I got locked out of my Google account for a month
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I got locked out of my Google account for a month
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Re: I got locked out of my Google account for a month
#2> On December 5th, I sent a note to a PR contact who I work with on Google-related news and I told him about my problem. He said he had gotten my case escalated and I should hear within 24 hours.
Sadly in all these stories that end successfully there is an inside help from someone that has contacts in Google. I don't even want to think about what would happen to people that don't know anyone inside Google.
Re: I got locked out of my Google account for a month
#3Scary. Makes me think about moving my personal mail domain back to a regular hosting company
Re: I got locked out of my Google account for a month
#4Trusting "your life" to a third party service is very dangerous. Because if your life depends on that service, your life can't continue with out it, so I ask, why do this to yourself?
The convenience is a serious trade off.
Re: I got locked out of my Google account for a month
#5Was it the happiest time of your life? ;)
Re: I got locked out of my Google account for a month
#6> On December 5th, I sent a note to a PR contact who I work with on Google-related news and I told him about my problem. He said he had gotten my case escalated and I should hear within 24 hours. Sadly in all these stories that end successfully there is an inside help from someone that has contacts in Google. I don't even want to think about what would happen to people that don't know anyone inside Google.
It happens all the time, and there is no recourse unless you can get lucky enough to cause a social media storm with enough outrage it catches someone's attention.
Re: I got locked out of my Google account for a month
#7> On December 5th, I sent a note to a PR contact who I work with on Google-related news and I told him about my problem. He said he had gotten my case escalated and I should hear within 24 hours. Sadly in all these stories that end successfully there is an inside help from someone that has contacts in Google. I don't even want to think about what would happen to people that don't know anyone inside Google.
It happens all the time, and there is no recourse unless you can get lucky enough to cause a social media storm with enough outrage it catches someone's attention.
Agreed. I see this story several times a year. Usually with small time people with no contacts to get them help, but I have seen large companies lose control of everything as well. I just don't understand handing over mission-critical services to companies that offer you zero control or support in exchange for free or nearly free.
Re: I got locked out of my Google account for a month
#8Google (and other companies) are purposely opaque about how they determine whether you have provided enough information to verify you are the owner of the account...
Getting it wrong has significant impact on how much the brand is trusted (and for some companies, that's all they have)... Lose it and it's time to shutter!
To be fair to Google, they do regularly prompt users to review the security of their account (e.g. with checklists like this: https://support.google.com/accounts/answer/46526?hl=en). Note that Step 3 is "Update your account recovery options"!!
Re: I got locked out of my Google account for a month
#9> That same day I opened a second GMail account so I could have access to services like an email account if need be, even if it didn’t have any of my previous data in there.
When service is this terrible, why stick with the bad provider? I generally find the whole article sort of depressing... “Google ignored my problems for a month. But now I have access again oh well yay!!”
Re: I got locked out of my Google account for a month
#10> That same day I opened a second GMail account so I could have access to services like an email account if need be, even if it didn’t have any of my previous data in there. When service is this terrible, why stick with the bad provider? I generally find the whole article sort of depressing... “Google ignored my problems for a month. But now I have access again oh well yay!!”
Because what's the alternative? You can spend weeks moving all your data to Microsoft or Apple... and suffer lost messages when people don't update their e-mail for you... and then discover they're just as bad or worse?
What's an alternative to Gmail+Drive+Apps that has as much functionality, ease of use and convenience, and at a comparable price, but guarantees you won't get locked out?