4 ms·

I recently had a real drama with my Google One subscription. I cancelled it months ago, because I projected being poorer and trying to tighten my belt. Then I

I recently had a real drama with my Google One subscription. I cancelled it months ago, because I projected being poorer and trying to tighten my belt. Then I thought better of it, and so I wanted to resubscribe. Although my subscription was good through August 12, the system would not allow me to reactivate it early, would not allow me to update payment methods, although it was tantalizingly displaying several "upgrade" buttons for more expensive plans. And it was also displaying a prominent yellow banner that told me I had cancelled "but I can restart it anytime!" So in mid-July, I contacted a support agent. And they started explaining to me that there was no way to resubscribe until the day it lapsed. And I described their banner and they said welp, just wait for that day. And they also repeatedly said "you can contact us anytime and resubscribe!" and I kept telling them to quit lying! I was also reminded of a terrible threat, that email is counted in disk quota, and if I was in excess of 15GiB when the 100GiB subscription lapsed, my email would be disabled! Since I can't guarantee I'll have the subscription for life, I'll just have to ensure I never exceed 15GiB, even though I pay for 100, sad... So the termination day rolled around, and I contacted support to ask them why I couldn't restart it, and they said I had to wait for the cancellation email (different story than the first time around) and I was finally able to safely renew, and hopefully set up autopay on that too. The funny thing is that if the One subscription lapses, I'd of course lose access to those live agents as well, so if I had any further trouble, I'd be screaming into the void. I mean, if One expires, you're over quota, email won't work, you don't receive the email, you can never resubscribe, nobody will help you... ouch.

behringer 3y ago
Never ever ever trust Google like this. You need to go a different route for your storage.
- NoZebra120vClip 3y ago
  My... storage?
  - behringer 3y ago
    Yes. Who you gonna call when they block your email and you have access to no files? It seems like half the time you have to reach someone who works at Google here for help. I'd get my storage elsewhere at the very least especially when they will disable your email because of their incompetence.
    - NoZebra120vClip 3y ago
      My storage is relatively immaterial to my dependence on Google. My email address is linked to several hundred accounts which I use to run my life, manage my household, do finances, etc. My email address is, of course, the primary means of communicating with me other than phone. YouTube is my primary means of entertainment, but that's disposable. I also use Sign In With Google on dozens of the above accounts, so they are a definite dependency on the Google account. I own an Android phone and a Chromebook. I operate 3 personal accounts, and my employer relies on Google as our primary business platform. My Google Calendar and Tasks are my sole method of scheduling everything I do in life, from daily tasks to events I attend and everyone's birthdays. My Google Contacts contain all contacts of everyone I know and is the sole repository of that data. Google Docs and Sheets are my sole word processing and spreadsheet apps, which I use to great effect for writing letters, managing household, etc. etc. I know them like the back of my hand, and I also use them every day for work. All the photos I've ever taken since 2015 are stored only in Photos. Not many, of course, but some I'd miss. I'm increasingly using Wallet and GPay for financial transactions and event tickets. I even hear tell that my jurisdiction is putting driver licenses on Wallet now. So could you rephrase your advice to me please? Which $20/year service replaces these apps, and permits easy import of all my data from Takeout? If someone used 365, would you demand that they GTFO Microsoft and junk their Windows systems? What should we run? A PDP-11?
      - veave 3y ago
        From what I can see, you dug yourself into a hole. If google decides to close your account, you will be in some real trouble. You should start working ASAP in diversifying your online life.

behringer 3y ago

Never ever ever trust Google like this. You need to go a different route for your storage.

NoZebra120vClip 3y ago
My... storage?
- behringer 3y ago
  Yes. Who you gonna call when they block your email and you have access to no files? It seems like half the time you have to reach someone who works at Google here for help. I'd get my storage elsewhere at the very least especially when they will disable your email because of their incompetence.
  - NoZebra120vClip 3y ago
    My storage is relatively immaterial to my dependence on Google. My email address is linked to several hundred accounts which I use to run my life, manage my household, do finances, etc. My email address is, of course, the primary means of communicating with me other than phone. YouTube is my primary means of entertainment, but that's disposable. I also use Sign In With Google on dozens of the above accounts, so they are a definite dependency on the Google account. I own an Android phone and a Chromebook. I operate 3 personal accounts, and my employer relies on Google as our primary business platform. My Google Calendar and Tasks are my sole method of scheduling everything I do in life, from daily tasks to events I attend and everyone's birthdays. My Google Contacts contain all contacts of everyone I know and is the sole repository of that data. Google Docs and Sheets are my sole word processing and spreadsheet apps, which I use to great effect for writing letters, managing household, etc. etc. I know them like the back of my hand, and I also use them every day for work. All the photos I've ever taken since 2015 are stored only in Photos. Not many, of course, but some I'd miss. I'm increasingly using Wallet and GPay for financial transactions and event tickets. I even hear tell that my jurisdiction is putting driver licenses on Wallet now. So could you rephrase your advice to me please? Which $20/year service replaces these apps, and permits easy import of all my data from Takeout? If someone used 365, would you demand that they GTFO Microsoft and junk their Windows systems? What should we run? A PDP-11?
    - veave 3y ago
      From what I can see, you dug yourself into a hole. If google decides to close your account, you will be in some real trouble. You should start working ASAP in diversifying your online life.