.

The "unlink and relink your account" is a link that you can click to change authentication method

On the left block is also the "2-Step Verification" that you can also hit "Edit" to switch to the WinAuth Authenticator App for authentication.

I personally use WinAuth for the 2-step authentication as I am on a (mostly) fixed IP/range for my network. If your IP changes outside of the saved/permitted networks range shown in your account settings (like if you alter router settings/reset network/etc), you can remove the old saved IP/network and generate a new WinAuth key for the computer's new IP.

I've not had to mess with WinAuth for I think about 2 years as my IP does not change often, let alone to one outside of my saved IP range, so if your IP rarely or never changes, it is a set-it-and-forget-it kind of thing. (but be sure to save your WinAuth details someplace)

He’s saying that he no longer has that phone number. He can’t log on because he can’t get the authorization. He has to contact support to remove the phone number and they aren’t taking his HoT serial number.

Oh, I was not aware you needed to have access to the old phone number in order to remove it as an authentication method. That's just silly. Why provide a method to unlink your old phone number due to getting a new one, if you need to still have the old number in order to unlink it from your account? If you have a new phone number, obviously you wouldn't have the old one any longer...

Thanks for the clarification and pointing this out to me. I'll be sure to never use SMS in the future due to how they have it absurdly configured that would cause issues in the event I get a new number.

[Just a flesh wound.3589]

@StinVec.3621 said:

@Just a flesh wound.3589 said:

@StinVec.3621 said:I may be mistaken, but I believe some form of 2-step authentication is required. It may not be, but I think it was something they started to enforce quite some time ago.

If you do not want to use SMS as your 2-step authentication, WinAuth authenticator can be used.

• https://account.arena.net/
• Login
• Click on the 'Security' tab
• In the right block, note this section:
  You can always edit your verification details. If you get a new phone number or change authenticators, you will need to unlink and relink your account.

The "unlink and relink your account" is a link that you can click to change authentication method

On the left block is also the "2-Step Verification" that you can also hit "Edit" to switch to the WinAuth Authenticator App for authentication.

I personally use WinAuth for the 2-step authentication as I am on a (mostly) fixed IP/range for my network. If your IP changes outside of the saved/permitted networks range shown in your account settings (like if you alter router settings/reset network/etc), you can remove the old saved IP/network and generate a new WinAuth key for the computer's new IP.

I've not had to mess with WinAuth for I think about 2 years as my IP does not change often, let alone to one outside of my saved IP range, so if your IP rarely or never changes, it is a set-it-and-forget-it kind of thing. (but be sure to save your WinAuth details someplace)

He’s saying that he no longer has that phone number. He can’t log on because he can’t get the authorization. He has to contact support to remove the phone number and they aren’t taking his HoT serial number.

Oh, I was not aware you needed to have access to the old phone to remove it as an authentication method. That's just silly. Why provide a method to unlink your old phone number due to getting a new one, if you need to still have the old number in order to unlink it from your account? If you have a new phone number, obviously you wouldn't have the old one any longer...

Thanks for the clarification and pointing this out to me. I'll be sure to never use SMS in the future due to how they have it absurdly configured that would cause issues in the event I get a new number.

Yeah. You’d think you could put in the old phone number, or something. I had to contact support to get my old phone removed and I was annoyed.

[Dante.1763]

I had this problem awhile ago, contacted support and asked them to remove the phone number, they did so after i answered all the questions they asked about the account first.

[Soldier.2560]

thanks for the replies, they still want the original gw2 serial.i dont know what it is, even if we find one of the gw2 serials we dont know if it will be for that account as there are 4 of us who played the game and we have no idea which serial is tied to which account. all we know is that 3 of them have HOT dlc attached to them and my sons is one of the ones with that dlc

i mean we still play from the same house so if they really wanted to check they could trace the ip address back to the same town which it has always been accessed from.

we havent played in over a year and all fancied starting up again, going to be a shame having all of us dump our accounts because of non human customer support.

[Nash.3974]

@Dante.1763 said:I had this problem awhile ago, contacted support and asked them to remove the phone number, they did so after i answered all the questions they asked about the account first.

I experienced the same. I even was in a hurry because it was the end of the pvp season and I couldn’t play, I would have lost my ranking due to the decay and they removed it in 2 days I didn’t need to show anything at all

[Dante.1763]

@Soldier.2560 said:thanks for the replies, they still want the original gw2 serial.i dont know what it is, even if we find one of the gw2 serials we dont know if it will be for that account as there are 4 of us who played the game and we have no idea which serial is tied to which account. all we know is that 3 of them have HOT dlc attached to them and my sons is one of the ones with that dlc

i mean we still play from the same house so if they really wanted to check they could trace the ip address back to the same town which it has always been accessed from.

we havent played in over a year and all fancied starting up again, going to be a shame having all of us dump our accounts because of non human customer support.

I dont remember them asking about the GW2 serial when i did it so i have no idea about that, sorry :(

[Soldier.2560]

Your Guild Wars 2 Serial CodeReal NameCharacter name(s)Display nameDate of BirthPhone NumberYour street address

If you purchased Guild Wars 2 directly from us, please provide the following:

Order IDLast four digits (only the last four) of the credit/debit card usedBilling Address including Zip/Postal CodePayPal® Invoice ID associated with the purchase

i thought sms authentication was meant to protect your account, right now it feels like its being used to take it away.oh well i must have logged about 400 hours in so had my moneys worth

[RoseofGilead.8907]

You don't have to provide every single detail, but it really helps to provide as much as you can. Would you rather they didn't ask for any of that information, allowing some random person to get access to your account just by asking nicely without providing proof of ownership?

[Inculpatus cedo.9234]

It also states: If you don't know this information, just leave this field blank.I recently had SMS authentication removed on my account about 2 weeks ago; it took less than 48 hours, and I did not provide my Serial Key. But, in the past, I have used my HoT Serial Key, and that has been accepted. I'd be curious to read the CS Team member's response that stated you must provide the original GW2 Serial Key.

[Just a flesh wound.3589]

Sometimes you’ll get a person who is not understanding what you’re saying. If you have a HoT serial number then that should be the one you need as it replaces your original serial number. If you can’t get that point across you might ask to have your ticket escalated to the person above him.

[Lanhelin.3480]

For the future: Do not hand over your phone number to anyone who's not a personal friend or important business contact of yours (if you are in business at your own). Hell, why should I give ANet my phone number at all? Because my account then will be hacked harder? Seriously? There is no need to give such data, so I always skip the "authentication security waddabout" or choose to remind me later. Really, handing it over makes things just more complicated and furthermore no one of us knows exactly where this data goes, besides causing issues in a case like yours.

[Soldier.2560]

@RoseofGilead.8907 said:You don't have to provide every single detail, but it really helps to provide as much as you can. Would you rather they didn't ask for any of that information, allowing some random person to get access to your account just by asking nicely without providing proof of ownership?

Hi

no ofcourse i wouldnt expect them to hand over an account without asking questions but that is the response i got even after providing them with some of the details that they have again asked for.

[Soldier.2560]

ok brilliant, the guy asks for a serial for the game. i explain that we bought 3 copies of heart of thorns dlc and i did not know which serial is tied to which account.so i provided him with 1 of the serials and explain this may not be the one for this account. he replies with this serial is not tied to this account and then goes on to delete the heart of thorns dlc from the account its tied to.

i mean seriously ?you call this customer support to just take away paid for content when people ask for help logging in ?

[Inculpatus cedo.9234]

You will need to update your ticket, and ask for it to be escalated to a Senior Team Member.

Good luck.

[Bladezephyr.5714]

@StinVec.3621 said:

@Just a flesh wound.3589 said:

He’s saying that he no longer has that phone number. He can’t log on because he can’t get the authorization. He has to contact support to remove the phone number and they aren’t taking his HoT serial number.

Oh, I was not aware you needed to have access to the old phone number in order to remove it as an authentication method. That's just silly. Why provide a method to unlink your old phone number due to getting a new one, if you need to still have the old number in order to unlink it from your account? If you have a new phone number, obviously you wouldn't have the old one any longer...

Thanks for the clarification and pointing this out to me. I'll be sure to never use SMS in the future due to how they have it absurdly configured that would cause issues in the event I get a new number.

This is exactly why I keep ignoring ANet's prompt to start using my phone. Phones get lost, phone numbers can change. 2-factor authentication is great for corporate networks (or those of other large entities) which have a helpdesk for you to walk over to when it fails. It should probably be use more by banks (ironically a lot of banks still don't use it--they need better security a lot more than ANet does). But it's mostly just a pointless annoyance for other situations. It's most frustrating of all when the game you're trying to log into has no compelling reason to even need to log in on line (single player games)... At least with MMOs you don't have that irritation.

[Soldier.2560]

well i still dont have this sorted, ive just had support telling me that the heart of thorns dlc is still active on the account and then asking me to provide the serial keys.i provided all 3 serial keys for heart of thorns and so many days later i get a response "Upon checking, I've confirmed that there's no Guild Wars 2: Heart of Thorns serial code registered to your account."

with no mention of where it has gone or why or when it was removed.

[Soldier.2560]

ok next tech support guy was more helpful, he hinted i may have registered it under a different email.yes a big error on my part not helped by earlier support guy but overall i feel i owe a big apology for wrongfully claiming dlc had been removed.

sorry guys