Google ate my email address • Hacker News Board

Re: Google ate my email address

#11

Post by barista » Wed, Nov 09, 2011, 10:32 PM UTC

rmorrison wrote: post #9

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

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.

Re: Google ate my email address

#12

Post by ceol » Wed, Nov 09, 2011, 10:41 PM UTC

barista wrote: post #11

rmorrison wrote: post #9

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

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.

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?

Re: Google ate my email address

#13

Post by Luyt » Wed, Nov 09, 2011, 10:42 PM UTC

alain94040 wrote: post #10

Welcome to Google Hell. I have described my experience here http://blog.foundrs.com/2010/11/15/the-10-step-google-login-... (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 wit…

I experienced something similar, and eventually gave up because I got stuck in an endless loop -- and as a consequence I had to give up using that google service. Since there was no way to contact Google about this matter I blamed myself: I thought I was the only one on Earth stupid enough to get in this situation and that the other 6.9 billion people get along with Google fine. But since then I've read more stories like these, and I'm glad I'm not the only one anymore.

Re: Google ate my email address

#14

Post by dchest » Wed, Nov 09, 2011, 10:42 PM UTC

stock_toaster wrote: post #7

dchest wrote: post #3

http://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=3216029

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.

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_...

Re: Google ate my email address

#15

Post by mattmanser » Wed, Nov 09, 2011, 11:12 PM UTC

ceol wrote: post #12

barista wrote: post #11

Earlier quoted context omitted.

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.

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?

Might be worth throwing out a Ask HN in prime time, I'd really like to know the answer to this too having experienced my own mini-google hell today and realizing I had no source of support apart from sub-standard forums that only 1/4 of questions seem to get answered in.

Re: Google ate my email address

#16

Post by jasonbarone » Wed, Nov 09, 2011, 11:18 PM UTC

alain94040 wrote: post #10

Welcome to Google Hell. I have described my experience here http://blog.foundrs.com/2010/11/15/the-10-step-google-login-... (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 wit…

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.

Re: Google ate my email address

#17

Post by antifuchs » Wed, Nov 09, 2011, 11:40 PM UTC

jasonbarone wrote: post #16

alain94040 wrote: post #10

Welcome to Google Hell. I have described my experience here http://blog.foundrs.com/2010/11/15/the-10-step-google-login-... (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 wit…

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…

YouTube hell gets even better if you signed up for Google Apps in a country where YouTube isn't officially "launched" (what does that even mean?), like Austria.

My google apps account currently has a YouTube account associated with it that causes an error message to replace the current page if I do anything on that site while logged in as that apps account. Like a video, get redirected to a white page saying something went wrong. My solution now is to only log into google apps via Fluid/Mailplane or anonymous Chrome windows.

Whoever engineered this mess should go take a swim in a volcano.

Re: Google ate my email address

#18

Post by 3dFlatLander » Wed, Nov 09, 2011, 11:45 PM UTC

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.

Re: Google ate my email address

#19

Post by scott_s » Wed, Nov 09, 2011, 11:51 PM UTC

jasonbarone wrote: post #16

alain94040 wrote: post #10

Welcome to Google Hell. I have described my experience here http://blog.foundrs.com/2010/11/15/the-10-step-google-login-... (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 wit…

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…

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.

Re: Google ate my email address

#20

Post by sunnydaynow » Wed, Nov 09, 2011, 11:53 PM UTC

ceol wrote: post #12

barista wrote: post #11

Earlier quoted context omitted.

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.

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?

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...