8 ms·

WTF Google, you stole my $5

210 points by jtwaleson 14y ago

jacquesm 14y ago
That's why google is working so hard on AI, that way they don't have to staff a proper customer service department. Hopefully they'll get that done in time for them not to be out-competed by a company that actually cares about their audience / customers.
johne20 14y ago
I had a similar terrible experience spending $10 to transfer my number on google voice. Got the whole "Uh oh. There was a problem" error. Waiting for support like you, and then I found some obscure google group post that suggested my address on google wallet was wrong. After fixing that and waiting a day or so I finally made purchase successfully. Google checkout/wallet is less than good, combined with virtually non-existent support is a terrible combination.
evmar 14y ago
I'm not excusing it, but it seems plausible to me that the Android charge is separate from the Chrome charge because they are different projects that probably have completely different systems. It's the same poor experience you sometimes have with tech support phone trees with e.g. a credit card company, where each time your call is redirected they ask you for your information again -- poor integration between different wings.
ippa 14y ago
I've been bitten by googles non-existent customer support too while dealing with my adword account(s). Somehow I had two accounts, but one of them was transferred to my friend by changing all the info + have him verify the new bank account. Sure, I probably messed up somehow.. but it should be easy to fix but it's impossible to get in contact with them. I mailed multiple times over 1-2 months.. with details what I had done. Never got a single reply. Extremely frustrating. I want to put their ads on multiple sites, but they wont let me :).
Kilimanjaro 14y ago
I've been a google supporter for years, until they do something ugly to you, and now that love is gone. Fuck you google, if you don't listen to your users you're doomed to extinction. You stole my hard earned money in adsense for over a couple of years. All of a sudden you decided to close my account for activity fraud. I swear to god I never clicked a damn ad. My stats show no abnormal visits (analytics from google) just a steady flow of a hundred visitors a day, just ten cents a day in adsense. But you stole it without any explanation, just that you can't give any info to protect your algorithms and your sponsors. Well fuck you, then who protects the user? You stole just $100 from me, but I hope you lose it all. I'll do all I can to see you on your knees. Fuck you google.
- Evbn 14y ago
  If that is stealing at all, it is on behalf of advertisers. Google doesn't get paid when you don't.
  - mrslx 14y ago
    Not true - inventory availability and user data are gathered. Google receives value from a publisher using Ad Sense tags, if they chose to use that value by returning ad (getting paid by an advertiser) then Google makes money. At the end of the day an unused impression opportunity by Google may cost a tiny bit of computing resources, but its an unused opportunity for revenue by the publisher.
- jxi 14y ago
  This isn't really related to this post. Also, this is just childish whining that your precious ad sense revenue account gets banned. Well, shit happens. 100$? That sounds like your first ad sense paycheck, so call me skeptical but you probably did click your ad, maybe without knowing or violated some other term of service. Google can't answer the millions of cases like yours one by one specifically, nor should they since somebody who's trying to game the ad sense system shouldn't be told where they messed up anyway. Why not start your own version of ad sense if you think you can do this better.
raverbashing 14y ago
Another example of how Google does not (or is not willing to) do customer support. If it works: great, if there's a glitch, well, tough.
michaelhoffman 14y ago
Seems like an open-and-shut case for a chargeback.
- josephagoss 14y ago
  The trouble is its only $5 and it's not even worth worrying about getting the money back, it's not going to hurt Google doing a chargeback anywhere near as much as this blog post will hopefully hurt them. Unfortuanlty for Google, because they have essentially no human face, public shaming is our only option to open up a dialog with them.
  - Evbn 14y ago
    If Google merits enough charge backs, credit card companies will notice.
- martin-adams 14y ago
  Only downside of that is that it might flag the account as being fraudulent.
josephagoss 14y ago
If the $5 is to keep out spam, doesn't the fact that he has already confirmed that he is not a spammer by paying the $25 from before for the android thing? Why keep asking for money and bounce him around like this? This is what you expect from a crappy company with outsourced customer support , not google.
- white_devil 14y ago
  > This is what you expect from a crappy companies with outsourced customer support , not google. I'd expect you to expect algorithmic customer support from Google.
  - josephagoss 14y ago
    True, but even Google need some real thinking people in customer support. Algorithms are not enough for all your customer interactions, at least not for now anyway.
    - white_devil 14y ago
      Sure, common sense suggests that they do need some real people in customer support, but haven't you read the horror stories of their algorithms banning people? People had their accounts closed with messages like: "Your account is now closed permanently. We won't tell you why. Don't try contacting us, we will not respond. Fuck You." They have some real people working with customers, but they're meant for big, rich customers-they-want-to-keep. You get the algorithm treatment, and you're not supposed to even reach the real people there.
      - josephagoss 14y ago
        I'm surprised Google act like this, on the one hand they want us to use Google for everything, apps, email, cloud storage. And on the other hand all we get is the algorithm treatment. Unless they change this I can see blog post after blog post slowly eating away at Google's reputation.
polshaw 14y ago
Sorry in advance for the rant but i think it is fucking stupid to charge developers at all. Yes, it is nothing, but the principal itself leaves a sour taste. I am improving your platform, you are going to take 30% of anything made, and you want me to pay you for that privilege. I know this applies to others too (worse at times) and that there is some rationale behind this (reduce hoards of crap), but it just stinks, to me, in principle, and i'm sure there would be better ways of going about it.
- hippich 14y ago
  Just a thoughts - May be they charge these $5 just to make developers value their accounts and not register just for fun or when they forgot their email address. Also, to connect extension author to real credit card data. In case of malware extension - this might be very valuable for LEOs.
- hosay123 14y ago
  It's an incredibly effective antispam technique. Metafilter does something similar, charging a $5 lifetime fee at signup. Existing accounts were not charged when it was introduced.
  - nikcub 14y ago
    I would like to hear if it is effective because a) the Chrome Webstore is full of spyware[0] and b) its not like spammers can't spend $5 to verify an account [0] My example search is always 'youtube downloader': https://chrome.google.com/webstore/search/youtube%20downloader https://chrome.google.com/webstore/search/youtube%20download...
    - dmor 14y ago
      Its not about spending $5, it's about spending $5 x 10,000. Same reason credit card validations are $1 (which then gets credited back to the card a few days later).
      - 14y ago
jggonz 14y ago
I've actually had the same issue with Google for over a year. I can't use Google Wallet to pay for anything (including Android apps on the phone)! I've tried removing and adding my card back. It gives me the same error. I've resorted to asking family members to use their accounts to purchase items on my devices. This error is really frustrating!
kenko 14y ago
Can't he (or couldn't he) dispute the charge with the credit card company?
- jtwaleson 14y ago
  I could but I really can't be bothered. The fact that I can't publish my extension does bother me.
  - bryanl 14y ago
    It could have taken less time to call your CC company than to write this blog post.
    - cdh 14y ago
      Unless Google retaliates somehow. I’d be surprised if they didn’t immediately ban or somehow freeze all of his Google accounts and services in response to a chargeback.
      - tzs 14y ago
        That's what we do where I work. If someone wants money back, all they have to so is ask, and it will be done, with no hard feelings and they will be welcome back if they ever change their mind. Do a chargeback, and they go on the "never do business with this person again" list.
        Evbn 14y ago
        You'd go on a rampage destroying customer's personal files if they call for a charge back? That puts you on my "never do business with this person " list.
        tzs 14y ago
        1. Where did I say anything about destroying a customer's personal files? 2. Customers do not call for chargebacks. When customers call, they get a refund from us. A chargeback happens when a customer does NOT call us, but rather goes to their credit card issuer, and claims they did not authorize the charge on their credit card (which is generally a lie). Wen that happens, the credit card company reverses the charge, AND accesses the merchant (us) a fee of around $20. Even if we were able to prove to the credit card issue that the customer is lying, and so the chargeback would be denied, we'd still have to pay the $20 chargeback fee. Doing a chargeback without even trying to contact the merchant when you wish to undo a purchase is a very scummy thing to do, except in cases where it was definitely a fraudulent charge.
chimeracoder 14y ago
Isn't this what your credit card company is for? I had an issue where Paypal never refunded the $2 fee for verifying my account and instead pocketed the cash instead. I got my bank to issue a chargeback over the phone - it took all of five minutes.
- fsckin 14y ago
  Then your GMail account is instantly locked for fraud activity, since you foolishly used the same account for everything. Good luck contacting them for support to fix it.
  - mrkmcknz 14y ago
    Has this actually ever happened to anyone?
  - csense 14y ago
    This is why you should avoid Google when you can. They're eating the Internet. The more you depend on them, the harder it'll be to cut ties when they give you crap.
- gojomo 14y ago
  That can only get the money back, while the author would clearly prefer he get the service he paid for months ago (and be able to deploy/promote his software). Complicating the transaction with a dispute/chargeback could make that real goal even harder to achieve, not just by making the previous purchase attempt appear 'unpaid', but also perhaps giving his account/card a 'uses chargebacks' flag within Google.
rauar 14y ago
You get my upvote. It's long overdue that Google overhauls this.
homosaur 14y ago
Google, for a company that reputes to perform services, is probably the single most consumer-unfriendly company on the planet. Their customer care dept. consists of one crazy cat lady in a cabin in the hills of California. They've sold enterprise services for years (or pretend enterprise services, at least), sold multiple phones and devices, have the largest ad network on the Internet and they STILL don't have anyone you can call if things go wrong. Unless you're Kevin Rose and Google will get bad pub, they absolutely do not care about your problem. Shut up slave, or go back to Hotmail. Your experience is not even irregular. I'd say this is the typical experience for people dealing with Google when everything doesn't go 100% correct.
- plg 14y ago
  This kind of thing is one reason I trust others (eg Apple) more than Google with my computing services.
  - ljd 14y ago
    Apple is a retail business and they can deliver tech support at scale by doubling their retail locations into support centers. It's unfair to compare a retail company's availability to a SaaS provider such as a Google. It would be wise for Google to start opening retail locations if it intends to get into the retail game for this very reason.
    - FourthProtocol 14y ago
      This isn't an unfair comparison at all. From the consumer's perspective both provide many similar services. And products, for that matter. And (serious question) what's stopping Google from providing support, when other SaaS providers can (and do, profitably) and other ad/media companies can and do?
      - illuminate 14y ago
        Specifically, paid support would be nice.
StylifyYourBlog 14y ago
Google is not anymore a company it used to be. They are now just in the process of streamlining their profits - closing down products that are not creating huge amounts of money , making free products into paid ones , over-promoting their social network and making lives of webmasters into roll-coaster rides by frantically updating their search algorithms . I suppose Customer Support is the least of their concerns But ironically enough as you have posted the problem on HN , it will surely be solved very swiftly less in the sense of customer goodwill but more of a PR move. This just reminds me of how are governments work - You have to know somebody from the inside to get the work done - and this is what Google is becoming.
- driverdan 14y ago
  This is nothing new, Google customer support has always been terrible.
meaty 14y ago
Google really need to sort their support out. When evaluating Google Apps for our organisation, we couldn't even get through to a human. This pretty much killed the evaluation up front. Chargeback!
- justincormack 14y ago
  I had a friendly human call me shortly after I signed up for a trial for work, and had good impressions of the onboarding process. But they didnt give contact numbers before that initial contact...
- PJones 14y ago
  The problem here is that it's not just a Chrome Developer account, it's a Google account. There may well be an automated process to lockout users that owe them money. Steam has a similar flaw. If you file a chargeback on any game you purchase then you'll be locked out of every game you ever 'bought' until you resolve the issue.
  - meaty 14y ago
    Why the hell would you invest in something so risky then? I refuse to pay for anything which can be taken away at the whim, process or incompetence of another.
    - lmm 14y ago
      Because it gives me the best odds. Store-bought: can lose or break the disc, sometimes the DRM won't let it install on my system. Pirate: might be missing some of the data, might be invalidated by an update, always that slight fear of viruses.
jason_slack 14y ago
Well, I was a Google Apps customer and paid my money for a year of paid GMail with my own domain. There was a technical error, my card was indeed charged and despite countless e-mails and trying to call anywhere for a resolution nothing. E-Mails just like this article had. I wonder how many customers Google owes money to for things like this? Maybe we could tally this up and petition them to pay out.
- mrslx 14y ago
  I would not be surprised if they get hit with a Class Action someday. For their long tail products, the impact to single users is small but across the board, i'm sure it adds up.. reminds me of that evil scheme to take .0005% of a penny from everyone. Their B2B services is also lacking, turn over for their employees is high y/y. ..maybe this is the new of state internet services at scale? edit: grammar
zaidf 14y ago
Google may actually penalize their phone support for being on the phone for over 3 minutes. Story: An acquaintance got on the phone with support department to troubleshoot a problem. The support person was struggling to help. As the 3 minute mark approaches, the support person gets increasingly anxious. Finally, he straight up confesses that he has a 3 minute call limit beyond which he may get penalized. And then hung up on my acquaintance seeking help.

210 points by jtwaleson 14y ago

That's why google is working so hard on AI, that way they don't have to staff a proper customer service department. Hopefully they'll get that done in time for them not to be out-competed by a company that actually cares about their audience / customers.

johne20 14y ago

I had a similar terrible experience spending $10 to transfer my number on google voice. Got the whole "Uh oh. There was a problem" error. Waiting for support like you, and then I found some obscure google group post that suggested my address on google wallet was wrong. After fixing that and waiting a day or so I finally made purchase successfully. Google checkout/wallet is less than good, combined with virtually non-existent support is a terrible combination.

evmar 14y ago

I'm not excusing it, but it seems plausible to me that the Android charge is separate from the Chrome charge because they are different projects that probably have completely different systems. It's the same poor experience you sometimes have with tech support phone trees with e.g. a credit card company, where each time your call is redirected they ask you for your information again -- poor integration between different wings.

ippa 14y ago

I've been bitten by googles non-existent customer support too while dealing with my adword account(s). Somehow I had two accounts, but one of them was transferred to my friend by changing all the info + have him verify the new bank account. Sure, I probably messed up somehow.. but it should be easy to fix but it's impossible to get in contact with them. I mailed multiple times over 1-2 months.. with details what I had done. Never got a single reply. Extremely frustrating. I want to put their ads on multiple sites, but they wont let me :).

Kilimanjaro 14y ago

I've been a google supporter for years, until they do something ugly to you, and now that love is gone. Fuck you google, if you don't listen to your users you're doomed to extinction. You stole my hard earned money in adsense for over a couple of years. All of a sudden you decided to close my account for activity fraud. I swear to god I never clicked a damn ad. My stats show no abnormal visits (analytics from google) just a steady flow of a hundred visitors a day, just ten cents a day in adsense. But you stole it without any explanation, just that you can't give any info to protect your algorithms and your sponsors. Well fuck you, then who protects the user? You stole just $100 from me, but I hope you lose it all. I'll do all I can to see you on your knees. Fuck you google.

Evbn 14y ago
If that is stealing at all, it is on behalf of advertisers. Google doesn't get paid when you don't.
- mrslx 14y ago
  Not true - inventory availability and user data are gathered. Google receives value from a publisher using Ad Sense tags, if they chose to use that value by returning ad (getting paid by an advertiser) then Google makes money. At the end of the day an unused impression opportunity by Google may cost a tiny bit of computing resources, but its an unused opportunity for revenue by the publisher.
jxi 14y ago
This isn't really related to this post. Also, this is just childish whining that your precious ad sense revenue account gets banned. Well, shit happens. 100$? That sounds like your first ad sense paycheck, so call me skeptical but you probably did click your ad, maybe without knowing or violated some other term of service. Google can't answer the millions of cases like yours one by one specifically, nor should they since somebody who's trying to game the ad sense system shouldn't be told where they messed up anyway. Why not start your own version of ad sense if you think you can do this better.

raverbashing 14y ago

Another example of how Google does not (or is not willing to) do customer support. If it works: great, if there's a glitch, well, tough.

michaelhoffman 14y ago

Seems like an open-and-shut case for a chargeback.

josephagoss 14y ago
The trouble is its only $5 and it's not even worth worrying about getting the money back, it's not going to hurt Google doing a chargeback anywhere near as much as this blog post will hopefully hurt them. Unfortuanlty for Google, because they have essentially no human face, public shaming is our only option to open up a dialog with them.
- Evbn 14y ago
  If Google merits enough charge backs, credit card companies will notice.
martin-adams 14y ago
Only downside of that is that it might flag the account as being fraudulent.

josephagoss 14y ago

If the $5 is to keep out spam, doesn't the fact that he has already confirmed that he is not a spammer by paying the $25 from before for the android thing? Why keep asking for money and bounce him around like this? This is what you expect from a crappy company with outsourced customer support , not google.

white_devil 14y ago
> This is what you expect from a crappy companies with outsourced customer support , not google. I'd expect you to expect algorithmic customer support from Google.
- josephagoss 14y ago
  True, but even Google need some real thinking people in customer support. Algorithms are not enough for all your customer interactions, at least not for now anyway.
  - white_devil 14y ago
    Sure, common sense suggests that they do need some real people in customer support, but haven't you read the horror stories of their algorithms banning people? People had their accounts closed with messages like: "Your account is now closed permanently. We won't tell you why. Don't try contacting us, we will not respond. Fuck You." They have some real people working with customers, but they're meant for big, rich customers-they-want-to-keep. You get the algorithm treatment, and you're not supposed to even reach the real people there.
    - josephagoss 14y ago
      I'm surprised Google act like this, on the one hand they want us to use Google for everything, apps, email, cloud storage. And on the other hand all we get is the algorithm treatment. Unless they change this I can see blog post after blog post slowly eating away at Google's reputation.

polshaw 14y ago

Sorry in advance for the rant but i think it is fucking stupid to charge developers at all. Yes, it is nothing, but the principal itself leaves a sour taste. I am improving your platform, you are going to take 30% of anything made, and you want me to pay you for that privilege. I know this applies to others too (worse at times) and that there is some rationale behind this (reduce hoards of crap), but it just stinks, to me, in principle, and i'm sure there would be better ways of going about it.

hippich 14y ago
Just a thoughts - May be they charge these $5 just to make developers value their accounts and not register just for fun or when they forgot their email address. Also, to connect extension author to real credit card data. In case of malware extension - this might be very valuable for LEOs.
hosay123 14y ago
It's an incredibly effective antispam technique. Metafilter does something similar, charging a $5 lifetime fee at signup. Existing accounts were not charged when it was introduced.
- nikcub 14y ago
  I would like to hear if it is effective because a) the Chrome Webstore is full of spyware[0] and b) its not like spammers can't spend $5 to verify an account [0] My example search is always 'youtube downloader': https://chrome.google.com/webstore/search/youtube%20downloader https://chrome.google.com/webstore/search/youtube%20download...
  - dmor 14y ago
    Its not about spending $5, it's about spending $5 x 10,000. Same reason credit card validations are $1 (which then gets credited back to the card a few days later).
    - 14y ago

jggonz 14y ago

I've actually had the same issue with Google for over a year. I can't use Google Wallet to pay for anything (including Android apps on the phone)! I've tried removing and adding my card back. It gives me the same error. I've resorted to asking family members to use their accounts to purchase items on my devices. This error is really frustrating!

kenko 14y ago

Can't he (or couldn't he) dispute the charge with the credit card company?

jtwaleson 14y ago
I could but I really can't be bothered. The fact that I can't publish my extension does bother me.
- bryanl 14y ago
  It could have taken less time to call your CC company than to write this blog post.
  - cdh 14y ago
    Unless Google retaliates somehow. I’d be surprised if they didn’t immediately ban or somehow freeze all of his Google accounts and services in response to a chargeback.
    - tzs 14y ago
      That's what we do where I work. If someone wants money back, all they have to so is ask, and it will be done, with no hard feelings and they will be welcome back if they ever change their mind. Do a chargeback, and they go on the "never do business with this person again" list.
      - Evbn 14y ago
        You'd go on a rampage destroying customer's personal files if they call for a charge back? That puts you on my "never do business with this person " list.
        tzs 14y ago
        1. Where did I say anything about destroying a customer's personal files? 2. Customers do not call for chargebacks. When customers call, they get a refund from us. A chargeback happens when a customer does NOT call us, but rather goes to their credit card issuer, and claims they did not authorize the charge on their credit card (which is generally a lie). Wen that happens, the credit card company reverses the charge, AND accesses the merchant (us) a fee of around $20. Even if we were able to prove to the credit card issue that the customer is lying, and so the chargeback would be denied, we'd still have to pay the $20 chargeback fee. Doing a chargeback without even trying to contact the merchant when you wish to undo a purchase is a very scummy thing to do, except in cases where it was definitely a fraudulent charge.

chimeracoder 14y ago

Isn't this what your credit card company is for? I had an issue where Paypal never refunded the $2 fee for verifying my account and instead pocketed the cash instead. I got my bank to issue a chargeback over the phone - it took all of five minutes.

fsckin 14y ago
Then your GMail account is instantly locked for fraud activity, since you foolishly used the same account for everything. Good luck contacting them for support to fix it.
- mrkmcknz 14y ago
  Has this actually ever happened to anyone?
- csense 14y ago
  This is why you should avoid Google when you can. They're eating the Internet. The more you depend on them, the harder it'll be to cut ties when they give you crap.
gojomo 14y ago
That can only get the money back, while the author would clearly prefer he get the service he paid for months ago (and be able to deploy/promote his software). Complicating the transaction with a dispute/chargeback could make that real goal even harder to achieve, not just by making the previous purchase attempt appear 'unpaid', but also perhaps giving his account/card a 'uses chargebacks' flag within Google.

rauar 14y ago

You get my upvote. It's long overdue that Google overhauls this.

homosaur 14y ago

Google, for a company that reputes to perform services, is probably the single most consumer-unfriendly company on the planet. Their customer care dept. consists of one crazy cat lady in a cabin in the hills of California. They've sold enterprise services for years (or pretend enterprise services, at least), sold multiple phones and devices, have the largest ad network on the Internet and they STILL don't have anyone you can call if things go wrong. Unless you're Kevin Rose and Google will get bad pub, they absolutely do not care about your problem. Shut up slave, or go back to Hotmail. Your experience is not even irregular. I'd say this is the typical experience for people dealing with Google when everything doesn't go 100% correct.

plg 14y ago
This kind of thing is one reason I trust others (eg Apple) more than Google with my computing services.
- ljd 14y ago
  Apple is a retail business and they can deliver tech support at scale by doubling their retail locations into support centers. It's unfair to compare a retail company's availability to a SaaS provider such as a Google. It would be wise for Google to start opening retail locations if it intends to get into the retail game for this very reason.
  - FourthProtocol 14y ago
    This isn't an unfair comparison at all. From the consumer's perspective both provide many similar services. And products, for that matter. And (serious question) what's stopping Google from providing support, when other SaaS providers can (and do, profitably) and other ad/media companies can and do?
    - illuminate 14y ago
      Specifically, paid support would be nice.

StylifyYourBlog 14y ago

Google is not anymore a company it used to be. They are now just in the process of streamlining their profits - closing down products that are not creating huge amounts of money , making free products into paid ones , over-promoting their social network and making lives of webmasters into roll-coaster rides by frantically updating their search algorithms . I suppose Customer Support is the least of their concerns But ironically enough as you have posted the problem on HN , it will surely be solved very swiftly less in the sense of customer goodwill but more of a PR move. This just reminds me of how are governments work - You have to know somebody from the inside to get the work done - and this is what Google is becoming.

driverdan 14y ago
This is nothing new, Google customer support has always been terrible.

meaty 14y ago

Google really need to sort their support out. When evaluating Google Apps for our organisation, we couldn't even get through to a human. This pretty much killed the evaluation up front. Chargeback!

justincormack 14y ago
I had a friendly human call me shortly after I signed up for a trial for work, and had good impressions of the onboarding process. But they didnt give contact numbers before that initial contact...
PJones 14y ago
The problem here is that it's not just a Chrome Developer account, it's a Google account. There may well be an automated process to lockout users that owe them money. Steam has a similar flaw. If you file a chargeback on any game you purchase then you'll be locked out of every game you ever 'bought' until you resolve the issue.
- meaty 14y ago
  Why the hell would you invest in something so risky then? I refuse to pay for anything which can be taken away at the whim, process or incompetence of another.
  - lmm 14y ago
    Because it gives me the best odds. Store-bought: can lose or break the disc, sometimes the DRM won't let it install on my system. Pirate: might be missing some of the data, might be invalidated by an update, always that slight fear of viruses.

jason_slack 14y ago

Well, I was a Google Apps customer and paid my money for a year of paid GMail with my own domain. There was a technical error, my card was indeed charged and despite countless e-mails and trying to call anywhere for a resolution nothing. E-Mails just like this article had. I wonder how many customers Google owes money to for things like this? Maybe we could tally this up and petition them to pay out.

mrslx 14y ago
I would not be surprised if they get hit with a Class Action someday. For their long tail products, the impact to single users is small but across the board, i'm sure it adds up.. reminds me of that evil scheme to take .0005% of a penny from everyone. Their B2B services is also lacking, turn over for their employees is high y/y. ..maybe this is the new of state internet services at scale? edit: grammar

zaidf 14y ago

Google may actually penalize their phone support for being on the phone for over 3 minutes. Story: An acquaintance got on the phone with support department to troubleshoot a problem. The support person was struggling to help. As the 3 minute mark approaches, the support person gets increasingly anxious. Finally, he straight up confesses that he has a 3 minute call limit beyond which he may get penalized. And then hung up on my acquaintance seeking help.