In early March a Claude Max subscriber discovered roughly $180 of unexpected charges on their Anthropic account. Sixteen “Extra Usage” invoices of $10‑$13 appeared between March 3‑5, yet the user was sailing in San Diego with no laptop activity. Dashboard meters showed a full session, while Claude Code logs recorded two tiny sessions under 7 KB on March 5, offering no explanation.

The complaint quickly spread; other Max plan users reported identical billing spikes, and several GitHub issues (e.g., claude-code#29289, #24727) and r/ClaudeCode posts documented the same meter anomalies. On March 7 the reporter emailed Anthropic support, receiving an instant reply from the Fin AI Agent, which directed them to an in‑app refund flow that only covers subscriptions, not Extra Usage fees.

Follow‑up messages on March 17, March 25 and again on April 8 received only automated acknowledgments, leaving the user still without human assistance. The episode exposes a paradox: a company whose flagship product is a sophisticated AI assistant relies on an AI‑only support channel that cannot resolve billing disputes. Customers now face a barrier between the service they pay for and any meaningful remediation today.