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A few years ago I was working at a startup and we had just started moving some stuff over from AWS to GCP. Things were going pretty good with GCP until one day
by hazbo 4y ago
A few years ago I was working at a startup and we had just started moving some stuff over from AWS to GCP. Things were going pretty good with GCP until one day they pulled the plug on everything with no explanation. It turns out that our company credit card details had been fraudulently used without our knowledge. The criminal had decided to use the card to buy Google Ad Words or something like that - this is the same card we use on our GCP billing account. Anyway Google just took prod down with no notice on grounds of fraud. Could happen to anyone.
- belter 4y agoSounds like those Whiteboard interviews need to incorporate Graph Deterministic Algorithms for Highly-Dynamic Networks...
- gumby 4y agoNeed another Leetcode section on heartlessly screwing your SaaS customers.
- HeavyStorm 4y agoWasn't there an algorithm for that?
- doctor_eval 4y agoIt sounds like they need a whiteboard session on something like “policy engine to decouple billing status from service status”.
- hn_version_0023 4y agoYes, It’s called the Google hiring process.
- samstave 4y agohttps://i.imgur.com/ctKRD80.png https://i.imgur.com/ctKRD80.png
- samstave 4y agohttps://i.imgur.com/x8JPkGO.png https://i.imgur.com/x8JPkGO.png
- cft 4y agoFor Google a customer is a data point in their machine learning set (hopefully weighted by revenue). The decisions are made by a ML model. If you treat your relationship with Google as such from the beginning, you can extract some value if you use Google for near zero value use cases - spam/marketing emails, disposable non-real time computations, Adwords/AdSense on spammy sites. Not sure if having an Android phone is safe enough for critical use, because it's entirely tied to a Google account.
- le-mark 4y agoThis, either be big enough for a dedicated account representative (do they even offer that?) or use for noncritical workloads.
- mhoad 4y agoDoes this not cover everything people need right here? $29/m + 3% of monthly spend https://cloud.google.com/support/docs/standard https://cloud.google.com/support/docs/standard Or alternatively $500/m + 3% of monthly spend https://cloud.google.com/support/docs/enhanced https://cloud.google.com/support/docs/enhanced
- aaaaaaaaata 4y agoGrapheneOS.org, use sandboxed webapps &/or profiles.
- cft 4y agoDoes it have push notifications (Google Firebase)?
- theshrike79 4y agoNever mess with Ad Words, that makes the Alphabet Beast angry every time. I've heard the exact same Ad Words story a few times now, someone used their CC or had at one point in the distant past used with Ad Words and the system flagged it. Everything gone with no warning, no explanation and no way to complain. Even getting to the front page of HN didn't work =)
- paulgb 4y agoWe were lucky enough that getting to the front page of HN did work for us[1], but it's worth noting that it doesn't even have to be your card! Simply having a card from an issuer (in our case a legit, YC-backed, US-based startup bank) that got flagged was enough to have our account suspended and appeals denied. [1] https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=32237445 https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=32237445
- mcv 4y agoSounds like credit cards are the wrong payment system for GCP. Do they support direct bank transactions? They definitely should, if they don't trust credit cards (which I can understand).
- wizofaus 4y agoIf other cloud platforms can trust and accept them why on earth can't GCP?
- mcv 4y agoProbably because they're easily stolen and popular for fraud. I'm never going to blame someone for not trusting credit cards. Only if you don't trust them, you should offer a better alternative.
- thwaway053 4y agoThe issue is not trusting credit cars, but how you handle suspected fraud. Google should know that credit cards can get leaked/stolen. Suspending an account without notification is not the right solution. At least give the customer a chance to defend itself, change payment methods or switch to a different platform.
- staticassertion 4y agoI hear way too many stories like this about Google products. Whether it's Youtube, AdWords, GCP, or anything else - you get blackholed by them and there's zero recourse. I just can't trust Google for something like running production services.
- stuff4ben 4y ago"can't trust Google" There, fix that for you. If it's mission-critical, there are better customer-focused solutions out there than Google. Despite their massive brain power, they just can't seem to get dealing with users correctly.
- alyandon 4y agothey just can't seem to get dealing with users correctly I guess internally it is considered a major failure if they ever have to deal with a user vs their automation incorrectly banning users without recourse. :-/
- hinkley 4y agoI recall there was a time in my life where I thought that knowing exactly why a project was failing would make me feel better, but it ended up just making me feel worse. Being right while a project crumbles around you is not an accomplishment. Fix what you can, and move on when they get tired of fixing things. I don't understand why so many people find comfort in being able to blame a vendor for problems that could potentially end in mass layoffs.
- hbn 4y agoSeveral years back I wanted to try my hand at making an Android app and putting it in the Play Store. I knew ahead of time from reading all the horror stories that it's best to make a second dedicated developer Google account because once you turn an account into a developer account you're basically painting a target on your back to be randomly deleted by the powers that be. Additionally, not sure if this is still the case but at the time once you converted to a developer account you could never change your account's country again.
- badpun 4y agoCredit cards in general sound like a shitshow that maybe the consumer have the stomach for, but it should never be used for critical business processes. Doesn't Google accept more reliable forms of payment?