Levi · Indie Dev

Indie developer. I build small apps that do one thing well.
Now shipping: ⚡ Voltyn & 🌐 Glasswitch for Mac
Building in public.

[Levi · Indie Dev @LKang37857]

Hi, I'm Levi 👋 an indie developer making small, native apps for the Mac.

Two of them are now on the Mac App Store:

⚡ Voltyn — see your Mac's power use in the menu bar
🌐 Glasswitch — switch your default browser from the menu bar

A quick tour 🧵

[Levi · Indie Dev @LKang37857]

I built UTC Time Looker for Mac: paste a UTC timestamp and see local + world times.

Version 1.0 is on the App Store. A menu-bar update is in development.

Try the web demo and share feedback:
https://t.co/fKu16HbWJE

[Levi · Indie Dev @LKang37857]

https://t.co/GVZzQhNeqX

[Levi · Indie Dev @LKang37857]

Claude mods is so cute

[Levi · Indie Dev @LKang37857]

Astra 6 become so fucking stupid

[Levi · Indie Dev @LKang37857]

@PriaPaham No solution yet. Zero response from Anthropic, and they still haven’t cancelled my Apple subscription. Feels like robbery

[Levi · Indie Dev @LKang37857]

I paid $124.99 to upgrade Claude to Max. Mandatory verification blocked access. Then my account was suspended, and my appeal was rejected without a specific explanation.

Here is the timeline of my experience:

September 20, 2026: While in San Jose, California, I upgraded from Claude Pro to Max through Apple's App Store. I had been using Pro for nearly two weeks for macOS/iOS app development and a personal job-search system, including resume preparation.

After restoring the purchase, I was required to complete identity verification through Persona. Until I completed it, I could not chat with Claude or use Claude Code. I sent no Claude messages and used no Claude Code that day. My activity was trying to complete the required verification.

Several attempts returned "Couldn't verify photos" and told me to make sure my ID details were clear. The page offered Retry, so I retried. After those attempts, I received an account-on-hold notice.

I appealed and explained what happened. Anthropic rejected the appeal with a general reference to its Usage Policy, without identifying the specific conduct or policy provision at issue. I cannot prove that the verification retries caused the suspension. That is exactly why I am asking Anthropic to compare the Persona failure records with the account's actual usage records and explain its decision.

Trying to reach a human has led to another loop: the support bot directs a disabled account back to the appeal page and ends the conversation, while the appeal has already been denied. I also submitted the dedicated identity-verification help form; I have not yet received a substantive human response to that request.

From a paying customer's perspective, this feels like a cash grab: payment accepted, access blocked, and no meaningful explanation or effective way to challenge the outcome. I paid for a service and instead had to navigate verification errors and a closed appeal process.

The imbalance matters. Anthropic controls the verification records and the enforcement evidence. A customer cannot meaningfully challenge "you violated our policy" when the company does not identify what they supposedly did. Safety should not be a blanket excuse for refusing accountability.

I want a substantive human review, a specific explanation, and restored access with compensation for lost paid time. If access cannot be restored, I want the unused paid service refunded. A cancelled subscription is not proof of a refund.

Has anyone resolved this specific Persona-to-suspension loop after an appeal was denied? Which official team actually examined the verification records? Please share first-hand experiences or an official escalation route. Other paying customers and people covering AI consumer rights should be able to examine this process.

@AnthropicAI @claudeai #Claude #ConsumerRights

[Levi · Indie Dev @LKang37857]

Anthropic: "Safety" must not become a license for authoritarian treatment of paying customers.

After my experience, I am left with the impression that Anthropic does not give a fuck about whether a paying customer can get a meaningful explanation or challenge a decision.

On September 20, I paid $124.99 to upgrade Claude Pro to Max. Mandatory Persona verification blocked access to both Claude chat and Claude Code. I sent no messages and used no Code that day. I followed the verification flow, received repeated "Couldn't verify photos" errors, and used the Retry option it offered. My account was subsequently put on hold. My appeal was then rejected with a generic Usage Policy reference and no specific conduct or provision identified.

I do not know whether those retries caused the suspension. Anthropic has the records needed to examine that question. I do not. Asking for an explanation should not lead to an endless loop in which the bot points to an appeal that has already been denied. My separate verification-help request is still awaiting a substantive human response.

This is the imbalance I object to: the company writes broad rules, holds the relevant evidence, decides the outcome, and tells the customer the decision is final without explaining the specific allegation. How is a customer supposed to contest a mistake under those conditions?

To me, this is authoritarian treatment of customers under the banner of safety. A safety claim should invite accountability, not end the conversation. Taking payment while leaving someone without access and without meaningful redress feels like a cash grab.

The stakes extend beyond my subscription. If a company were to control 80% of critical AI infrastructure while excluding people through opaque decisions without effective independent oversight, I believe that would create the foundations of a technological dictatorship. That is a hypothetical warning, not a claim about Anthropic's current market share. The way an AI company treats individual users today matters when we consider how much power to entrust to it tomorrow.

Customers deserve specific explanations, meaningful human review, a way to challenge errors, and clear remedies for unusable paid service. Where disclosure would create a genuine security risk, there should still be an accountable review process, not a blanket refusal to explain anything.

Anthropic, explain the basis for my suspension, review the Persona and usage records, and provide a fair resolution. Technical capability does not put a company above accountability to the people paying for its services.

@AnthropicAI @claudeai #Claude #ConsumerRights #AIAccountability

[Levi · Indie Dev @LKang37857]

Work links in Chrome, personal stuff in Safari, testing in Dia.

I got tired of digging through System Settings to change the default browser, so I built Glasswitch: your default browser lives in the menu bar, click to switch.

US$0.99 one-time · macOS 26+
https://t.co/0TVdeIyyDf

[Levi · Indie Dev @LKang37857]

And Glasswitch, the menu bar default browser switcher for macOS 26:
https://t.co/Guqmj9owrY

[Levi · Indie Dev @LKang37857]

Hi, I'm Levi 👋 an indie developer making small, native apps for the Mac.

Two of them are now on the Mac App Store:

⚡ Voltyn — see your Mac's power use in the menu bar
🌐 Glasswitch — switch your default browser from the menu bar

A quick tour 🧵

[Levi · Indie Dev @LKang37857]

More about Voltyn, with screenshots, a FAQ and what each power reading actually means:
https://t.co/QlQvmZz7ZK

[Levi · Indie Dev @LKang37857]

Hi @AnthropicAI @claudeai — my account is on hold, and the official export omitted my cloud-hosted Claude Cowork Projects. These projects are very important to me. I have an open support ticket but need help reaching the right data-export team. Please DM me.

[Levi · Indie Dev @LKang37857]

@viditb @grok find the translate app name

[Levi · Indie Dev @LKang37857]

@NebLorne @grok tell me what happened.

[Levi · Indie Dev @LKang37857]

Codex App has bad performance on macOS. The Codex Helper costs a lot of CPU and makes my M2 Pro MacBook Pro slow. @OpenAI, you guys should do something to solve this performance issue.

[Levi · Indie Dev @LKang37857]

@jamespotter Could I have a free trial?