Detailed Complaint About LinkedIn
I want to publicly describe my experience with LinkedIn — a platform that has spent years positioning itself as technological, innovative, professional, and focused on the future of work. This is especially strange to see in contrast with Reid Hoffman’s public interviews and appearances, where LinkedIn is often presented as an example of modern technological thinking, AI, innovation, and a global professional environment.
The problem is that my actual user experience with LinkedIn has been the complete opposite of that image.
My story began about two years ago, when I first tried to create a LinkedIn account. At that time, I was living in Russia. LinkedIn is effectively unavailable in Russia, so I had to use a VPN just to access the platform. I registered with my real information: my real name, my real phone number, and my real documents. I was not trying to deceive anyone, I was not creating a fake identity, I was not spamming anyone, and I was not trying to violate any platform rules.
Nevertheless, a few days after registration, LinkedIn restricted my account and asked me to verify my identity.
I tried to complete verification through Persona. At that time, I provided my real passport details. But the verification did not go through. The system did not clearly explain what exactly was wrong, how to fix it, whether I could upload a different document, how to contact a real person, or how to resolve the situation legally and transparently.
After that, I tried to register again. I studied forums, chats, and other users’ recommendations. People suggested trying an international passport, so I did. Again, a few days passed, the account was restricted again, Persona verification appeared again, and the verification failed again — with no proper explanation.
Then I saw advice suggesting that I should try using a different phone number, a different email address, and non-Russian registration details, because otherwise the system simply would not allow me to use the platform. I tried different options because I was trying to understand how an honest user from Russia was supposed to register on LinkedIn at all, if the platform itself did not provide a normal identity verification mechanism.
In total, I went through this cycle several times. Each time the result was the same: registration, a few days of hope, then a restriction, Persona verification, inability to complete verification, no clear explanation, and no meaningful support.
At one point, I even tried to register using the details of a friend from Kazakhstan, because I thought that maybe there would be no regional restrictions in that case. That also did not work — likely because the profile information and the documents did not match. I understand why that could raise questions. But the deeper problem remains: LinkedIn does not provide a clear, honest, and functional path for a person who wants to register under their real identity but has Russian citizenship.
Later, I contacted LinkedIn Support through Twitter/X. At first, the response seemed promising: they said they would look into it. After some time, my account was temporarily unlocked for 48 hours so I could update my information. I did that. But within a day or two, I received another identity verification request through Persona, which I once again could not complete.
After that, I contacted support again. The response I received was essentially automated: unfortunately, we cannot provide access; please refer to the Help Center. No specific explanation. No indication of what exactly had been violated. No human review of the situation.
By that point, I had already studied the Help Center almost entirely. But it did not answer the main question: what should a user do if they are not a scammer, are using their real information, have a Russian passport, but cannot complete Persona verification because the system does not support their citizenship or region?
If the issue was VPN usage, that is also an absurd situation. How was a user from Russia supposed to access LinkedIn without a VPN if LinkedIn itself was not accessible there? If I provide my passport, phone number, first name, last name, face verification, and documents, why is the mere fact of using a VPN enough for the system to treat me as suspicious?
A few years have passed since then. I have left Russia and now live in Vietnam. I thought that the problem would finally disappear: I am no longer logging in from Russia, I am not using a VPN, I am located in another country, and I should be able to use the platform like a normal user.
And at first, things really did look better. I registered, and LinkedIn allowed me in. I could add people, send messages, publish posts, and interact with real users. People saw my messages, replied to me, and I was able to confirm my professional activity and company. After several years of meaningless restrictions, this already felt like progress.
But then a friend sent me a referral link for a two-month LinkedIn Premium subscription. I decided to activate the subscription and added my Bybit card. This is a card I use normally in Vietnam: it works in other services, payments go through, and it does not cause problems.
LinkedIn rejected the card.
I thought: fine, I will try another one. I have a OneX card from another crypto card service. It also works normally with Apple Pay, Airbnb, Grab, Booking, and other services. But LinkedIn again showed a payment error. And just a few seconds later, my account was blocked.
I was again asked to verify my identity through Persona.
This time I thought: fine, I live in Vietnam now, I will try to verify my identity honestly. But when I opened Persona, it turned out that Russia was not available in the list of supported countries. In other words, LinkedIn is asking me to verify my identity with a document corresponding to my citizenship, but the country of my citizenship is not available in the list.
How is this supposed to work?
I am a Russian citizen. I have a Russian passport. I live in Vietnam. I am ready to verify my identity. I am ready to provide documents. I am ready to confirm my phone number, email, contacts, conversations, company, face, passport — anything. But the system technically does not allow me to complete the verification.
And at the same time, LinkedIn simply blocks the account without explaining a normal path to resolve the issue.
This is where the main question to LinkedIn as a company arises.
How can a platform that positions itself as innovative, AI-driven, global, and professional have such a broken user experience in one of the most basic functions: registration, recovery, and identity verification?
Why can’t a company that talks about the future of work build a normal account recovery flow?
Why does LinkedIn not have clear support with a real human being?
Why is it impossible to get a clear answer: what exactly was violated, what document is required, what alternative verification method is available, and what a person with Russian citizenship living abroad is supposed to do?
Why does the Help Center feel like a collection of generic articles that do not solve real, non-standard cases?
Why does Persona require a document but not allow the user to select the country of that document?
Why does a failed payment card attempt result in an immediate account restriction?
Why does using a crypto card, which works in other international services, become a reason for restricting an account without any proper explanation?
Why is a real user with contacts, messages, communication history, a real company, and a real identity treated by the system as a potential scammer, even though they are ready to verify themselves in every possible way?
And the most ironic part is that this is not happening on some small website from 2008. This is happening on LinkedIn — a platform owned by Microsoft, a company that constantly talks about AI, the future of work, productivity, innovation, and global professional opportunities.
In practice, however, I do not see innovation. I see an outdated, opaque, unfriendly, and broken support process.
LinkedIn has a terrible support experience. The user is left alone with automated replies, forms that may or may not have been submitted, no case number, no email confirmation, no human explanation, and an endless loop of “please complete Persona verification,” even though Persona technically does not allow the verification to be completed.
Moreover, the interface itself often feels outdated and poorly designed. Forms do not provide clear feedback. Errors do not explain the reason. Input fields and recovery flows do not help the user solve the problem. This is not the level of a global technology company. This is the level of a system that knows how to talk beautifully about the future but cannot solve a basic user problem.
What is especially strange is that many Russian companies, which are often criticized in the West, in reality frequently provide a much clearer and faster user service experience: online support, chat with an operator, a clear ticket status, a case number, an explanation for account restrictions, the ability to re-upload documents, and an escalation path.
Meanwhile, LinkedIn — a huge international professional platform — cannot even give a normal answer to a user who is saying: “I am not a scammer. I am a real person. Here are my documents, here is my email, here is my phone number, here are my contacts, here is my company. Please help me restore my account.”
I contacted LinkedIn on Twitter/X and received automated replies.
I contacted LinkedIn on Facebook; at first, they replied and asked for my details, but then they sent me back to the Help Center form.
I filled out the form and received an error without any explanation.
I contacted support again, and now I am waiting again, although I barely believe that anyone will actually review the situation properly.
Now I am forced to think about buying a new official SIM card in Vietnam and trying to register from scratch again. But where is the guarantee that LinkedIn will not block the account again after a few days? Where is the guarantee that another attempt will not end in the same loop: Persona → failure → automated reply → Help Center → dead end?
This is not a normal user experience.
I am not asking for special treatment. I am asking for something basic: give me an honest and functional way to verify my identity and restore my account.
My details:
Email: makarenko.designer@gmail.com
Name: Daniil Makarenko
Citizenship: Russia
Current location: Vietnam
I am ready to verify my identity. I am ready to provide documents. I am ready to complete an alternative verification process. I am ready to explain my previous VPN usage. I am ready to confirm that the payment cards belong to me. I am ready to confirm that the account is being used for legitimate professional purposes.
But I cannot complete a procedure that technically excludes me because of my citizenship, and then be automatically blocked for failing to complete a procedure that is impossible for me to complete.
LinkedIn needs to stop hiding behind automated replies and the Help Center and provide a real solution for cases like this.
Because right now, this does not look like an innovative professional platform of the future. It looks like a closed system with poor UX, opaque moderation, non-functional support, and a verification process that punishes real users instead of helping them.