
G Suite Happy Ending - dirtylowprofile
http://lawgimenez.me/2018/08/07/g-suite-happy-ending/
======
slededit
A happy ending would have been calling their support number and getting it
fixed through a normal process. Needing to get to the front page of HN first
is just ridiculous.

~~~
mk89
An Internet company, one of the top 3 in the world, that needs to feel
threatened that customers are going to rant on Twitter or other internet
websites.

Just, wow.

~~~
nikanj
Ranting doesn’t help, unless you get extraordinarily lucky and your rant makes
it to the front page.

------
Rotdhizon
Without any other information outside of reading this article, this
contradicts basically every other google support story I've ever read on HN.
Similar to what the few other comments are saying at the time of me writing
this, it seems like this guy made a fuss somewhere that caught the attention
of someone who didn't want the bad PR. Google will remain the contact-less
customer non-service entity it always has. This guy might have gotten lucky to
get a response, but don't expect it to become the norm.

~~~
derefr
The difference this time is that Google's mistake here didn't just hit one
person, or a few people spuriously over a few years, but rather hit a whole
class of users all at once. Once a corporation finds out that they've made
that kind of mistake, they usually work quickly to fix it before it can become
a media shitstorm.

------
newscracker
If only Google published a post or a support article about this so that anyone
searching for this issue could have a way to get it sorted out — if not for
all users, at least for the ones who happened to have this recently where
Google has data backups.

Having to resort to social media and shame companies into doing what they
ought to be doing in the normal course of business and having proper
escalation channels (more so for paid products) is ridiculous.

------
segmondy
Happy ending for one person. If anything this has scared me away from G Suite.
Every once in a while we see an article on how to get away from Google and it
sounds like a bunch of kooks, then things like this happen.

~~~
severino
If you read the article, you will see they're working to fix it so it doesn't
happen again to anybody else. So it's more than a happy ending for just one
guy.

~~~
394549
>> Happy ending for one person. If anything this has scared me away from G
Suite. Every once in a while we see an article on how to get away from Google
and it sounds like a bunch of kooks, then things like this happen.

> If you read the article, you will see they're working to fix it so it
> doesn't happen again to anybody else. So it's more than a happy ending for
> just one guy.

They're _just now_ working on fixing this particular issue, which appears to
have been a problem for at least a year. For many of those people, this fix
will be too little, too late.

The fact that he had to write up a horror story in the first place to get any
kind of support is what scares me away from G Suite, it's too much of a
gamble. I'll continue to be scared away until you can get good support from
Google with a phone call or email.

~~~
severino
Google doesn't fix the problem -> They don't care about their users. They
suck.

Google fixes the problem -> Yes, but how many users suffered the problem
before? They suck.

~~~
394549
> Google doesn't fix the problem -> They don't care about their users. They
> suck.

> Google fixes the problem -> Yes, but how many users suffered the problem
> before? They suck.

You're missing the point. It's _not_ about whether they fixed the problem or
not, but but _what has to happen_ to get them to even take a look when someone
has a problem.

~~~
severino
Well, for me, having a company as big as Google providing a solution and
commiting to fix the problem a few days after the guy reported the issue on
his blog, is quite a good response. It could be better, but we're not talking
about the startup with 10 employees and 300 customers.

~~~
phil21
This attitude is utterly baffling to me.

You are actually _happy_ that Google only provided support _because someone
got media attention_ after ranting about it on a blog. Had this guy never been
able to post and get traction, this would still be a problem today.

If anyone reads this story and says "huh, I think that was great customer
service by Google!" I can only hope they are my competitor and hope they move
all services to Google as quickly as possible.

Where Google would have _actually_ had good customer service? By resolving
this without need exceedingly extraordinary means to enact _any_ action
whatsoever. Most will never get such attention to their case, and will be told
to pound sand.

All I can say is I never want to live in your world. This reminds me of the
hosting shops of yesteryear that would post "marketing videos" of their staff
taking support tickets while on the road with their Sidekicks. Sorry man -
that's horrible level support - if you don't have the staff and processes in
place for me to call 24x7 I don't want to do business with you. Pulling to the
side of the road and typing on 3G is _not_ heroic support - it's a sign of a
horribly managed company. Same exact deal here with Google.

------
jwilk
Context:
[https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=17689404](https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=17689404)

------
sarreph
Boy do I feel sorry for the less technically-minded, small business owners,
who don't know how to leverage HN.

Having to fight tooth and nail to kick up a widespread fuss is not a viable
solution to a technical support line — nor should it warrant gratitude from
the community.

------
chris_mc
Every month, I drop all of my Google files into my OneDrive using "Google
takeout". I don't have to use my own bandwidth, just select all of the data I
want (everything), choose to have it sent into my OneDrive, then once it's
done (takes a few hours) I delete older backups if I need space (with 1TB of
OneDrive space, I can hold about 20 of these Google data backups). That way I
ensure I always have an almost-up-to-date backup of all of my Google data that
I can use to re-start all of my accounts on another provider, if needed.

~~~
dandare
It would be nice to do this via ITTT or similar service.

~~~
judge2020
Or, when it's out:
[https://datatransferproject.dev/](https://datatransferproject.dev/)

------
fabricexpert
"they will make sure this will never happen again to me or anyone"

The bit about the account data being lost? Or the bit about not being able to
contact a human at google if you're not popular enough on the internet?

------
cflewis
Does anyone have a recommendation for a NAS that can do a nightly backup your
Google account/OneDrive account etc. etc.?

I found [1], but that's a lot of fiddling at command-lines. I just want a
button in a web interface that OAuths to my account and off it goes.

[1]: [https://lavaux.lv/2018/02/24/email-backup-gmvault-
synology-n...](https://lavaux.lv/2018/02/24/email-backup-gmvault-synology-
nas.html)

~~~
uxamanda
Sounds like you are looking at more automated solutions anyways, but if you
end up making a backup from a Drive that is synced to your computer, realize
you are only backing up links to google sheets, docs, and slides, not the
actual files. In the case that those files disappear from the web your “files”
will no longer open.

As far as I can tell, your only option is to export them in their native
format (e.g. .docx) if you actually want the data. Learned this the hard way!

------
heavymark
While it's good to hear that landing on HackerNews typically results in a
resolution, it's unfortunate it has to always reach that level of publicity
for large companies to take personal action. I understand that has to be
levels of support you have to go through, but there should be a clear path of
escalations to resolve the issues privately. Thank goodness none the less for
the power of HN (and social shaming) when all other options are exhausted.

------
throw2016
Search, Android, Youtube, Gmail, Chrome and Gdrive are all rife for disruption
but either Google will preemptively buy the companies, play monopolistic games
like they do with Android [1], or the time and resources required to gain
users and traction will bankrupt most alternatives. Without competition you
get inferior products, service and markets.

It's difficult to argue otherwise as you have no frame of comparison for
things that haven't happened and you can't make any claims of quality without
competition. Worse the ad economy has incentivized very poor quality content.
This is where free markets and market theory fails as this can't be fixed
without regulatory intervention or someone with extremely deep pockets willing
to lose large sums of money.

The ad economy has tremendous negative externalities, surveillance, creating
incentives for low quality content, click bait, personalized political
advertising and people incentivized to produce more and more extremist and
divisive content. All this so Google and others can make more money. This
seems like a bad deal for the rest of us, akin to polluting the environment
for personal benefit.

[1] [https://arstechnica.com/gadgets/2018/07/googles-iron-grip-
on...](https://arstechnica.com/gadgets/2018/07/googles-iron-grip-on-android-
controlling-open-source-by-any-means-necessary/)

------
tejtm
This is more an example of the human influence of HN than the benevolence of
the corporation.

Yes, I am absolutely delighted this guy got lucky.

No, I have zero confidence that I or any other poor schmuck could duplicate
it.

------
dink
Last year I temporarily enhanced my ancient GApps account by trialling G
Suite. I wanted to be able to switch the primary domain from one I'd be
retiring. It turned out that the guide I'd been following to do this was
outdated and the functionality was no longer available during trials. So, I
ended my trial and seemed to get logged out.

Couldn't log back in. This domain isn't using G Suite, or some such message.

I looked around for how to contact G Suite support. There didn't seem to be a
way to do so without being logged into G Suite. I tried going through Google
Domains, hoping I'd get forwarded. Didn't really get anywhere, all they could
say was that there was no G Suite associated with the domain. The only option
seemed to be to start another trial, then ask what happened to the GApps
account.

I deliberated for a bit before doing so—would creating the account screw up
any possible account recovery? And, in the meantime, signed up with, and got
my email handled by someone else.

When I did speak to support, they were friendly but I got no clear idea if it
was a bug, or if I'd just absentmindedly clicked through the deletion of my
account. I don't really know if the account is gone or exists in some weird
state. Luckily, I'd recently pruned the data and backed up. I asked if the
account could be recreated but it seems like they can't do that.

I'm about to start a new little thing, and I'd like to use Google products,
but what if I have another issue like this and I've got to sleuth out a way to
get some help?

If you have a GApps account, just live with your goofy domain name and keep
registering it.

------
ddtaylor
This is a problem that is not unique to this specific instance or Google
product. Understand that by relying on Google products you are exposing
yourself to massive risk that one day something will happen that - unless you
get to the front page of HN - may never be fixed. This can leave you or your
business essentially paralyzed.

You have been warned.

------
p2t2p
I am fascinated that after the fact that he needed to get to the front page of
Hacker News in order to have that issue resolved he keeps using this shitty
service.

Like one modern Russian anecdote says - mice were getting pricked, cried, but
keep eating cactus.

Yeah... Keep chewing on this cactus, good luck

------
vinay_ys
Classic phishing scam reads exactly like this all the way till the last but
one line! Wonder how he verified if it was real google calling him and asking
all these questions and giving instructions or not.

------
olivierduval
Google is big, free, and UNRELIABLE !!!

That's what these horror stories teach us, time after time (mail account
closed without notice or appeal anybody?). Not because of technology (Google
seem to have this quite good) but because it DOESN'T WANT to understand that
customer services is about process, people and problems that need to be
handled by humans.

As long as Google wont be able to REALLY commit to customer services, I wont
use it for any business critical mission.

------
docker_up
Glad this was sorted out. Even gladder that someone posted the link to
download all my emails. I thought I had to log in via a client like
Thunderbird and manually download everything, but the mbox archive was
awesome, and I could import that in minutes into Thunderbird.

------
ezoe
So the moral of the story is, If you are to use the google products, make sure
you have a high influential Web site or SNS account and in case of emergency,
start ranting, draw attention and be on top of HN for a few days.

That's called bad ending I would say.

------
394549
Let me guess: his previous "G Suite Horror Story" post blew up on twitter,
which made him eligible for the _Google Support Grand Prize Jackpot_ : the
attention of a real human being empowered to fix the issue.

Second prize is a an email to an inbox no one ever reads.

~~~
meerab
I have good experience with Google Support Staff using online Chat. Chat
button is available on Gsuit Admin interface and on GCloud Console.

Google Support staff is well trained and usually quick to resolve the issue.

~~~
gd2
I also believe Google is experimenting with taking its customer support up a
few levels, which for years was figure it out for yourself. With both
Chromebooks and YouTube subscription, I've gotten very good support through
chat including call backs. Isn't that what Google One, is supposed to be
about?? , real customer support if you are a paying Google Drive, G-Suite,
YouTube monthly payer, etc.

------
nvr219
yay mazal tov

------
apeace
I had a crush in high school. Ended up going to the same college and were
semi-close friends during that time.

One day I heard she had broken up with her boyfriend, and lo and behold I get
a text from her that she wants me to come over urgently. It's almost midnight.
She says she needs help with her Google account from a tech pro.

The thing is, this woman has a very unique name. Such a beautiful name. Not
one I have ever heard before or since. So for all of her online accounts, her
username is just her first name. @firstname on Twitter, firstname@yahoo.com,
etc.

When I got there she told me she'd decided to finally take my advice. I'd been
telling her for years to switch from Yahoo to Gmail. But there was a problem:
when we tried to register it, Google told us "this account name is taken".

"This will be simple," I thought. She must have registered it and forgotten
about it, we'll just send the password reset to her Yahoo email. But when we
went to the password reset page Google told us "this account does not exist".

Seemingly contradictory. It must be a bug!

I told her I would need to do some research and hurried out. I remember the
confused look on her face, I don't think she wanted me to leave. Surely a bit
of Googling and emailing and I could get her the coveted email address and be
the hero! Stupid me.

After digging for hours I did find some mysterious @google.com email addresses
and I tried those. I think I found a Google employee via my extended Facebook
network and reached out. A week went by, I never heard back.

One day I decided to try to get into the Google campus in Cambridge.
Unsurprisingly, I was not granted entry. The doorman was amused by my attempt
at a romantic gesture so he said maybe he'd tell my story to somebody inside.

I even applied for a job at Google so that I could hopefully speak to a
recruiter. Someone, anyone at Google. My time was running out. But at the time
I had no experience and was a sophomore in college. No calls.

I'm still friends with that woman but nothing ever happened. She's now
engaged.

I know it wasn't Google's fault that I lost my college crush. If I hadn't been
so socially inept at the time it may have gone differently.

But if anyone from Google ever sees this, please get in touch[1]. The bug
still exists. I just know she'd be really happy to have that email address.

[1]
[https://apeace.github.io/contact.html](https://apeace.github.io/contact.html)

~~~
puzzle
Was the name five characters or less? I don't know what the UI was like at the
time you tried. There are Gmail accounts that short, but they have been
created by hand, usually for other Google colleagues, by someone on the Gmail
team. E.g. paul@gmail.com is, obviously, Paul Buchheit.

~~~
apeace
No, it is more than five.

~~~
puzzle
Then perhaps the likeliest explanation is that the account was created, then
deleted. Google accounts do not get recycled. It should be straightforward to
verify that theory, although it might take a month for it to enter a hard-
deleted state (I've never done that).

The people who could figure what happened are those that work on GAIA
([https://developers.google.com/issue-
tracker/concepts/access-...](https://developers.google.com/issue-
tracker/concepts/access-control#users)). Account information and history are a
touchy issue, so I doubt anyone would get involved, unless they had reason to
(abuse, legal action, proper law enforcement request, etc.). Looking up user
information on a hunch is a sure way for an employee to get in trouble, since
access to the directory is heavily tracked. Even acknowledging the existence
of an account at some point in the past carries risk...

