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Two years ago I used just about everything Google and had done so since Gmail first came out. My Android phone was googlefi. Internet was google. Gmail. DNS. SS
by swozey 3y ago
Two years ago I used just about everything Google and had done so since Gmail first came out. My Android phone was googlefi. Internet was google. Gmail. DNS. SSO to pretty much everything.
One day out of the blue my Google Pay account was marked as fraud and locked down. I couldn't update/add/change any of my payment information. I have no idea why. I don't remember when/how I even found out it was locked down, I wasn't really sure at that point what stopped working, if anything. I didn't have anything TELL me that it wasn't working so I thought this was just an isolated event that would get resolved quickly and wasn't affecting anything important.
Then throughout that week I started to notice what wasn't working. I could log into gmail (IIRC) but I wasn't getting any email. My custom domains that forwarded to gmail stopped resolving. My cell phone wouldn't make calls anymore. I never had a problem with SSO logins, thankfully.
The credit card I was using for all of my Google services was coming up on its expiration and I desperately needed my 15+ year old gmail to work. I'm pretty sure I was in the middle of selling a house when this was going on. I have so much mail in the inbox that it won't accept mail without paying for the service. Google has this form you fill out and attach a picture of your drivers license to so that they can investigate the "fraud." Over that month I sent in my DL at least 3 times. I never received any response.
I was without a phone for a week because they had no customer service to even speak to, not that I could even make any outbound calls. I wound up getting another phone plan elsewhere because that was the most critical thing to me. I was so pissed at Google I switched to an iPhone.
I was getting no response from Google and days/weeks were going by so finally I bit the bullet and de-googled everything I could. I migrated all of my 15 years of email to Fastmail. I moved all of my DNS records. Changed my ISP. It was infuriating.
It's been about 2 years since I did that, I've still never heard from Google about anything. But now all of my accounts are unlocked.
I will never, ever trust my important accounts to Google again.
- terrycody 3y ago>But now all of my accounts are unlocked. But your accounts are unlocked isn't it?
- akg_67 3y agoLesson here is to not put all your eggs in one basket. I try to make sure there is no one vendor service that can become mission critical in my life, specially not likes of Google/Amazon/Microsoft/Apple.
- leadegroot 3y agoAlso, ensure your suppliers have a helpdesk where you can place a ticket that a real person who is paid by them will have to look at. Lesson learned on a bookkeeping service recently - I went for lowest price, and they had NO customer support, it was all crowd sourced :(
- Gigachad 3y agoPhone number, email, and banking should be separate. These are basically the pillars of your digital life. Then for the rest of Google services, you can just download a monthly data dump on Google Takeout which you can restore to any other service at your own leisure.
- alwayslikethis 3y agoYou don't have to switch to Apple though. It's a bit like jumping from the frying pan into the fire. Apple has an even stronger hold on your digital life if you decide to fully invest into its ecosystem. It's much better to stay on Android, but de-google it, and avoiding the use of your Google account
- darknavi 3y agoMoving to Apple isn't necessary but it isn't a trap either for OP. A main lesson they learned was "digital diversity". If they get locked out of their phone now it would be an inconvenience instead of a life altering event. The swap to iPhone is just another "fuck you" to Google, which they earned there.
- SkyPuncher 3y agoI swapped to an iPhone last year. After using Android exclusively. I’ve been extremely happy with my iPhone. Apple has all of the little polish and cross connections that make it a wonderful experience. I think Android made sense while the smartphone market was growing, but all of the platforms are mature now. Android fragments further and Apple polishes more.
- swozey 3y agoYeah I've been very happy. Carplay is light years better than Android Auto. That was one of the biggest worries I had as I used AA a LOT.
- gonehome 3y agoThe incentives are more aligned with apple so this is less of a problem, they also have a lot more support and help available when there are problems.
- callalex 3y agoSure, but if Apple decides to lock your account (a much more rare phenomenon if sampling Hacker News comments) you can have someone on the phone with you in minutes, or even walk to a store where they will help you.