Bug Report: Locked out of Student Benefits due to Case-Sensitivity and Endless Location-Verification Loop

[QuintenB-2261189]

🏷️ Discussion Type

Bug

💬 Feature/Topic Area

Re-verification/Repeat Application

Hi everyone,

In the past, I upgraded from GitHub Copilot Student to GitHub Copilot Pro+, believing that I could safely downgrade back to the student tier after a trial month.

The initial problem: Instead of reverting my account to the previous student subscription, the system placed me on a standard free subscription. Initially, I thought it was just an issue on my end, so I asked multiple students at my university if they could still use Pro. Their response was yes.

Proof that I still temporarily retained GitHub Pro for free (provided by GitHub Student), but Copilot dropped from Student to Free after the downgrade. (Only 30 days left on GitHub Pro, the reason for which is explained below).

Problem 1: The Case-Sensitivity Block

I figured this wouldn't be an issue and attempted to reverify my account under the education benefits tab. However, I immediately encountered a roadblock.

When I first claimed my GitHub Student benefits four years ago, the system had no issues with my school email using a capital "U" instead of a lowercase "u." For some reason, the system now flags this capitalization discrepancy as an error and completely disables the reverification button. At this point, I was already quite annoyed. I searched online for solutions, and after doing some digging, it became clear that my only option left was to submit a GitHub support ticket.

Problem 2: Bypassing the Disabled Frontend Button

After waiting over a month without a single response or even ANY estimated deadline for a reply, I decided to inspect the frontend code to see if I could bypass the disabled button. I discovered that removing the HTML disabled attribute allowed me to click the button and, by some miracle, proceed to the next step of the verification process.

This action brought me to a screen requiring a live camera shot. This was highly inconvenient for me, as I do not have a webcam on my desktop PC.

After a significant amount of troubleshooting, I managed to use iVCam to stream my phone's camera to my PC to capture the required proof.

Problem 3: The Location-Verification Loophole

After successfully uploading my official proof of enrollment, I hit the next roadblock: a message stating, "It seems you are far away from your university, extra verification is rquired." I found this incredibly strange because I keep location services enabled by default in Google Chrome. Google Maps pinpoints my home accurately, I never refused browser permissions, and I do not use a VPN or any other location-masking software.

Because of this error, I selected "Other" and attached additional proof demonstrating that I actively attend these courses. A week later, I received this automated email:

I decided to try again using a different device. I went onto my phone to complete the exact same verification steps, only to be hit with the exact same response: "We can't verify your location." Shortly after, I received this automated rejection email:

This brings us back to the very first screenshot: my remaining, valid student benefits were entirely revoked because of this loop. Now, I am left with nothing. Thanks, GitHub. I love this.

Problem 4: The Endless Loading State

Refusing to give up, I retried the process multiple times. Every single attempt ended the same way: "We can't verify your location."In the initial Problem 1 screenshot, there was an option to manually share my location. My plan was to click that button first to resolve the geolocation error. However, this introduced a new bug: pressing the location button triggers an endless loading state that never resolves.

Conclusion

After struggling with this loop for nearly four months, attempting both official support channels and my own workarounds, I find it absolutely disgraceful how GitHub treats its users.

There is zero proper feedback, the application interface is broken, and the automated responses are never audited by a human when the system is uncertain. To top it off, your system revoked the existing benefits of a previously verified student, proving how flawed this automated process truly is.

I want a response from a human preferably an actual GitHub Support representative to explain how this will be corrected.

[github-actions[bot]]

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[QuintenB-2261189]

I was able to fix the geolocation error by going into devtools and adding with a sensor the manual longitude and latitude coordinates of my city. Waiting for a automated response on the acceptance again.

[QuintenB-2261189]

Update: I finally was able to get reverified, but i would still look into these bugs if i was github.