> "We're fully redundant across AZs, regions, and even cloud providers!" crows the engineer with a single corporate credit card backing the entire house of cards.
https://twitter.com/QuinnyPig/status/1288275701389389825?t=F...
Tell HN: Google Cloud suspended our production projects at 1am on Saturday
161–170 of 531 posts
Re: Tell HN: Google Cloud suspended our production projects at 1am on Saturday
#162A few years ago I was working at a startup and we had just started moving some stuff over from AWS to GCP. Things were going pretty good with GCP until one day they pulled the plug on everything with no explanation. It turns out that our company credit card details had been fraudulently used without our knowledge. The criminal had decided to use the card to buy Google Ad Words or something like that - this is the sam…
Sounds like those Whiteboard interviews need to incorporate Graph Deterministic Algorithms for Highly-Dynamic Networks...
Re: Tell HN: Google Cloud suspended our production projects at 1am on Saturday
#163Generally, all cloud providers have two ways of engaging with and billing customers. One is using a credit card, which is very easy for getting started. The other one is having an established relationship with a sales / account team and setting up billing by invoice. Smaller companies sometimes don't understand that and stick with credit card billing for too long. Once you move to production and have your own custome…
Ah yes, it was the customer's fault. Stupid customer using method recommended by service provider.
It's like looking both ways when crossing the road despite the light telling you that you can go. Sure you have right of way and if a car hits you, it's their fault. But at the end of the day, you are the one getting hit by the car.
Google is at fault for how they handled it, but the parents comment is still good advice for anyone reading this thread.
Re: Tell HN: Google Cloud suspended our production projects at 1am on Saturday
#164Earlier quoted context omitted.
Regulation, full stop. The reason Big tech makes so much profits is because they have no accountability and at their scale, social shaming doesn’t work.
Right. Heavily-regulated industries like banking, auto and healthcare are known for being so much better at treating its customers like human beings...
You think those industries suck now, imagine what they're like without regulation holding their feet on the path a bit.
Re: Tell HN: Google Cloud suspended our production projects at 1am on Saturday
#165Reading a lot of comments here makes me think that GCP has built up a very bad reputation for customer support. Does anyone know if they are responded to this?
Re: Tell HN: Google Cloud suspended our production projects at 1am on Saturday
#166Earlier quoted context omitted.
Regulation, full stop. The reason Big tech makes so much profits is because they have no accountability and at their scale, social shaming doesn’t work.
no accountability Can't they sue google? Surely this is a case here.
How much money do you want to waste on lawyers while your case drags on for years?
Re: Tell HN: Google Cloud suspended our production projects at 1am on Saturday
#167Earlier quoted context omitted.
Ah yes, it was the customer's fault. Stupid customer using method recommended by service provider.
Hang on - what would you do if you were running a business with hundreds of thousands of users and someone doesn't pay? Was it an accident? has the customer gone bust, or died, or are they trying to defraud you and get a month or two of free service. Credit cards are exceptionally finicky, very susceptible to fraud, and payment can often fail. They're great for one off purchases and services that don't matter if they…
Your rhetorical questions don't match OPs story. According to OP they did pay, manually, not even by credit card.
> however we went ahead and made a manual payment covering all the outstanding amount + extra
(the entire last paragraph of OPs text has those and more details)
I suggest not using and then arguing with and against fantasized stuff when we are talking about a concrete problem for which we have a concrete description, no?
Given that OP paid, of what use is your objection about non-paying customers here?
You also omit this important part:
> They ... assured the project will not be suspended.
Re: Tell HN: Google Cloud suspended our production projects at 1am on Saturday
#168Earlier quoted context omitted.
Yup. Too big to fail sucks just as hard in banking. Google needs to be broken up as badly as banks do. It's a battle that keeps on coming up and here it is again.
Why stop at Google? Why don't we simply get rid of the idea of the mega corporation?[0] [0]: https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=31317641
That post sounds like war on drugs, on paper it makes sense but does not work in real life.
Do you really think an industry like oil refinery can be managed with a limit of 150 people?
Re: Tell HN: Google Cloud suspended our production projects at 1am on Saturday
#169Earlier quoted context omitted.
I'm a fan of regulating big tech, but in this case reputation will also make a big difference. I know lots of people who actively avoid google's cloud products because they don't trust google not to pull stunts like this. There have been too many stories on HN and twitter over the years of business critical google accounts being suspended for no reason or google cloud products massively increasing their price overnig…
The cost to provide proper support for the 99.9% is much much larger than the benefit of bringing on the possibly 0.1% who don't trust Google and avoid their products. This minority cannot be the solution to the problem.
> bringing on the possibly 0.1% who don't trust Google
I would imagine it would be more than 0.1%.
Re: Tell HN: Google Cloud suspended our production projects at 1am on Saturday
#170Generally, all cloud providers have two ways of engaging with and billing customers. One is using a credit card, which is very easy for getting started. The other one is having an established relationship with a sales / account team and setting up billing by invoice. Smaller companies sometimes don't understand that and stick with credit card billing for too long. Once you move to production and have your own custome…
What is this fud? Both AWS and Azure won't suspend your account for several months, even with charges failing. Especially not if you're communicating with them. It's incredibly easy to get a hold of human support in case of the other clouds.
My company isn't very big (we spend in the very low five-figures with Azure per month) and yet we were assigned an "Azure Success Manager" (or something close to that) who I have a standing monthly phone call with, and can reach out to at any time to oversee any issues that may come up. We actually did have a billing issue come up a while ago (it was Microsoft's fault) and although our account wasn't in any real danger of being shut off, she stayed on top of the case and made sure it got resolved quickly.