Getty Images | SOPA Images
Starlink’s lack of traditional customer support options is making life difficult today for new users affected by a bug that reset their accounts. A bunch of customers received an email from [email protected] last night that said, “Your Starlink Account Has Been Reset. All pending orders and deposits have been refunded. You are welcome to visit Starlink.com to place a new order at any time using the same email address.”
One Ars reader who got the account-reset email contacted us about the problem, and many others are complaining in Reddit threads. Starlink’s account-recovery page that allows users to request password resets with an email address or phone number hasn’t been working for them.
“When I try to reset my password via the email option, I get the error ‘User not found,'” we were told by Adam, a Starlink customer in Alabama who preferred that we not publish his last name. When Adam tried to reset his password by entering his phone number, he received a text message with a password-reset link. But that didn’t work, either. “After I type in a new password, I get the error message ‘User disabled,'” Adam told us.
Despite the statement about refunds, Adam didn’t have any orders or deposits refunded. He activated Starlink service on November 2 but doesn’t know if service was interrupted. “I have it at another residence, and I haven’t been there since receiving the message,” he said.
Starlink is operated by Elon Musk’s SpaceX corporation. We contacted SpaceX about the problem today and will update this article if we get any new information.
Enlarge / Starlink account-reset email sent by mistake to numerous customers.
From what we’ve seen in Reddit threads, the bug doesn’t appear to disable Internet service. “I installed our Starlink two days ago, and received the email this afternoon that my account had been reset and that a refund was on the way. The Internet is still working at the moment but [I] can’t log in and submit a ticket,” one person wrote.
Another person who got the email noted that they cannot create a support ticket without being able to log in. A person in the same thread wrote, “Can’t log in and if I do a password reset request it says my account doesn’t exist. Only been using Starlink for a week. It also appears they don’t have tech support? Just a FAQ? WTF?”
Some people had Starlink dish shipments in transit when the account-reset email arrived and were concerned about whether they would be able to activate service. “Still shows my Starlink kit in transit so will create a new account with the unit if possible,” one person wrote.
“My wife got the account reset email within the last couple of hours. Tried to recover, the site says our account is disabled. Hoping there’s a resolution to this because we bought this for our new house that we’re supposed to move into next week. We haven’t even taken the dish out of the box yet,” one user wrote yesterday.
