9 ms·

G Suite Happy Ending

fabricexpert 8y ago
"they will make sure this will never happen again to me or anyone" The bit about the account data being lost? Or the bit about not being able to contact a human at google if you're not popular enough on the internet?
394549 8y ago
Let me guess: his previous "G Suite Horror Story" post blew up on twitter, which made him eligible for the Google Support Grand Prize Jackpot: the attention of a real human being empowered to fix the issue. Second prize is a an email to an inbox no one ever reads.
- deleted 8y ago
  [deleted]
- theandrewbailey 8y ago
  It blew up here: https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=17689404 https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=17689404
- meerab 8y ago
  I have good experience with Google Support Staff using online Chat. Chat button is available on Gsuit Admin interface and on GCloud Console. Google Support staff is well trained and usually quick to resolve the issue.
  - gd2 8y ago
    I also believe Google is experimenting with taking its customer support up a few levels, which for years was figure it out for yourself. With both Chromebooks and YouTube subscription, I've gotten very good support through chat including call backs. Isn't that what Google One, is supposed to be about?? , real customer support if you are a paying Google Drive, G-Suite, YouTube monthly payer, etc.
slededit 8y ago
A happy ending would have been calling their support number and getting it fixed through a normal process. Needing to get to the front page of HN first is just ridiculous.
- iamrobschiavone 8y ago
  Unfortunately, it's becoming the norm.
  - cptskippy 8y ago
    Sadly it's always been the norm with Google. What's unfortunate is that it's becoming the norm with other companies as well.
- mk89 8y ago
  An Internet company, one of the top 3 in the world, that needs to feel threatened that customers are going to rant on Twitter or other internet websites. Just, wow.
  - nikanj 8y ago
    Ranting doesn’t help, unless you get extraordinarily lucky and your rant makes it to the front page.
  - wnsire 8y ago
    I'm fascinated as well by that. I don't know why , it reminds me of that one time where an engineer applied for a job at Google and had to go through about a dozen interviews. Ultimately he was rejected by them.
Rotdhizon 8y ago
Without any other information outside of reading this article, this contradicts basically every other google support story I've ever read on HN. Similar to what the few other comments are saying at the time of me writing this, it seems like this guy made a fuss somewhere that caught the attention of someone who didn't want the bad PR. Google will remain the contact-less customer non-service entity it always has. This guy might have gotten lucky to get a response, but don't expect it to become the norm.
- derefr 8y ago
  The difference this time is that Google's mistake here didn't just hit one person, or a few people spuriously over a few years, but rather hit a whole class of users all at once. Once a corporation finds out that they've made that kind of mistake, they usually work quickly to fix it before it can become a media shitstorm.
- phalangion 8y ago
  This poster had a story on the front page of HN a couple days ago describing the horror story. That post is almost definitely why this issue got resolved. Context: https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=17689404 https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=17689404
- jacekm 8y ago
  > don't expect it to become the norm Google One is supposed to offer live support to paying customers. Obviously we cannot tell yet if this is going to work, but my hopes are high.
jwilk 8y ago
Context: https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=17689404 https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=17689404
segmondy 8y ago
Happy ending for one person. If anything this has scared me away from G Suite. Every once in a while we see an article on how to get away from Google and it sounds like a bunch of kooks, then things like this happen.
- severino 8y ago
  If you read the article, you will see they're working to fix it so it doesn't happen again to anybody else. So it's more than a happy ending for just one guy.
  - 394549 8y ago
    >> Happy ending for one person. If anything this has scared me away from G Suite. Every once in a while we see an article on how to get away from Google and it sounds like a bunch of kooks, then things like this happen. > If you read the article, you will see they're working to fix it so it doesn't happen again to anybody else. So it's more than a happy ending for just one guy. They're just now working on fixing this particular issue, which appears to have been a problem for at least a year. For many of those people, this fix will be too little, too late. The fact that he had to write up a horror story in the first place to get any kind of support is what scares me away from G Suite, it's too much of a gamble. I'll continue to be scared away until you can get good support from Google with a phone call or email.
    - severino 8y ago
      Google doesn't fix the problem -> They don't care about their users. They suck. Google fixes the problem -> Yes, but how many users suffered the problem before? They suck.
      - 394549 8y ago
        > Google doesn't fix the problem -> They don't care about their users. They suck. > Google fixes the problem -> Yes, but how many users suffered the problem before? They suck. You're missing the point. It's not about whether they fixed the problem or not, but but what has to happen to get them to even take a look when someone has a problem.
newscracker 8y ago
If only Google published a post or a support article about this so that anyone searching for this issue could have a way to get it sorted out — if not for all users, at least for the ones who happened to have this recently where Google has data backups. Having to resort to social media and shame companies into doing what they ought to be doing in the normal course of business and having proper escalation channels (more so for paid products) is ridiculous.
deleted 8y ago
[deleted]
chris_mc 8y ago
Every month, I drop all of my Google files into my OneDrive using "Google takeout". I don't have to use my own bandwidth, just select all of the data I want (everything), choose to have it sent into my OneDrive, then once it's done (takes a few hours) I delete older backups if I need space (with 1TB of OneDrive space, I can hold about 20 of these Google data backups). That way I ensure I always have an almost-up-to-date backup of all of my Google data that I can use to re-start all of my accounts on another provider, if needed.
- pmlnr 8y ago
  > I drop all of my Google files into my OneDrive I'd get an external HDD for this, instead of going from one cloud to another.
  - jacekm 8y ago
    Yeah, external HDD is the best option here, but it's problematic if you don't have fast connection. I am on 10Mbps line which is like 1.2MB/s and it would take me about a week to download all my data. And Google Takeout links are valid for only 5 days I believe. I occasionally download everything at work, but it's a little bit troublesome. In such case backing up to different cloud provider is the simplest solution. However this is not perfect either, because it means sharing my data with another big corporation. While majority of my files in GDrive are encrypted, some are not (e.g. emails). I am yet to find a good solution for myself. I was thinking about spawning a machine in Digital Ocean, downloading data using Google Skicka [1] (which is awesome tool btw), encrypting with gpg and uploading to different cloud. I just don't know any unix command line tool that could upload to One Drive or Amazon. Any suggestions? Another solution I am considering is machine in AWS that would download everything, encrypt and store it in Amazon Glacier [2]. I think I'll be eventually trying this once I learn more about Glacier. EDIT: just did some googling and it seems that rclone [3] may meet my needs. [1] https://github.com/google/skicka https://github.com/google/skicka [2] https://aws.amazon.com/glacier/ https://aws.amazon.com/glacier/ [3] https://rclone.org/ https://rclone.org/
- dandare 8y ago
  It would be nice to do this via ITTT or similar service.
docker_up 8y ago
Glad this was sorted out. Even gladder that someone posted the link to download all my emails. I thought I had to log in via a client like Thunderbird and manually download everything, but the mbox archive was awesome, and I could import that in minutes into Thunderbird.
cflewis 8y ago
Does anyone have a recommendation for a NAS that can do a nightly backup your Google account/OneDrive account etc. etc.? I found [1], but that's a lot of fiddling at command-lines. I just want a button in a web interface that OAuths to my account and off it goes. [1]: https://lavaux.lv/2018/02/24/email-backup-gmvault-synology-nas.html https://lavaux.lv/2018/02/24/email-backup-gmvault-synology-n...
- uxamanda 8y ago
  Sounds like you are looking at more automated solutions anyways, but if you end up making a backup from a Drive that is synced to your computer, realize you are only backing up links to google sheets, docs, and slides, not the actual files. In the case that those files disappear from the web your “files” will no longer open. As far as I can tell, your only option is to export them in their native format (e.g. .docx) if you actually want the data. Learned this the hard way!
- mnkypete 8y ago
  Yeah, a Synology can do that: https://www.synology.com/en-global/knowledgebase/DSM/help/CloudSync/cloudsync https://www.synology.com/en-global/knowledgebase/DSM/help/Cl...
- j88439h84 8y ago
  rclone (rclone.org) is like rsync for cloud providers. With cron it's very simple and effective.
heavymark 8y ago
While it's good to hear that landing on HackerNews typically results in a resolution, it's unfortunate it has to always reach that level of publicity for large companies to take personal action. I understand that has to be levels of support you have to go through, but there should be a clear path of escalations to resolve the issues privately. Thank goodness none the less for the power of HN (and social shaming) when all other options are exhausted.
Proven 8y ago
Inst ad of getting the proper support you need to write blog posts... Or maybe considering the cost what he got was the proper level of support...
apeace 8y ago
I had a crush in high school. Ended up going to the same college and were semi-close friends during that time. One day I heard she had broken up with her boyfriend, and lo and behold I get a text from her that she wants me to come over urgently. It's almost midnight. She says she needs help with her Google account from a tech pro. The thing is, this woman has a very unique name. Such a beautiful name. Not one I have ever heard before or since. So for all of her online accounts, her username is just her first name. @firstname on Twitter, firstname@yahoo.com, etc. When I got there she told me she'd decided to finally take my advice. I'd been telling her for years to switch from Yahoo to Gmail. But there was a problem: when we tried to register it, Google told us "this account name is taken". "This will be simple," I thought. She must have registered it and forgotten about it, we'll just send the password reset to her Yahoo email. But when we went to the password reset page Google told us "this account does not exist". Seemingly contradictory. It must be a bug! I told her I would need to do some research and hurried out. I remember the confused look on her face, I don't think she wanted me to leave. Surely a bit of Googling and emailing and I could get her the coveted email address and be the hero! Stupid me. After digging for hours I did find some mysterious @google.com email addresses and I tried those. I think I found a Google employee via my extended Facebook network and reached out. A week went by, I never heard back. One day I decided to try to get into the Google campus in Cambridge. Unsurprisingly, I was not granted entry. The doorman was amused by my attempt at a romantic gesture so he said maybe he'd tell my story to somebody inside. I even applied for a job at Google so that I could hopefully speak to a recruiter. Someone, anyone at Google. My time was running out. But at the time I had no experience and was a sophomore in college. No calls. I'm still friends with that woman but nothing ever happened. She's now engaged. I know it wasn't Google's fault that I lost my college crush. If I hadn't been so socially inept at the time it may have gone differently. But if anyone from Google ever sees this, please get in touch[1]. The bug still exists. I just know she'd be really happy to have that email address. [1] https://apeace.github.io/contact.html https://apeace.github.io/contact.html
- puzzle 8y ago
  Was the name five characters or less? I don't know what the UI was like at the time you tried. There are Gmail accounts that short, but they have been created by hand, usually for other Google colleagues, by someone on the Gmail team. E.g. paul@gmail.com is, obviously, Paul Buchheit.
nvr219 8y ago
yay mazal tov
sarreph 8y ago
Boy do I feel sorry for the less technically-minded, small business owners, who don't know how to leverage HN. Having to fight tooth and nail to kick up a widespread fuss is not a viable solution to a technical support line — nor should it warrant gratitude from the community.
vinay_ys 8y ago
Classic phishing scam reads exactly like this all the way till the last but one line! Wonder how he verified if it was real google calling him and asking all these questions and giving instructions or not.
tejtm 8y ago
This is more an example of the human influence of HN than the benevolence of the corporation. Yes, I am absolutely delighted this guy got lucky. No, I have zero confidence that I or any other poor schmuck could duplicate it.
olivierduval 8y ago
Google is big, free, and UNRELIABLE !!! That's what these horror stories teach us, time after time (mail account closed without notice or appeal anybody?). Not because of technology (Google seem to have this quite good) but because it DOESN'T WANT to understand that customer services is about process, people and problems that need to be handled by humans. As long as Google wont be able to REALLY commit to customer services, I wont use it for any business critical mission.
dink 8y ago
Last year I temporarily enhanced my ancient GApps account by trialling G Suite. I wanted to be able to switch the primary domain from one I'd be retiring. It turned out that the guide I'd been following to do this was outdated and the functionality was no longer available during trials. So, I ended my trial and seemed to get logged out. Couldn't log back in. This domain isn't using G Suite, or some such message. I looked around for how to contact G Suite support. There didn't seem to be a way to do so without being logged into G Suite. I tried going through Google Domains, hoping I'd get forwarded. Didn't really get anywhere, all they could say was that there was no G Suite associated with the domain. The only option seemed to be to start another trial, then ask what happened to the GApps account. I deliberated for a bit before doing so—would creating the account screw up any possible account recovery? And, in the meantime, signed up with, and got my email handled by someone else. When I did speak to support, they were friendly but I got no clear idea if it was a bug, or if I'd just absentmindedly clicked through the deletion of my account. I don't really know if the account is gone or exists in some weird state. Luckily, I'd recently pruned the data and backed up. I asked if the account could be recreated but it seems like they can't do that. I'm about to start a new little thing, and I'd like to use Google products, but what if I have another issue like this and I've got to sleuth out a way to get some help? If you have a GApps account, just live with your goofy domain name and keep registering it.
throw2016 8y ago
Search, Android, Youtube, Gmail, Chrome and Gdrive are all rife for disruption but either Google will preemptively buy the companies, play monopolistic games like they do with Android [1], or the time and resources required to gain users and traction will bankrupt most alternatives. Without competition you get inferior products, service and markets. It's difficult to argue otherwise as you have no frame of comparison for things that haven't happened and you can't make any claims of quality without competition. Worse the ad economy has incentivized very poor quality content. This is where free markets and market theory fails as this can't be fixed without regulatory intervention or someone with extremely deep pockets willing to lose large sums of money. The ad economy has tremendous negative externalities, surveillance, creating incentives for low quality content, click bait, personalized political advertising and people incentivized to produce more and more extremist and divisive content. All this so Google and others can make more money. This seems like a bad deal for the rest of us, akin to polluting the environment for personal benefit. [1] https://arstechnica.com/gadgets/2018/07/googles-iron-grip-on-android-controlling-open-source-by-any-means-necessary/ https://arstechnica.com/gadgets/2018/07/googles-iron-grip-on...
ezoe 8y ago
So the moral of the story is, If you are to use the google products, make sure you have a high influential Web site or SNS account and in case of emergency, start ranting, draw attention and be on top of HN for a few days. That's called bad ending I would say.
p2t2p 8y ago
I am fascinated that after the fact that he needed to get to the front page of Hacker News in order to have that issue resolved he keeps using this shitty service. Like one modern Russian anecdote says - mice were getting pricked, cried, but keep eating cactus. Yeah... Keep chewing on this cactus, good luck
ddtaylor 8y ago
This is a problem that is not unique to this specific instance or Google product. Understand that by relying on Google products you are exposing yourself to massive risk that one day something will happen that - unless you get to the front page of HN - may never be fixed. This can leave you or your business essentially paralyzed. You have been warned.

"they will make sure this will never happen again to me or anyone" The bit about the account data being lost? Or the bit about not being able to contact a human at google if you're not popular enough on the internet?

394549 8y ago

Let me guess: his previous "G Suite Horror Story" post blew up on twitter, which made him eligible for the Google Support Grand Prize Jackpot: the attention of a real human being empowered to fix the issue. Second prize is a an email to an inbox no one ever reads.

deleted 8y ago
[deleted]
theandrewbailey 8y ago
It blew up here: https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=17689404 https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=17689404
meerab 8y ago
I have good experience with Google Support Staff using online Chat. Chat button is available on Gsuit Admin interface and on GCloud Console. Google Support staff is well trained and usually quick to resolve the issue.
- gd2 8y ago
  I also believe Google is experimenting with taking its customer support up a few levels, which for years was figure it out for yourself. With both Chromebooks and YouTube subscription, I've gotten very good support through chat including call backs. Isn't that what Google One, is supposed to be about?? , real customer support if you are a paying Google Drive, G-Suite, YouTube monthly payer, etc.

slededit 8y ago

A happy ending would have been calling their support number and getting it fixed through a normal process. Needing to get to the front page of HN first is just ridiculous.

iamrobschiavone 8y ago
Unfortunately, it's becoming the norm.
- cptskippy 8y ago
  Sadly it's always been the norm with Google. What's unfortunate is that it's becoming the norm with other companies as well.
mk89 8y ago
An Internet company, one of the top 3 in the world, that needs to feel threatened that customers are going to rant on Twitter or other internet websites. Just, wow.
- nikanj 8y ago
  Ranting doesn’t help, unless you get extraordinarily lucky and your rant makes it to the front page.
- wnsire 8y ago
  I'm fascinated as well by that. I don't know why , it reminds me of that one time where an engineer applied for a job at Google and had to go through about a dozen interviews. Ultimately he was rejected by them.

Rotdhizon 8y ago

Without any other information outside of reading this article, this contradicts basically every other google support story I've ever read on HN. Similar to what the few other comments are saying at the time of me writing this, it seems like this guy made a fuss somewhere that caught the attention of someone who didn't want the bad PR. Google will remain the contact-less customer non-service entity it always has. This guy might have gotten lucky to get a response, but don't expect it to become the norm.

derefr 8y ago
The difference this time is that Google's mistake here didn't just hit one person, or a few people spuriously over a few years, but rather hit a whole class of users all at once. Once a corporation finds out that they've made that kind of mistake, they usually work quickly to fix it before it can become a media shitstorm.
phalangion 8y ago
This poster had a story on the front page of HN a couple days ago describing the horror story. That post is almost definitely why this issue got resolved. Context: https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=17689404 https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=17689404
jacekm 8y ago
> don't expect it to become the norm Google One is supposed to offer live support to paying customers. Obviously we cannot tell yet if this is going to work, but my hopes are high.

jwilk 8y ago

Context: https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=17689404 https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=17689404

segmondy 8y ago

Happy ending for one person. If anything this has scared me away from G Suite. Every once in a while we see an article on how to get away from Google and it sounds like a bunch of kooks, then things like this happen.

severino 8y ago
If you read the article, you will see they're working to fix it so it doesn't happen again to anybody else. So it's more than a happy ending for just one guy.
- 394549 8y ago
  >> Happy ending for one person. If anything this has scared me away from G Suite. Every once in a while we see an article on how to get away from Google and it sounds like a bunch of kooks, then things like this happen. > If you read the article, you will see they're working to fix it so it doesn't happen again to anybody else. So it's more than a happy ending for just one guy. They're just now working on fixing this particular issue, which appears to have been a problem for at least a year. For many of those people, this fix will be too little, too late. The fact that he had to write up a horror story in the first place to get any kind of support is what scares me away from G Suite, it's too much of a gamble. I'll continue to be scared away until you can get good support from Google with a phone call or email.
  - severino 8y ago
    Google doesn't fix the problem -> They don't care about their users. They suck. Google fixes the problem -> Yes, but how many users suffered the problem before? They suck.
    - 394549 8y ago
      > Google doesn't fix the problem -> They don't care about their users. They suck. > Google fixes the problem -> Yes, but how many users suffered the problem before? They suck. You're missing the point. It's not about whether they fixed the problem or not, but but what has to happen to get them to even take a look when someone has a problem.

newscracker 8y ago

If only Google published a post or a support article about this so that anyone searching for this issue could have a way to get it sorted out — if not for all users, at least for the ones who happened to have this recently where Google has data backups. Having to resort to social media and shame companies into doing what they ought to be doing in the normal course of business and having proper escalation channels (more so for paid products) is ridiculous.

deleted 8y ago

[deleted]

chris_mc 8y ago

Every month, I drop all of my Google files into my OneDrive using "Google takeout". I don't have to use my own bandwidth, just select all of the data I want (everything), choose to have it sent into my OneDrive, then once it's done (takes a few hours) I delete older backups if I need space (with 1TB of OneDrive space, I can hold about 20 of these Google data backups). That way I ensure I always have an almost-up-to-date backup of all of my Google data that I can use to re-start all of my accounts on another provider, if needed.

pmlnr 8y ago
> I drop all of my Google files into my OneDrive I'd get an external HDD for this, instead of going from one cloud to another.
- jacekm 8y ago
  Yeah, external HDD is the best option here, but it's problematic if you don't have fast connection. I am on 10Mbps line which is like 1.2MB/s and it would take me about a week to download all my data. And Google Takeout links are valid for only 5 days I believe. I occasionally download everything at work, but it's a little bit troublesome. In such case backing up to different cloud provider is the simplest solution. However this is not perfect either, because it means sharing my data with another big corporation. While majority of my files in GDrive are encrypted, some are not (e.g. emails). I am yet to find a good solution for myself. I was thinking about spawning a machine in Digital Ocean, downloading data using Google Skicka [1] (which is awesome tool btw), encrypting with gpg and uploading to different cloud. I just don't know any unix command line tool that could upload to One Drive or Amazon. Any suggestions? Another solution I am considering is machine in AWS that would download everything, encrypt and store it in Amazon Glacier [2]. I think I'll be eventually trying this once I learn more about Glacier. EDIT: just did some googling and it seems that rclone [3] may meet my needs. [1] https://github.com/google/skicka https://github.com/google/skicka [2] https://aws.amazon.com/glacier/ https://aws.amazon.com/glacier/ [3] https://rclone.org/ https://rclone.org/
dandare 8y ago
It would be nice to do this via ITTT or similar service.

docker_up 8y ago

Glad this was sorted out. Even gladder that someone posted the link to download all my emails. I thought I had to log in via a client like Thunderbird and manually download everything, but the mbox archive was awesome, and I could import that in minutes into Thunderbird.

cflewis 8y ago

Does anyone have a recommendation for a NAS that can do a nightly backup your Google account/OneDrive account etc. etc.? I found [1], but that's a lot of fiddling at command-lines. I just want a button in a web interface that OAuths to my account and off it goes. [1]: https://lavaux.lv/2018/02/24/email-backup-gmvault-synology-nas.html https://lavaux.lv/2018/02/24/email-backup-gmvault-synology-n...

uxamanda 8y ago
Sounds like you are looking at more automated solutions anyways, but if you end up making a backup from a Drive that is synced to your computer, realize you are only backing up links to google sheets, docs, and slides, not the actual files. In the case that those files disappear from the web your “files” will no longer open. As far as I can tell, your only option is to export them in their native format (e.g. .docx) if you actually want the data. Learned this the hard way!
mnkypete 8y ago
Yeah, a Synology can do that: https://www.synology.com/en-global/knowledgebase/DSM/help/CloudSync/cloudsync https://www.synology.com/en-global/knowledgebase/DSM/help/Cl...
j88439h84 8y ago
rclone (rclone.org) is like rsync for cloud providers. With cron it's very simple and effective.

heavymark 8y ago

While it's good to hear that landing on HackerNews typically results in a resolution, it's unfortunate it has to always reach that level of publicity for large companies to take personal action. I understand that has to be levels of support you have to go through, but there should be a clear path of escalations to resolve the issues privately. Thank goodness none the less for the power of HN (and social shaming) when all other options are exhausted.

Proven 8y ago

Inst ad of getting the proper support you need to write blog posts... Or maybe considering the cost what he got was the proper level of support...

apeace 8y ago

I had a crush in high school. Ended up going to the same college and were semi-close friends during that time. One day I heard she had broken up with her boyfriend, and lo and behold I get a text from her that she wants me to come over urgently. It's almost midnight. She says she needs help with her Google account from a tech pro. The thing is, this woman has a very unique name. Such a beautiful name. Not one I have ever heard before or since. So for all of her online accounts, her username is just her first name. @firstname on Twitter, firstname@yahoo.com, etc. When I got there she told me she'd decided to finally take my advice. I'd been telling her for years to switch from Yahoo to Gmail. But there was a problem: when we tried to register it, Google told us "this account name is taken". "This will be simple," I thought. She must have registered it and forgotten about it, we'll just send the password reset to her Yahoo email. But when we went to the password reset page Google told us "this account does not exist". Seemingly contradictory. It must be a bug! I told her I would need to do some research and hurried out. I remember the confused look on her face, I don't think she wanted me to leave. Surely a bit of Googling and emailing and I could get her the coveted email address and be the hero! Stupid me. After digging for hours I did find some mysterious @google.com email addresses and I tried those. I think I found a Google employee via my extended Facebook network and reached out. A week went by, I never heard back. One day I decided to try to get into the Google campus in Cambridge. Unsurprisingly, I was not granted entry. The doorman was amused by my attempt at a romantic gesture so he said maybe he'd tell my story to somebody inside. I even applied for a job at Google so that I could hopefully speak to a recruiter. Someone, anyone at Google. My time was running out. But at the time I had no experience and was a sophomore in college. No calls. I'm still friends with that woman but nothing ever happened. She's now engaged. I know it wasn't Google's fault that I lost my college crush. If I hadn't been so socially inept at the time it may have gone differently. But if anyone from Google ever sees this, please get in touch[1]. The bug still exists. I just know she'd be really happy to have that email address. [1] https://apeace.github.io/contact.html https://apeace.github.io/contact.html

puzzle 8y ago
Was the name five characters or less? I don't know what the UI was like at the time you tried. There are Gmail accounts that short, but they have been created by hand, usually for other Google colleagues, by someone on the Gmail team. E.g. paul@gmail.com is, obviously, Paul Buchheit.

nvr219 8y ago

yay mazal tov

sarreph 8y ago

Boy do I feel sorry for the less technically-minded, small business owners, who don't know how to leverage HN. Having to fight tooth and nail to kick up a widespread fuss is not a viable solution to a technical support line — nor should it warrant gratitude from the community.

vinay_ys 8y ago

Classic phishing scam reads exactly like this all the way till the last but one line! Wonder how he verified if it was real google calling him and asking all these questions and giving instructions or not.

tejtm 8y ago

This is more an example of the human influence of HN than the benevolence of the corporation. Yes, I am absolutely delighted this guy got lucky. No, I have zero confidence that I or any other poor schmuck could duplicate it.

olivierduval 8y ago

Google is big, free, and UNRELIABLE !!! That's what these horror stories teach us, time after time (mail account closed without notice or appeal anybody?). Not because of technology (Google seem to have this quite good) but because it DOESN'T WANT to understand that customer services is about process, people and problems that need to be handled by humans. As long as Google wont be able to REALLY commit to customer services, I wont use it for any business critical mission.

dink 8y ago

Last year I temporarily enhanced my ancient GApps account by trialling G Suite. I wanted to be able to switch the primary domain from one I'd be retiring. It turned out that the guide I'd been following to do this was outdated and the functionality was no longer available during trials. So, I ended my trial and seemed to get logged out. Couldn't log back in. This domain isn't using G Suite, or some such message. I looked around for how to contact G Suite support. There didn't seem to be a way to do so without being logged into G Suite. I tried going through Google Domains, hoping I'd get forwarded. Didn't really get anywhere, all they could say was that there was no G Suite associated with the domain. The only option seemed to be to start another trial, then ask what happened to the GApps account. I deliberated for a bit before doing so—would creating the account screw up any possible account recovery? And, in the meantime, signed up with, and got my email handled by someone else. When I did speak to support, they were friendly but I got no clear idea if it was a bug, or if I'd just absentmindedly clicked through the deletion of my account. I don't really know if the account is gone or exists in some weird state. Luckily, I'd recently pruned the data and backed up. I asked if the account could be recreated but it seems like they can't do that. I'm about to start a new little thing, and I'd like to use Google products, but what if I have another issue like this and I've got to sleuth out a way to get some help? If you have a GApps account, just live with your goofy domain name and keep registering it.

throw2016 8y ago

Search, Android, Youtube, Gmail, Chrome and Gdrive are all rife for disruption but either Google will preemptively buy the companies, play monopolistic games like they do with Android [1], or the time and resources required to gain users and traction will bankrupt most alternatives. Without competition you get inferior products, service and markets. It's difficult to argue otherwise as you have no frame of comparison for things that haven't happened and you can't make any claims of quality without competition. Worse the ad economy has incentivized very poor quality content. This is where free markets and market theory fails as this can't be fixed without regulatory intervention or someone with extremely deep pockets willing to lose large sums of money. The ad economy has tremendous negative externalities, surveillance, creating incentives for low quality content, click bait, personalized political advertising and people incentivized to produce more and more extremist and divisive content. All this so Google and others can make more money. This seems like a bad deal for the rest of us, akin to polluting the environment for personal benefit. [1] https://arstechnica.com/gadgets/2018/07/googles-iron-grip-on-android-controlling-open-source-by-any-means-necessary/ https://arstechnica.com/gadgets/2018/07/googles-iron-grip-on...

ezoe 8y ago

So the moral of the story is, If you are to use the google products, make sure you have a high influential Web site or SNS account and in case of emergency, start ranting, draw attention and be on top of HN for a few days. That's called bad ending I would say.

p2t2p 8y ago

I am fascinated that after the fact that he needed to get to the front page of Hacker News in order to have that issue resolved he keeps using this shitty service. Like one modern Russian anecdote says - mice were getting pricked, cried, but keep eating cactus. Yeah... Keep chewing on this cactus, good luck

ddtaylor 8y ago

This is a problem that is not unique to this specific instance or Google product. Understand that by relying on Google products you are exposing yourself to massive risk that one day something will happen that - unless you get to the front page of HN - may never be fixed. This can leave you or your business essentially paralyzed. You have been warned.