Having just completed an arduous password reset where I waited thirty days for Google to send an e-mail to a recovery address, I managed to update the password. I also went into "contact information" and updated the phone number, where a six digit code was sent by SMS. The number has been confirmed and now shows in contact information.
I removed the old phone number so that only up-to-date contact information is present.
However, when going through the options to add security such as 2FA, it asks for SMS verification -- but with the old number. Is there some way to reach a person at Google to update the phone number? Because it's stuck on using this old number, despite the fact that the number was removed from my contact info. I've had this account for quite a while and speculate that the age of the account may play a role in why the number won't update.