SMS 2FA not working in NZ for multiple accounts

Retired Boards Appdev Authentication
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Topic summary

Intermittent failures of SMS-based 2FA (two-factor authentication) in New Zealand are preventing logins across multiple accounts and phone numbers. Impact includes the poster being unable to access their Inbox and a staff member locked out of Shopify.

Support access is constrained: the help chatbot does not surface relevant options and requires logging in to reach an agent, which is not possible during lockouts. After extensive attempts, the user located an email support path.

An agent responded with complex instructions involving access codes, which did not resolve the issue. The authentication problem remains active.

Requested actions:

  • Confirm whether SMS 2FA codes are currently functioning in New Zealand.
  • Improve reliability and simplicity of SMS 2FA to ensure it is dependable and seamless.

Status: Unresolved and open. No confirmation, workaround, or root cause identified. No attachments or media were provided.

Summarized with AI on December 16. AI used: gpt-5.
1

Hey Guys,

We experience intermittent issues with 2FA in NZ and see this across multiple accounts and phone numbers.

Also, when this happens YOU CAN NEVER REACH AN AGENT FOR HELP!

This is because the help bot has no clue what you’re asking and in order to talk to an agent, you have to login - which you can’t do!

After trying to trick the bot for half an hour, we finally found the send an email option.

But when the agent sent instructions, they were super convoluted with access codes etc. Right now I can’t login to Inbox and I have a staff member who is totally locked out of Shopify.

Questions:

Can someone please check if SMS codes are working in NZ?

And more broadly, could someone ensure SMS 2FA is bullet proof moving forward?

We all value extra security but it needs to work seamlessly otherwise humans bypass it - in which case, what’s the point?

Any help much appreciated.

Cheers, Ben