5 ms·

The number of times I've heard of people only getting support from Google because they know someone on the inside is quite astonishing. If I were an Google emp

The number of times I've heard of people only getting support from Google because they know someone on the inside is quite astonishing. If I were an Google employee looking to make a few extra bucks I'd definitely start offering to help "nudge" account issues for a few extra bucks under the table.

erhk 5y ago
Dont worry, google is working hard to make sure that even employees are unable to do anything of that sort. Gather the world's information and make it uniformally unsupported.
- alisonkisk 5y ago
  This is good. It will tie the fates of small time customers/users to the elites, so the situation gets fixed or the business collapses.
  - wongarsu 5y ago
    I agree. A process that's broken for everyone gets fixed. A process that can be worked around by everyone who has the power to get it changed can stay broken indefinitely.
    - smt88 5y ago
      Google has many processes that are broken for everyone and don't get fixed. That's why monopolies are bad.
    - thaumasiotes 5y ago
      > A process that's broken for everyone gets fixed. A process that can be worked around by everyone who has the power to get it changed can stay broken indefinitely. OK, but the only processes that are broken for everyone are processes that are mandatory for everyone. Using a different process is a perfectly workable way to get around a broken process.
  - freedomben 5y ago
    Agreed. The current state is the most awful for the powerless. At least this change evens the playing field a bit so that when $HUGE_CORP gets burned they will raise enough hell to (hopefully) fix the process.
    - ocdtrekkie 5y ago
      Occasionally this happens, see Epic Games, and then the $HUGER_CORP has their security teams look for spurious "vulnerabilities" and then uses their PR team to have them dragged through the mud, etc.
- CoastalCoder 5y ago
  Just speculating, but another possibility may be a new kind of business popping up: Google App Store experts who can somehow prevent these problems and/or make them go away. Similar to Google-SEO consultants, or college-admissions consultants who help rich kids get into universities they normally couldn't.
  - kingcharles 5y ago
    There is already this service which works to get your Facebook account back: https://hacked.com/ https://hacked.com/
duhast 5y ago
What is astonishing is that despite the scale at which they operate we rarely hear about the problems. False positives seem to be ridiculously low.
- ascar 5y ago
  Is it really rarely? I feel like I'm hearing about it all the time. The comments in this thread reenforce this feeling. Having to make it to HN frontpage to get support from Google seems also a much too common occurrence. My assessment would be false positives are way too high and customer support is close to non-existent. And we're hearing only about a tiny fraction of the problems with the majority being stuck in customer support hell.
  - duhast 5y ago
    HM is a bubble with bias against Google. People here seem to believe that bashing this company publicly will somehow change how they operate. Interestingly enough, back in the day Google used to be a darling of HN community. I suspect folks might be disappointed to see how things turned out at the end.
    - egberts1 5y ago
      Well, yeah. I too am in the bubble of realistic experience of having apps repeatedly pulled out from underneath me. Excuse me for being in that bubble.
    - kbenson 5y ago
      It's almost as if over a decade or more if time that people can see the result of behavior they didn't see as problematic initially. Or that google might have changed how they operate in small ways as they are steered differently. Expecting any one person to still have the same opinion of any one other person a decade later might be asking a lot. It's nothing strange that a community of people would have differing thoughts on a whole company of people and product and policies.
      - 5y ago
thayne 5y ago
That would almost certainly violate some contract you signed when you were hired.
- onepointsixC 5y ago
  Most definitively, but at least people who do not have connections inside of google could stay in businesses. Which speaks to just how big of an issue all of this is.
ceejayoz 5y ago
Oh, I've no doubt that's happening in all the major tech companies. Amazon employees got caught doing this. https://www.justice.gov/usao-wdwa/pr/six-indicted-connection-multi-million-dollar-scheme-bribe-amazon-employees-and https://www.justice.gov/usao-wdwa/pr/six-indicted-connection...
analog31 5y ago
There could be an app for that -- a clearing house that lets you submit an issue and have it taken up by an employee, with anonymity, for a fee. It could be the Uber for access to insider support.
ynx 5y ago
Stuff like this does happen at the big companies, but it's also rooted out (when you're that big, you can afford to have internal security teams that investigate this stuff) and the offenders get fucked by legal (and fired, obviously). Usually quietly because of the PR damage it would otherwise cause.
kingcharles 5y ago
Every time I get fucked-up support dead-ends like this now I go to war against the management of that company. I pay to get hold of all the home phone/cellphones/personal email addresses of the highest position employees I can find and bug the shit out of them until one of them capitulates and gets a minion to fix the problem. I just harassed the C-suite of a unicorn that wouldn't give me a refund for something that wasn't delivered. "We can't give you a refund because FedEx says it was delivered." IT WAS DELIVERED TO SOMEONE ELSE AND THEN FEDEX COLLECTED IT AND RETURNED IT AS YOU CAN SEE IN THE TRACKING LOGS. "Thank you for your e-mail. As the package shows that it was delivered you will need to take this up with FedEx. I cannot help you further with this enquiry." A weekend of texting and emailing the management and now suddenly I have them giving me their corporate email addresses and a promise to have it fixed after the holiday.

erhk 5y ago

Dont worry, google is working hard to make sure that even employees are unable to do anything of that sort. Gather the world's information and make it uniformally unsupported.

alisonkisk 5y ago
This is good. It will tie the fates of small time customers/users to the elites, so the situation gets fixed or the business collapses.
- wongarsu 5y ago
  I agree. A process that's broken for everyone gets fixed. A process that can be worked around by everyone who has the power to get it changed can stay broken indefinitely.
  - smt88 5y ago
    Google has many processes that are broken for everyone and don't get fixed. That's why monopolies are bad.
  - thaumasiotes 5y ago
    > A process that's broken for everyone gets fixed. A process that can be worked around by everyone who has the power to get it changed can stay broken indefinitely. OK, but the only processes that are broken for everyone are processes that are mandatory for everyone. Using a different process is a perfectly workable way to get around a broken process.
- freedomben 5y ago
  Agreed. The current state is the most awful for the powerless. At least this change evens the playing field a bit so that when $HUGE_CORP gets burned they will raise enough hell to (hopefully) fix the process.
  - ocdtrekkie 5y ago
    Occasionally this happens, see Epic Games, and then the $HUGER_CORP has their security teams look for spurious "vulnerabilities" and then uses their PR team to have them dragged through the mud, etc.
CoastalCoder 5y ago
Just speculating, but another possibility may be a new kind of business popping up: Google App Store experts who can somehow prevent these problems and/or make them go away. Similar to Google-SEO consultants, or college-admissions consultants who help rich kids get into universities they normally couldn't.
- kingcharles 5y ago
  There is already this service which works to get your Facebook account back: https://hacked.com/ https://hacked.com/

duhast 5y ago

What is astonishing is that despite the scale at which they operate we rarely hear about the problems. False positives seem to be ridiculously low.

ascar 5y ago
Is it really rarely? I feel like I'm hearing about it all the time. The comments in this thread reenforce this feeling. Having to make it to HN frontpage to get support from Google seems also a much too common occurrence. My assessment would be false positives are way too high and customer support is close to non-existent. And we're hearing only about a tiny fraction of the problems with the majority being stuck in customer support hell.
- duhast 5y ago
  HM is a bubble with bias against Google. People here seem to believe that bashing this company publicly will somehow change how they operate. Interestingly enough, back in the day Google used to be a darling of HN community. I suspect folks might be disappointed to see how things turned out at the end.
  - egberts1 5y ago
    Well, yeah. I too am in the bubble of realistic experience of having apps repeatedly pulled out from underneath me. Excuse me for being in that bubble.
  - kbenson 5y ago
    It's almost as if over a decade or more if time that people can see the result of behavior they didn't see as problematic initially. Or that google might have changed how they operate in small ways as they are steered differently. Expecting any one person to still have the same opinion of any one other person a decade later might be asking a lot. It's nothing strange that a community of people would have differing thoughts on a whole company of people and product and policies.
    - 5y ago

thayne 5y ago

That would almost certainly violate some contract you signed when you were hired.

onepointsixC 5y ago
Most definitively, but at least people who do not have connections inside of google could stay in businesses. Which speaks to just how big of an issue all of this is.

ceejayoz 5y ago

Oh, I've no doubt that's happening in all the major tech companies. Amazon employees got caught doing this. https://www.justice.gov/usao-wdwa/pr/six-indicted-connection-multi-million-dollar-scheme-bribe-amazon-employees-and https://www.justice.gov/usao-wdwa/pr/six-indicted-connection...

analog31 5y ago

There could be an app for that -- a clearing house that lets you submit an issue and have it taken up by an employee, with anonymity, for a fee. It could be the Uber for access to insider support.

ynx 5y ago

Stuff like this does happen at the big companies, but it's also rooted out (when you're that big, you can afford to have internal security teams that investigate this stuff) and the offenders get fucked by legal (and fired, obviously). Usually quietly because of the PR damage it would otherwise cause.

kingcharles 5y ago

Every time I get fucked-up support dead-ends like this now I go to war against the management of that company. I pay to get hold of all the home phone/cellphones/personal email addresses of the highest position employees I can find and bug the shit out of them until one of them capitulates and gets a minion to fix the problem. I just harassed the C-suite of a unicorn that wouldn't give me a refund for something that wasn't delivered. "We can't give you a refund because FedEx says it was delivered." IT WAS DELIVERED TO SOMEONE ELSE AND THEN FEDEX COLLECTED IT AND RETURNED IT AS YOU CAN SEE IN THE TRACKING LOGS. "Thank you for your e-mail. As the package shows that it was delivered you will need to take this up with FedEx. I cannot help you further with this enquiry." A weekend of texting and emailing the management and now suddenly I have them giving me their corporate email addresses and a promise to have it fixed after the holiday.