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Ask HN: Locked out of Google Aps email with no recourse - advice?

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Ask HN: Locked out of Google Aps email with no recourse - advice?

#1

Post by labaraka »

I've been locked out of my Google Apps email for over 24 hrs due to "suspicious activity". I am the admin of the domain so "contacting my admin" is of no help. Filled Contact Us form and spoke to customer support lady who is unfortunately clueless and cannot help me at all.

Terrible experience for such a mission-critical service.

Anyone has suggestions on how to deal with this to restore access?

PS: I did not sent out any spam or do anything that goes against their ToS. Just a loyal customer for 7 years doing normal day to day emailing.

Re: Ask HN: Locked out of Google Aps email with no recourse - advice?

#3

Post by akg_67 »

Email is a critical communication channel. Don't put up with this sort of crap from any company. If you control your domain and have capability to modify records. Buy mail service from another provider and redirect MX record to new service. And if you can estimate approximate value lost due to this action and you are in U.S., send a bill to Google, file a small court claim against Google if unpaid for 30 days.

Re: Ask HN: Locked out of Google Aps email with no recourse - advice?

#4

Post by labaraka »

akg_67 wrote: post #3

Email is a critical communication channel. Don't put up with this sort of crap from any company. If you control your domain and have capability to modify records. Buy mail service from another provider and redirect MX record to new service. And if you can estimate approximate value lost due to this action and you are in U.S., send a bill to Google, file a small court claim against Google if unpaid for 30 days.

I totally agree with you for the medium term. My challenge right now is that I don't have access to the DNS records and migrating to a new email service will take days/weeks.

Re: Ask HN: Locked out of Google Aps email with no recourse - advice?

#6

Post by akg_67 »

labaraka wrote: post #4
akg_67 wrote: post #3

Email is a critical communication channel. Don't put up with this sort of crap from any company. If you control your domain and have capability to modify records. Buy mail service from another provider and redirect MX record to new service. And if you can estimate approximate value lost due to this action and you are in U.S., send a bill to Google, file a small court claim against Google if unpaid for 30 days.

I totally agree with you for the medium term. My challenge right now is that I don't have access to the DNS records and migrating to a new email service will take days/weeks.

Migrating to new email service doesn't take days/weeks, at best a few hours as long as you were prepared with existing email aliases (catch all can help minimize the missing aliases) and configuration and access.

In the short term, you are at the mercy of Google. Next time you want to avoid similar fiasco, when you purchase any service from a vendor, please consider the whole offering from sales to support. If you don't see a quick resolution pathway for situations when shit hits the fan, walk away from those vendors.

Personally, I have never bought or recommended others to purchase any "paid" services from Google. They are incapable of and not setup for providing enterprise level product, service and support.

Re: Ask HN: Locked out of Google Aps email with no recourse - advice?

#8

Post by labaraka »

akg_67 wrote: post #6
labaraka wrote: post #4

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I totally agree with you for the medium term. My challenge right now is that I don't have access to the DNS records and migrating to a new email service will take days/weeks.

Migrating to new email service doesn't take days/weeks, at best a few hours as long as you were prepared with existing email aliases (catch all can help minimize the missing aliases) and configuration and access. In the short term, you are at the mercy of Google. Next time you want to avoid similar fiasco, when you purchase any service from a vendor, please consider the whole offering from sales to support. If you do…

Which email provider do you recommend? I am ready to switch after another full day of BS from their support staff.
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