happy to be corrected on this anecdata, but it seems to me that the common thread among nearly all (i can't say with certainty, all) of these locked-out-of-Goog

happy to be corrected on this anecdata, but it seems to me that the common thread among nearly all (i can't say with certainty, all) of these locked-out-of-Google disaster reports is that the victim was using a free Gmail/Google account as one of the central cog in their digital life/social/single sign-on to personally-vitally-important sites/services. pay google the 12 bucks or whatever per month to get a paid account, with actual service people you can call on the phone so if something bad happens, yes you can raise a merry stink about it. become an actual customer! it really works