Tell HN: Doing a chargeback against Google will get your account banned • Hacker News Board

Re: Tell HN: Doing a chargeback against Google will get your account banned

#191

Post by arbuge » Fri, Dec 16, 2022, 6:17 PM UTC

glitchc wrote: post #72

logicalmonster wrote: post #56

To me, the issue with Google's products and services is that they're not willing to provide any human customer service to resolve the real issues. Now, of course, I understand that even Google can't reasonably be expected to provide free 24/7 customer support for the entire Internet. If they had a normal phone number available where anybody could reach a human at any time, every confused person would call them with i…

> Now, of course, I understand that even Google can't reasonably be expected to provide free 24/7 customer support for the entire Internet. If they had a normal phone number available where anybody could reach a human at any time, every confused person would call them with issues that are completely unrelated to Google's actual products and even Google would be overwhelmed. No it is entirely reasonable. Even with a d…

> They won't though, because end-users are not the customers of Google, advertisers are. You can betcha advertisers get excellent customer service.

Have you ever advertised on Google? I'm guessing not.

Go search on Reddit and other places for stories from people who got their Google Ads accounts banned, including advertisers spending millions of dollars a year, and see how much help from customer service they've gotten.

Excellent might not be the word that comes to mind after you've been through that exercise.

Re: Tell HN: Doing a chargeback against Google will get your account banned

#192

Post by tylercubell » Fri, Dec 16, 2022, 6:17 PM UTC

I placed my first-ever order on the Google store last year for a Pixel phone. Then a FedEx employee left a voicemail asking suspicious questions about my package. Then my phone went missing. FedEx later said they had no record of an employee calling me and would "investigate". It took two weeks of relentlessly following up to get a replacement. FedEx was never able to locate my stolen/missing phone. Never order directly from Google and avoid FedEx at all costs.

Re: Tell HN: Doing a chargeback against Google will get your account banned

#193

Post by esalman » Fri, Dec 16, 2022, 6:18 PM UTC

I have a 13 year old Google account. I only added a credit card couple of months back to help out a friend because his Gapps access was blocked. My new year resolution is to find an alternative to Gapps so that I don't have to do "business" with Google on my or anyone else's behalf.

Re: Tell HN: Doing a chargeback against Google will get your account banned

#194

Post by tbran » Fri, Dec 16, 2022, 6:18 PM UTC

glitchc wrote: post #72

logicalmonster wrote: post #56

To me, the issue with Google's products and services is that they're not willing to provide any human customer service to resolve the real issues. Now, of course, I understand that even Google can't reasonably be expected to provide free 24/7 customer support for the entire Internet. If they had a normal phone number available where anybody could reach a human at any time, every confused person would call them with i…

> Now, of course, I understand that even Google can't reasonably be expected to provide free 24/7 customer support for the entire Internet. If they had a normal phone number available where anybody could reach a human at any time, every confused person would call them with issues that are completely unrelated to Google's actual products and even Google would be overwhelmed. No it is entirely reasonable. Even with a d…

Yeah, WTH. The Reddit thread is about a transaction involving money. Google can't do better support than ineffective, then incorrect, directions?

Furthermore, if Google is going to shove search, email, maps, Chrome, ChromeOS, Play Store, Android, etc, etc, etc, down our throats maybe they should be made to actually do a little customer service.

Re: Tell HN: Doing a chargeback against Google will get your account banned

#195

Post by patmcc » Fri, Dec 16, 2022, 6:21 PM UTC

jackweirdy wrote: post #178

ssharp wrote: post #27

I’d recommend taking a few steps before doing a chargeback in cases like this: 1. Search around for back channel support. Google things like “executive customer support”. Often times these emails get published by bloggers, forums, etc. You can also look up support VP /Director’s names and then guess their email (e.g. first.last@example.com) and tell them your story. 2. Send a signature-required letter detailing out t…

Another depending on your jurisdiction is the court process in your area. In the U.K. we have the Money claim online service, to start proceedings against a company or person who owe money. There is a nominal fee starting at £30 and if companies don’t respond the court will de facto rule in your favour.

That might work to get your money back, but I'll bet Google also has a policy of firing customers who take them to court.

Re: Tell HN: Doing a chargeback against Google will get your account banned

#196

Post by noAnswer » Fri, Dec 16, 2022, 6:22 PM UTC

logicalmonster wrote: post #91

McDyver wrote: post #74

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> Now, of course, I understand that even Google can't reasonably be expected to provide free 24/7 customer support for the entire Internet. If they had a normal phone number available where anybody could reach a human at any time, every confused person would call them with issues that are completely unrelated to Google's actual products and even Google would be overwhelmed. That would be the fair consequence of wanti…

I said that because of my life experience. I run some small businesses in some quasi-technical fields. We've gotten phone calls asking for help with fixing peoples' Yahoo mail accounts, asking for returns to stores that were completely different than ours, trying to get refunds on products we don't even sell, and many other nonsensical and time-wasting calls from confused people. If we, at our extremely small scale,…

Having a costumer only hotline which only connects you after entering your customer ID and or Support-PIN would be a start. I know of multiple company's which have that.

Re: Tell HN: Doing a chargeback against Google will get your account banned

#197

Post by foobazgt » Fri, Dec 16, 2022, 6:22 PM UTC

glitchc wrote: post #72

logicalmonster wrote: post #56

To me, the issue with Google's products and services is that they're not willing to provide any human customer service to resolve the real issues. Now, of course, I understand that even Google can't reasonably be expected to provide free 24/7 customer support for the entire Internet. If they had a normal phone number available where anybody could reach a human at any time, every confused person would call them with i…

> Now, of course, I understand that even Google can't reasonably be expected to provide free 24/7 customer support for the entire Internet. If they had a normal phone number available where anybody could reach a human at any time, every confused person would call them with issues that are completely unrelated to Google's actual products and even Google would be overwhelmed. No it is entirely reasonable. Even with a d…

I think that's a sore underestimation of the support costs Google would have to cover. It looks like support costs average around $4/call. (https://www.google.com/search?q=how+much+does+the+average+su...). Google has approximately 4 billion users (https://www.google.com/search?q=how+many+users+does+Google+h...). So, if you allowed for one single support call per user per year, Google would be footing $16B annually.

In general, I don't think you can expect free support for a free product. I do think businesses should let you buy support for any tier of product, both as part of a subscription and on a one-time basis.

Re: Tell HN: Doing a chargeback against Google will get your account banned

#198

Post by jonathanyc » Fri, Dec 16, 2022, 6:27 PM UTC

teux wrote: post #187

BoiledCabbage wrote: post #177

Earlier quoted context omitted.

So time to play the same old game: does block chain provide any value here that a separate centralized DB doesn't? Let's see, can't you solve the exact same problem by simply having a centralized organization have a database of digital content ownership? Essentially a title record DB? Seems like it. And how does your blockchain solution solve the problem of someone is hacking the game and needs to be banned? Can the…

Disclaimer: this is not my domain. But wouldn’t the blockchain give a decentralised record of ownership that was protected from corruption? If a single entity owns this database, how does it fare against attacks/bad actors, or highly capitalists companies like EA going in and editing it in their best interests. You need a truly good organisation to host that single DB and I’m not sure I tryst any of them at the momen…

After the Ethereum DAO exploit, the result was two blockchains: Ethereum Classic and Ethereum. Was that better protection against database manipulation than the existing legal system provides?

Re: Tell HN: Doing a chargeback against Google will get your account banned

#199

Post by zoklet-enjoyer » Fri, Dec 16, 2022, 6:27 PM UTC

I was worried about this and this is why I let Google charge me $300+ for some ads I didn't want ran.

I ran a hemp business from 2018 to 2020. I had Google ads going in 2018 but then the ads got taken down because I was using some banned words. I forgot about the ads and never deleted them. They were disabled so I thought that was good enough. Sometime in 2020, after I had gone out of business, I was charged for some ads that ran. Google's policy on CBD ads had changed and they started showing my ads again. I couldn't figure out how to contact a human and I didn't want my account banned so I didn't do a chargeback.

Re: Tell HN: Doing a chargeback against Google will get your account banned

#200

Post by patmcc » Fri, Dec 16, 2022, 6:27 PM UTC

r3trohack3r wrote: post #107

Honestly, the top comment is more concerning: https://old.reddit.com/r/tifu/comments/zndbku/tifu_by_accide... Account stolen. Obvious fraudulent charges. EA refuses to make it right. Customer rightfully disputes the charges. EA closes their account locking them out of an entire catalogue of content THEY HAD PAID for. This whole “you don’t really own digital content” ruse needs to be popped. A company shouldn’t be abl…

It's totally ridiculous. Imagine Walmart tried to do the same thing with physical goods; say any shoplifter Walmart catches immediately gets all their Walmart purchases taken back. We'd never allow it. Even if they were conflicted of theft, we wouldn't say "oh, sure, Walmart can come in and take your desk".

Why have we allowed it with digital goods?