Hi @gravityblast,
Welcome to the community
I am sorry that you are having this issue.
What network are you deploying to? Have you tried using a different provider (e.g. Alchemy: https://docs.openzeppelin.com/learn/connecting-to-public-test-networks)
I just tried OpenZeppelin Upgrades: Step by Step Tutorial for Hardhat using Infura to Rinkeby with no issues.
$ npx hardhat run --network rinkeby scripts/deploy.js
Compiling 1 file with 0.7.3
Compilation finished successfully
Deploying Box...
Box deployed to: 0xfD1dafA50bC4362a792531285b047C14D75c5D5b
deploy.js
// scripts/deploy.js
async function main() {
const Box = await ethers.getContractFactory("Box");
console.log("Deploying Box...");
const box = await upgrades.deployProxy(Box, [42], { initializer: 'store' });
console.log("Box deployed to:", box.address);
}
main()
.then(() => process.exit(0))
.catch(error => {
console.error(error);
process.exit(1);
});