
Google ate my email address - lisper
http://rondam.blogspot.com/2011/11/google-ate-my-email-address.html
======
alain94040
Welcome to Google Hell. I have described my experience here
[http://blog.foundrs.com/2010/11/15/the-10-step-google-
login-...](http://blog.foundrs.com/2010/11/15/the-10-step-google-login-from-
hell/) (the 10-step login from hell).

I never wanted to have a gmail account. But to use a certain service, years
ago, Google required that I create a gmail account. So I did. Then someone
invited me to a Google Apps project, so I got another email there. Then
YouTube decided to merge my login info with Google. It's been more than 5
years, and now I have _6_ accounts with Google, and it's been hell ever since.
It did get better this year as Google started better supporting merging and
multiple accounts.

Don't blame the user. I never wanted this to happen to me.

~~~
jasonbarone
__Note: Google does NOT support merging accounts.

I've had a similar experiences.

The Youtube merge was a disaster causing many Gmail addresses to be merged
with "nicknamed" Youtube channels that users didn't want anymore. Since Google
refuses to step in and delete accounts or unlink them, many people are stuck
with a Youtube account nickname they don't want to be associated with. This
got even worse over the last few weeks as Google now automatically logs you
into Youtube.

The Google Apps/Full Google Account so called "merge" never actually merged
anything, it just created 2 full Google Account, a new one under your domain
email, and the old one still active under a modified version of the your email
address.

Google has no reason why they can't unlink, merge, or rename
accounts/usernames. I'm convinced that almost every single person in the world
has 2 or more Google accounts.

Google Hell is right.

~~~
scott_s
YouTube insisted I login in order to watch some movie trailer, so I did so
with my gmail account. It then insisted that I give a nickname. I didn't care
at the time, as I figured I could just change the name later - surely the only
unique ID here is my gmail account. And that's why my YouTube name is
skadfjlsakdfjlksdfjl.

~~~
larsberg
Ha!

I'm upvoting you because I did almost _exactly_ the same thing in that
situation... my YouTube name is lalalalalalalala2334.

~~~
lancewiggs
and mine "thisloginprocesssux"

------
rmorrison
I wish Google had some form of reasonable technical support. That way, HN
homepage wouldn't be the only way to get their attention.

~~~
barista
Agree. Its surprising how much Google can get by without providing any
customer support at all. I stopped using my gmail accounts earlier this year
when I lost my I emails and google couldn't track them down.

~~~
ceol
Apparently they offer 24/7 phone and email support for Google Apps for
Business customers, but I've never had any experience with it. Could someone
else comment as to whether or not their Apps customer support is just as bad?

~~~
sunnydaynow
Very bad, at least in our case (small company). They reply mostly with
templates. When one issue would have taken a bit more time to solve
(Thunderbird IMAP issue with ONE of our user names) they simply stopped
responding after a while.

AND: You can NOT go back to the free service, at least not easily! Talk about
lock-in...

~~~
masnick
Really? I had no problem downgrading my account. It was during the demo period
though.

------
gerggerg
Similar situation happened to me:

1) Signed up to have google manage the email for my domain.

2) Tried to create michelle@ _domain_.com

3) Google failed. Signup process hung.

4) Tried again. App hung.

5) Tried different name. Worked.

6) Tried to add michelle in the admin panel and got: "Username already exists"
but there's no way to see, edit, or login as michell.

It happens quite often, and remains unresolved for the majority people:
[http://www.google.com/support/a/bin/search.py?hl=en&foru...](http://www.google.com/support/a/bin/search.py?hl=en&forum=1&query=%22Username+already+exists%22+more%3Aforum)

It's been months of trying different things, forum posts and contact attempts
and it's still broken.

Google is a great company with many great products, but they will straight up
not care about your customer service needs and will just let your business
suffer.

~~~
TobbenTM
After some hours, I managed to get one domain into Google Apps, but managing 2
domains at a time is a real b*tch. Basically, the only thing you can do with
domain number 2 is create users for it. Just about no configuration.

------
javert
It would be nice if Google would publish a finite state machine showing what's
going on with your accounts/email addresses, and what you can do to transition
to somewhere better.

It might make people feel better to know that there is a logical process (is
there?) when something screws up, rather than having to pray to the user
support people to fix your account.

I mean, I don't _pay_ Google for anything, and I know that Google is mainly
made up of machines, not humans. So I imagine my accounts could get "eaten" at
any time, perhaps permanently.

I don't _really_ trust Google with my Google accounts.

~~~
gwillen
"to know that there is a logical process (is there?)"

There isn't. You're fucked.

\-- ex Google employee

------
marklubi
Google seems to have done pretty much the same thing with one of my accounts.
It started a couple weeks ago when I needed a gmail account to test a mail
server bug. When I created the gmail account they changed my 'primary' address
to the new gmail address.

Then in the last couple of days, they decided that my secondary email address
was now part of a Google apps account because it was associated with a Postini
mail filtering account. They removed the secondary email from my account and
created a new account for it using the same password.

Now I'm stuck with two different email addresses for logging into various
Google services.

------
3dFlatLander
I've had a gmail account since the service started, and I have an email
address thats just my first name--a very common first name. Because of this,
15 email addresses are associated with mine (as in, I can reset their
passwords and what not). Not really the same kind of deal, and it doesn't
really affect me--just the people who signed up with my email. Just had to
rant about it.

------
X-Istence
The only time I got this when I had my gmail account forward to my google apps
account, when they started unifying the whole account stuff it was no longer a
valid backup email account and had to be removed.

------
serverascode
I recently picked up a fastmail.fm account and am forwarding gmail to that, in
case gmail effs up.

~~~
r00fus
Be careful, I've created a fastmail.fm (actually airpost.net which is one of
their domains) account, and unless you're paying for it, they can and will
wipe your account if you leave it fallow/unused for a year or more (unsure
what the duration is).

This became an annoying problem when I created a seperate account backed by my
airpost.net email (won't do that again unless I decide to pay for the email
acct).

~~~
serverascode
I am paying for it. :) It's not very expensive, especially if you pick 2/3
year options. That said, the interface is vastly inferior to gmail's, IMHO.
What, no conversation view? I can't believe people still use non-threaded
email views.

------
dchest
<http://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=3216029>

~~~
stock_toaster
Google is pretty notorious for providing no support, and in the post he notes
that one of the avenues of support (google groups) is effectively cut off to
him because of the issue.

~~~
dchest
Googling "google groups support" -> clicking "Contacting Us" at the bottom ->
Email us -> this contact form:
[http://www.google.com/support/groups/bin/request.py?contact_...](http://www.google.com/support/groups/bin/request.py?contact_type=groups_feedback)

