Anyone having issues with Amazon 2-factor authentication?

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lurker

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#198453 9-Jul-2016 16:05

I'm not receiving 2 factor SMS codes from Amazon for some reason.

Anyone else having similar issues?

Both the mobiles I've registered aren't receiving them (both on Vodafone).

Both receiving other texts just fine.

Twitter still sends me the 2-factor SMS code just fine.

Have been using 2-factor on Amazon for months without any issues.

Have contacted the help desk who have updated my details with no effect and now escalated to another team.

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#1588915 9-Jul-2016 16:57

Use an app such as Authy or Google Authenticator.

SMS in New Zealand is too unreliable due to the blocks the telcos put in place.

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#1588916 9-Jul-2016 17:05

What blocks are put in place by the telcos?

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#1588917 9-Jul-2016 17:14

I've totally lost my Amazon account due to their 2FA and lack of support.

I was using a 2FA app, but lost it during a phone reset. 2FA SMS doesn't arrive. Support is hard to contact and totally unhelpful.

ETA: I'm using Skinny and a ported number. SMS's used to arrive fine.

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#1588918 9-Jul-2016 17:14

They block some providers under the guise of preventing spam.

My theory is they do it to up sell their own partners.

For example on Vodafone sometimes you get Twitter SMS, sometimes not.

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#1588920 9-Jul-2016 17:15

Use Authy if you want to not lose authenticator codes. It syncs between phones and desktop.

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#1588929 9-Jul-2016 17:53

freitasm: Use an app such as Authy or Google Authenticator.

SMS in New Zealand is too unreliable due to the blocks the telcos put in place.

I use the Google Authenticator already for some other stuff, didn't know it was an option here.

Had set up the Amazon 2-factor a while ago and since it always worked I just left it as-is.

Unfortunately I think I'm kind of stuck now until I get either the SMS or maybe Amazon will be able to disable it for me, not sure if they would

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#1588934 9-Jul-2016 18:12

Authy works fine for me. If you contact customer service they should be able to resolve any issues. If anyone need a local Amazon contact I know some of the local AWS staff, they can probably resolve.

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#1590325 12-Jul-2016 14:34

freitasm: Use Authy if you want to not lose authenticator codes. It syncs between phones and desktop.

Definitely!

Just last week my Vodafone Prime phone developed a problem (when someone rang me I couldn't hear them). I took the phone into a Vodafone store and they agreed that it was a hardware problem and that they'd get it fixed under the warranty (2 year warranty). A few days later I got a call saying that the phone was fixed, and when I went in to pick it up they gave me a completely new phone (probably cheaper than trying to repair the old one). I was happy until I tried to get Google Authenticator up and running on my new phone.

Google used to have a "Move to a new device" option for Authenticator, I remember using it when I last switched phones. Unfortunately they seem to have removed this open (but didn't bother updating their online help). Some searching revealed lots of people that were very angry about this.

I have to AWS accounts, both protected by 2FA. I tried logging into on and when asked for the 2FA code I clicked the "Problem with 2 factor authentication" link and filled out a form saying that I had lost my 2FA device and giving them my phone number. A few minutes later I received a phone call from Amazon offering to help me.

Unfortuantely it turned out that they couldn't help me because they had tried ringing the phone number they had on file for me and I had answered (it was an old number and I hadn't thought to update it). Since they weren't calling me on the number they had on file for me, they wouldn't turn off the 2FA. Fortunately I was able to visit the location where that number is still in use and I went through the whole process again, and this time Amazon did turn off 2FA for me.

Since then I've switched from using Google Authenticator to Authy, so hopefully I won't beed to worry about this sort of thing in the future.

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#1592249 13-Jul-2016 21:05

This is why I love Geekzone! A person has a difficult technical question & almost instantly gets it solved by NZ based experts who really know what they are talking about.

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#1594825 19-Jul-2016 07:44

Just to close off, yesterday Amazon finally removed the 2FA from my account after being asked for scanned proof of ID.

Took far too long and several support calls but happy to get there in the end.

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#1594827 19-Jul-2016 07:50

I guess it's important not to lose your keys, and maintain your contact details. Having Authy on multiple devices is important as well, and using the Authy built in backup / sync feature.

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#1594925 19-Jul-2016 11:04

I think my most important lesson - never use SMS.

Secondly, when dealing with Amazon just get straight to the point.

Only when I simply instructed them to disable my 2FA did I get anywhere.

At first I added explanations that due to the missing SMS I couldn't do it myself.

I was repeatedly talked through the process again and again, followed by promises to sort it out in 48 hours.

Just couldn't get it through to them that you cannot disable 2FA once it's activated without having access to the 2FA codes.

Now set up with Authy and spreading the word. Hopefully nobody else stuck in the SMS trap.

freitasm

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#1594943 19-Jul-2016 11:17

As I mentioned stay away from SMS authentication if possible. New Zealand telcos block some inbound routes and most of the times I can't receive SMS from Twitter (the service still using this authentication method) and have to use the recovery key.

Twitter, Facebook, LinkedIn use more than one provider and some of these are blocked in New Zealand.

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