
Will Google Kill my Blog on December 6th? - MaysonL
http://www.calculatedriskblog.com/2013/12/will-google-kill-my-blog-on-december-6th.html
======
JoeCortopassi
Heavily relying on Google product? ✓

Hitting a dead-end with Google's customer service? ✓

Have an existing audience you can leverage to get some random Google
employee's attention? ✓

Reach front page of Hacker News? ✓

Good news! You should have your problem fixed in 2-5 business days. The rest
of us suckers relying on google services get to stare at our inboxes
helplessly, waiting for a response to our support ticket (which will never
come). I feel like it's almost a right of passage these days to rely heavily
on a Google service, only to have something go wrong and be left out in the
cold.

~~~
GuiA
I've been backing up my Gmail with getmail [0], as I'm afraid that a day will
come when I'll be locked out of my gmail account and will have no way to
restore it. My long term solution is to migrate completely off of gmail, but
for now this does the trick pretty nicely.

[0]
[https://wiki.archlinux.org/index.php/Backup_Gmail_with_getma...](https://wiki.archlinux.org/index.php/Backup_Gmail_with_getmail)

~~~
toomuchtodo
As a long time Gmail user heavily invested in it (with over 60GB of email),
I'm waiting patiently for mailpile.is to get rolled out.

~~~
mikro2nd
Take my advice - throw away every email older than 2 years. Not only will you
never need them, but they're what the black hats will hang you by should they
get the urge. You will feel a huge sense of relief - a weight lifted from your
soul as you relinquish the crushing burden of carting about all those dead
emails.

(Unless, of course, you work in an industry where longer retention times are
mandated.)

~~~
willyt
Im not a lawyer so there may be subtle details I don't understand, but broadly
in England and Wales, you can be sued within either 6 years or 12 years from
the date of a breach of contract depending on type of contract, in Scotland 15
years. I don't know about the US or rest of EU, but think carefully about
deleting all your old emails. You might have something in there which would be
very useful to defend yourself if this ever happened. You would regret this if
you had built the next Facebook and some old acquaintance decided to stake a
claim based on some gmail conversation from 10 years ago. Better to archive to
a redundant backup system I would say.

------
nacs
"I'll keep trying - maybe someone at Google could help?"

Doubtful. Getting support from Google is pretty much impossible (you do have
slightly increased chances since you've put it on HN however).

If I were you, I'd initiate a domain transfer to a different registrar that
will actually provide support when you need it before your domain expires.

Even if you're lucky enough to have Google resolve the issue this time, you
may not be so lucky in the future and there are numerous domain registrars
that would handle your domain better than Google will.

~~~
rhizome
What are you talking about, I saw "The Internship." Google has enough phone
support to tell grandmothers how to fix GMail problems. Likely a manager will
be cut over this, just like the snooty guy who led the other team in the
movie. /s

~~~
EdwardDiego
> I saw "The Internship."

Me too, as such, you have my sympathies.

~~~
rhizome
Snark all you like, but I think it's perfectly reasonable (if not _required_ )
to hold Google to the standards they paid Vince Vaughan to portray them
having.

~~~
EdwardDiego
I don't disagree with your point, I just hope working for Google isn't as
humourless as portrayed in the film.

~~~
rhizome
Ooh, I suspect it's even more so. Careerism is a harsh mistress.

------
kreeben
From my friend at Google: "It looks like he used the wrong account to update
his credit card. He has a Google Apps account connected to his Blogger/url
purchase, this is the account he needs to update in Google Wallet."

~~~
nl
A perfect example of what a complete screw up the whole multiple Google
Account thing is.

I can't suggest a better solution, but wow - it sucks at the moment.

Edit: Would it be possible to find out from the friend at Google if they are
doing anything to report this anomaly to users? The author can't be the only
person this happened to, and given that Google knows this, perhaps it would be
useful if the error message reflected what was going on?

Perhaps fixing that error message would be a better use of resources than
trying to improve support?

~~~
masterleep
It's a bag of hurt.

~~~
toomuchtodo
That's an excellent tag line to describe Google Support.

------
ChuckMcM
Given that I haven't been pummelled with email about how Blogger is going to
become "Google + compliant" I'm guessing that the answer is "No, they won't
kill your blog." And they won't charge your credit card. And next spring they
will announce that Blogger is being shut down and you can move your Blog over
to your own Google+ page! And _then_ you will get to decide what you want to
do next.

But that is just a theory, my experience of late is that when Google stops
talking about a service, and responses stop coming back, the reason is that
the service is on the list to be killed off and anyone inside Google that was
working on it, already knows that, and have already transferred to some other
project.

------
eldridgea
When you updated your info did you update it in Google Wallet? Google Checkout
was only very recently completely deprecated so make sure it is updated at
[http://wallet.google.com](http://wallet.google.com).

Also, do you have any communication from when you configured the account? That
would be useful.

What may have happened is you set up a Google Apps For Your Domain account
(which would have been free at the time of your registration). If that is the
case you would need to login into Google Wallet with your Google Apps account
- xxxx@calculatedriskblog.com and update the payment information for _that_
account (as opposed to your normal Gmail).

------
pgrote
Even if you use the recommended support channels such as Groups, your request
goes nowhere.

I've run into this reporting issues for Google Now and Picasa Web. Moderators
continually move or delete reports of issues. When you explain the situation
and why X is more appropriate than Y you get radio silence.

Has anyone actually gotten real support from Google for paid applications? Is
it limited to the Groups?

~~~
gohrt
Picasa Web was put out to pasture a long time ago, in favor of G+ Photos.

~~~
prawn
Picasa is now overrun with Chinese spammers using the "send to a friend"-type
feature. I mark every incoming Picasa share message as spam and Gmail still
lets them all through...

~~~
andrewfong
Create a filter to send Picasa mail to a folder you then proceed to ignore.

~~~
bearbin
I think you can even just send it straight to the bin with filters, although
my memory may be faulty.

------
raverbashing
Another example of how Google does not do customer support.

I would get the domain and move it somewhere else.

~~~
chris_mahan
Google _does_ do customer support. You are not their customers. Advertisers
are.

~~~
patio11
Feel free to ask an AdWords advertiser about their experiences before
parroting this bit about Internet wisdom.

I'm told by contacts inside the Borg that things have gotten better in the
last few years -- for example, now you can find a phone number to reach a call
center that will /dev/null your ticket for you rather than having to /dev/null
it yourself -- but the last few times I needed it having a $X0,000 a year
account didn't rate a reply. I'm reliably told that $Y00,000 a month accounts
didn't have a transformatively better experience, although, quote, "At least
they'll lie to me. It's better than silence. If you collect enough lies you
can triangulate off of them."

~~~
erik
As a small aside, I think this is the first time I have seen Google referred
to as the Borg. That was always Microsoft's title in the slashdot days.

Times have changed.

~~~
davidw
After having been in this industry for a bit more than 15 years, and having
read a lot of history, I'm beginning to suspect that due to the economics of
it, there is always going to be a Borg. IBM, Microsoft, Google, and so on.

------
tlogan
I had the same problem with Google Cloud account (for API and App engine).

The problem is that changing CC number by following link in the email will not
update your CC. You need to go to
[https://wallet.google.com](https://wallet.google.com) and update your CC.

~~~
alextingle
The big brains at Google can't design a workflow to allow you to continue
paying them? Was it even tested??

Words fail me.

------
alex_young
Apparently the answer was no:
[http://www.calculatedriskblog.com/2013/12/monday-ism-
manufac...](http://www.calculatedriskblog.com/2013/12/monday-ism-
manufacturing-construction.html)

~~~
Hates_
I don't think it's the 6th of December yet.

------
cabbeer
If Microsoft was smart this is where they would attack google, instead we have
the "Scroogled" campaign. I think they're in the same position (in this
department) as apple was when they made this:
[https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=8UZV7PDt8Lw](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=8UZV7PDt8Lw)

------
fat0wl
hmmmmm i know "i told you so"s are annoying but i wouldnt register a domain
name with a service other than a full-on registrar. then you could always
change hosting or even scrap the blog entirely but still keep your address
(and hopefully traffic...)

------
Osiris
I work at GoDaddy and recently our CEO read an email from a customer who had
been encouraged by a son to use Google services for his small business, but
when he couldn't figure out some issue with support ("they talked way over my
head"), he called GoDaddy and found someone that worked to get his account
setup.

Google probably, appropriately, calculates the cost of providing good customer
support to hundreds of millions of people as way too high. But by doing so,
they do leave open the door to smaller companies to compete, not on the
product, but on the service and support.

Google could, at the very least, make sure that it provides sufficient support
for all billing related issues. If a customer is paying for a product and
there's a problem with their billing, they should be able to get a person on
the phone or web chat to resolve it if the online tools are insufficient.

~~~
jonny_eh
You know you're support is awful when GoDaddy makes you look bad.

~~~
thaumaturgy
I've had some good experiences with GoDaddy support recently, including one
case where a client's site had a custom php-mailer whose messages seemed to be
disappearing into a black hole somewhere, and the front line support tech (not
even tier 2) _read the PHP code in question, determined it was fine, checked
the mail queue, and verified there was a problem on their end_.

"Surprised" doesn't quite capture my response to that.

I'm still not a fan of GoDaddy the company, GoDaddy the infrastructure, or
GoDaddy the horrifyingly bad control panel "interface", but GoDaddy support
could teach Google a _lot_.

------
xixixao
I honestly thought this was going be an article on probability: Given the
frequency of Google shutting down its services, what is the likelihood of my
blog service being terminated on December 6th?

------
alternize
been there - getting support for free accounts is almost impossible.

you might be able mitigate the problem by upgrading to a google apps business
account and receive support through it. i've used their email support through
a paid apps account several time, the problems were always resolved promptly.

------
cabbeer
Just curious, how is Microsoft's support in this department? Has anyone dealt
with customer support for hotmail/outlook, skydrive, etc ?

~~~
dredmorbius
Some years back I determined that Microsoft had a massive problem with spam
transiting their network. I found a Sr. VP's name associated with the service,
phoned the main switchboard, and asked for him.

He picked up his phone on the first ring.

I briefly described the issue (and how I'd determined it was a problem), he
told me he'd have the appropriate manager get in touch with me later that day.
I received _that_ call 15 minutes later, and worked with the manager
(submitting specific emails and identifying where on their network the
problems were manifesting) for a couple of months during which time the spam
volumes fell well over 90%.

Part of the trick is knowing how to navigate / manipulate the system, and
finding a problem they acknowledge as theirs. But in that particular case (and
a small handful of others) I found the company highly responsive.

Now, several years later when I'd bought both a shrinkwrap product and support
contract to specifically resolve a data issue with a product of theirs, I got
sandbagged. Demanded my money back for the contract.

And no, I'm not a fan of Microsoft. But they do (at times at least) know how
to run a business.

~~~
teh_klev
I've emailed Scott Guthrie a couple of times with regard to a couple of
ASP.NET issues I felt warranted his team's attention rather than use that
"Connect" bug reporting crap. After three or four hours he forwarded my emails
to "the right people" and cc'd me and I got to work with these folks resolving
the issues at hand via email. Was a pretty good experience and Scott is a top
bloke.

------
mark_l_watson
A few weeks ago I transferred a domain I bought from Google for AppEngine to
my 'usual' domain registration service. Very easy to do, but it took 5 days
for the transfer to kick in. I wish you had posted this earlier because this
could have been a solution for you. That said, try it right now, and maybe it
will work OK when Google/GoDaddy drop your domain.

------
chrisBob
First: Try repeating everything with a different browser. I couldn't update my
adwords payment information recently in Safari, but I had no trouble doing it
with Firefox. It sounds like you have a different issue, but that could do it.
Google sites are all a little funny with anything other than Chrome.

------
bukster
Same thing happened to me. It ended up being my bank denying the charge rather
than Google. Check with your bank.

------
Gaurav322
Transfer your domain to another domain hosting service. You can use godaddy
and bigrock to transfer your domain.

------
alternize
your blog's name is awesome for story submissions: 'what risky thing is she/he
doing which might anger google?!' _click_

EDIT: this comment was made under the original title "Calculated Risk: Will
Google Kill my Blog on December 6th? (calculatedriskblog.com)"

------
smoyer
Was there a post somewhere in the midst of all the ads? On my first generation
iPad it's a tiny fraction of the screen.

------
donniezazen
One of the worst things, universally known, about Google is virtually no
customer service even for paid users.

------
babuskov
FWIW, if they do shut it down, at least you can say it went off with a bang (I
mean, traffic from HN) ;)

------
Niv_Atias
If your site contains valueable information, so why would Google will delete
your site?

------
ChrisArchitect
why not contact the admin email on the whois information for the domain, or go
through ENOM which is who google seems to have run this operation
through....they can probably help renew or get payment information
updated......

------
masterleep
Calculated Risk is a huge blog in the financial space. It would definitely
behoove Google to avoid its erasure.

------
knowitall
Why not move the domain?

~~~
fsckin
They like using the service Google provides and they really want to continue
paying for it. Not everyone gets their rocks off serving a popular website and
tuning the dozens of arcane knobs to make it hum as well as Google can.

They probably don't want to pay $$$$ for someone else to move it and/or host
it. Migrating years of posts and all the comments... that's a decent sized
job. Even if the export/import to some other blogging engine was nearly
perfect (Hint: it's not all roses and perfume), there's a dozen or more
billable hours involved to make it run exactly the way it did before on
another host. That's probably more than he spends in a year at the current
location.

...and so on. There are plenty of good reasons not to move it.

~~~
dangrossman
I don't think he was suggesting switching hosts but domain registrars. Not
only does Blogger let you bring your own domain from any registrar while
hosting with them, but they stopped selling domain registration themselves at
some point in the past. Transferring the domain should be completely
transparent to Google; the website doesn't need to move or be changed at all.

------
mwnz
Why on earth does this have 144 points? I want my 20 seconds back :)

