Rant

Today I wanted to create a bot in WeChat Work to handle some stuff, but when I logged in I was asked for verification.

However, I’d changed my phone number and forgot to update it in WeChat Work, so the SMS code went to the old number. The other option: scan the QR code with a phone already logged into WeChat Work. My heart sank—only two methods, both useless. Game over?

Next, the official suggestion: ask the company admin to contact WeChat Work online support. Irony: I am the admin, so that’s a dead end too.

With no choice left, I hunted for weird hacks to bypass the login. Spent the whole afternoon; nothing worked for me. Finally spotted a button on the WeChat Work site: contact support via the WeChat official account. Clinging to the last straw, I scanned the QR, followed the account, and described my plight. Predictably, only bot replies—first pretending I’d reached a human, then a wall of useless canned text.

Still, there was a Help Center. I scrolled to the bottom and found an appeal ticket; clicked it:

By now I’d lost all will to keep fighting. I can’t fathom why a giant company offers zero human support… or why an app can add “security” restrictions and then hide every human helper, creating a perfect dead-end.

Is it just because they’re a monopoly?

Update 2022-06-04: a workaround I found

I discovered a back-door way to change the bound phone number. First open the WeChat Mail login page, scan to log in, and pick the account whose number needs updating—choose the first one.

Inside, top-left: Settings → Account → Mobile Number → Change. Click, scan with WeChat, and update the number. Done.