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To me, the key takeaway from this article isn't the fate of these relatively few specific people. They did something that was (probably) wrong and Google's resp
by throwaway420 10y ago
To me, the key takeaway from this article isn't the fate of these relatively few specific people. They did something that was (probably) wrong and Google's response might have been disproportionate, but was arguably their right and close to reasonable.
What should be concerning to most people is that almost everybody depends on so many of Google's (and other companies) services in the cloud and you can have your entire life removed with absolutely zero recourse unless you get media attention. Google doesn't even offer human customer support if your account gets banned and you want to throw $50 or $100 in their face to speak get somebody's undivided attention for just 5 minutes to resolve the issue.
That's the real issue.
Yeah Google, we understand you cant provide free customer service for the entire internet and deal with every crazy person's complaints. But charge a reasonable fee and give desperate people a realistic way to talk to somebody over life-changing problems. Even Google's paid services are often very flawed in this regard.
- bagacrap 10y agoScrewing up someone's life and then charging money for customer service sounds a lot like extortion.
- kuschku 10y agoYet that extortion would be better by miles than what's offered now.
- throwaway420 10y agoI totally see your point: this could be prone to abuse. But it's still light years better than the alternative of not offering any support at all to desperate people. There are people whose companies and lives get totally destroyed when Google randomly bans them from one of their services and then there is literally no way to get in touch with anybody at Google unless you somehow manage to get media attention. We're all smart and realistic here: we understand that Google can't offer free tech support for the entire world and deal with every crazy person out there. That's why charging a nominal fee is suggested. Should it be $1, $5, $25 or more? I don't know. But there has to be some way to reach out to a reasonable and smart human being at Google for critical issues.