How to recover access to Apple Account?

I lost access to my account. I went to Iforgot....and followed the instructions. It recognised my id and password but then said it would send a code to one of 2 phone numbers. One was my work phone which I no longer have as I just retired. Th other appeared to be my own number (there were a few asterixes then the last couple of digits). However whenever I try to put that number in in full it will not accept and now says the account is blocked. Really annoying. I have also tried using someone elses iphone but that ended with the same issue. I understand that Apple is quite a big company and their profits are vertygood. Why can they not have a few real people who can help, say via a chat line, rather than the evidently not-fully-worked-out-how-to-do-it chatbot?

[Re-Titled by Moderator]

Original Title: No access to apple account