Unexpected Invoice for Sponsorsed account

Question

Unexpected Invoice for Sponsorsed account

Koushik Balasubramanian 20

Our company, Quaza AI, is a participant in the Microsoft for Startups Founders Hub program. As part of this program, we were granted $150,000 in Azure credits. We have been utilizing Azure services based on the understanding that our consumption would be covered by these credits.

However, we were very concerned to receive an invoice attached. We believe this charge is an error, as our usage was intended to be covered entirely by our sponsorship credits. We have been using the resources that were provisioned for us and did not anticipate any costs exceeding our credit balance. We have been using the compute type and storage that were covered under the sponsorship, and all grants have been requested via past email communication from this email.

As a bootstrapped startup, an unexpected expense of this magnitude presents a significant financial challenge for us. We do not have the funds allocated to cover this invoice.

Could you please urgently investigate this matter? We would appreciate it if you could:

Clarify why these charges were not covered by our Azure sponsorship credits.
Review our account usage and billing to identify the source of the discrepancy.
Help us resolve this issue and ensure the invoice is corrected to reflect our sponsorship agreement.

We are confident this is a misunderstanding and look forward to your prompt assistance in resolving it. Please let us know if you require any further information from our end.

Thank you for your time and attention to this urgent matter.

Anonymous

2025-08-04T04:43:57.77+00:00

Hi Koushik Balasubramanian
Just checking in to see if the below answer provided by @TP helped.

If this answers your query, do click Accept Answer and Yes for was this answer helpful. And, if you have any further query do let us know

Answer accepted by question author

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Anonymous

2025-08-04T04:43:57.77+00:00

Hi Koushik Balasubramanian
Just checking in to see if the below answer provided by @TP helped.

If this answers your query, do click Accept Answer and Yes for was this answer helpful. And, if you have any further query do let us know

Answer 1

Hi Koushik,

I recommend you create billing support request so that you can discuss your concerns with a billing engineer and have them investigate.

Please carefully follow my instructions below to avoid getting stuck in endless loop and actually create billing support request. Billing support is free.

Please let me know that you were able to create ticket or if you had any issues. I will assist you further in the comments.

1. Navigate to this link to start the process:

https://portal.azure.com/#view/Microsoft_Azure_Support/HelpAndSupportBlade/~/overview

2. Click Create a support request button at top

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3. On right, enter billing in the box and click Go

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4. Select Billing and click Next

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5. Select your subscription from the dropdown and click Next

6. At this point there will be a delay of several seconds, and then various options will be displayed. Click Create a support request button at the top. DO NOT CLICK any of the other options.

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7. Fill out screen, Summary, Problem type, Problem subtype, then click Next button at bottom

8. There will be another several second delay, and then some solutions will be displayed (this is similar to above). DO NOT CLICK any of the solutions, instead click on Return to support request button in upper left corner, similar to below

azure support request Return to support request

9. Now you are back at support case. Click Next button at bottom to continue to Additional details tab. Fill out information as required, one of the items you may need is your Subscription ID.

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You can open separate browser tab and navigate to your subscription in portal, the ID is there, click the copy button to the right of it, then paste it into the box on Additional details tab. Click Next to advance to Review + create tab, then click Create.

You should receive an automated email within a few minutes and then be contacted by support within 1 business day.

Please click Accept Answer and upvote if the above was helpful.

Thanks.

-TP

Koushik Balasubramanian 20 Reputation points

2025-08-04T07:28:26.0966667+00:00

This solution helped, thank you very much! The step 8 was the game changer, as I somehow missed the "Return to Support Request" button, and was whirling around suggested solution.

I was able to raise a support ticket, thanks TP!