How bad is Microsoft Azure that you cannot change the country billing is based in?

Recently I was attempting to add an a Azure virtual machine to an existing office 365 account of a client based in Indonesia. It then wants my credit card details to verify the account, I enter them but it says the zip code is not acceptable. I found out the credit card is not accepted unless it is from the country the hosting is setup for. So I just need to press back to change the country right?

No, no option for that. Support will be able to sort that out, surely, so I lodge a ticket. Here’s the response I get

Greetings from Azure! When a user creates their original Azure account, they choose the region and that sets specific rules on the account and the EULA is tailored to that region as well.

I am really sorry to inform you that, if you want to change location, you need to create a new account in the new region.

This is due to regulations set by counties, the EULA and other regulatory issues, a new account will need to be created and the new EULA will need to be accepted.  We do not have the option to close the Azure accounts too.

I understand your concern here, however we did have this option to close your Azure account under our old platform, unfortunately we do not have the same in our current new platform and we are aware of this and we have already raised a supportability request to our engineering team however we do not have an ETA or update if this will be implemented as it depends on the number of customers who report this issue.

In order to resolve the issue, I would suggest you to use a different email address to activate the Azure subscription with the right country.

So in the “new platform” is worse than the old one, and can’t reset it so I can approve a EULA and change my billing details for the country I have billing in. Apparently I’m meant to go head and create a whole new Azure account despite all the office 365 mailboxes already having been set up on this one.

Fortunately they have “raised a supportability request to our engineering team”. Supportability is not actually an English word, but I get the drift, that as Microsoft can make up things to tell customers, they can make up words to.

A quick web search shows this issue has been around from at least 2012.

https://social.msdn.microsoft.com/Forums/azure/en-US/31f4f6b3-dadd-4ca1-abd6-e3abc0b115bc/i-cannot-change-my-country-on-my-windows-azure-account?forum=windowsazurepurchasing

https://feedback.azure.com/forums/170030-signup-and-billing/suggestions/6912060-allow-me-to-change-countries-on-my-subscription

So it sounds like this supportability request may have slipped of the edge of the Engineering teams desk and into the bin. Supposedly Azure is a globalized, geographically diversified platform suitable for multi nationals, except it can’t be setup for multinationals and the billing location is impossible to change even by the own support because of their “new platform”

Bad Micrsoft, bad.

Brendan King