This is the 6th month that I lost access to my gmail account because I forgot my password (I was forced to change it prior to that, and I changed my devices). I lost access to many services from McDonald reward program to bank account (which I can recover I think). I just think it is such a bad idea to use email for accounts. I have migrated to iCloud email because it has a reasonable recovery process I can trust. I think the default option for accounts should be phone numbers, anything else is not great.
An Example of a Sad Google Account Recovery Failure and Its Effects
101–110 of 133 posts
Re: An Example of a Sad Google Account Recovery Failure and Its Effects
#102I fully expect to someday lose access to my gmail account because I regularly delete cookies and I won't give them a phone number. If they won't accept a password as proof of ownership on an account, then the account will someday be dead.
Part of the issue is the account is not dead, in the way many people think. Once you are locked out, after a period of time, Google can do what it wants with it. Which may include looking over or extracting any data from it, then selling it to whoever they like. And where those other entities may be storing your information (or continuously updating a profile about you), for their purposes and however long they like.…
Do you have a citation?
Re: An Example of a Sad Google Account Recovery Failure and Its Effects
#103> They’ve all basically hit the brick wall of Google suggesting that at their scale, nothing can be done about such “edge” cases. The thing is that at scale your “edge” cases are still millions of people. Companies love the benefits that come from scale, like having a billion people use their service, but they never seem to be capable of handling the other parts that come with it :(
What I don't understand is why there isn't some kind of paid escalation option. I fully understand why they don't provide free human support for a billion unpaid users, but couldn't there be a $50 "OK, we will actually take a look at your issue" option? Surely that wouldn't be a money loser. Hell, you could outsource it. It seems instead that they just don't even want to touch it.
Interestingly, many people already pay for Gmail (or rather Google one) for extra capacity. Yet, I'm pretty sure they get the same support experience. I think it's just not worth for them to change, given that everyone seems ok with the current approach (that lady and a few others obviously aren't, but I don't think they really even make a dent in Google's reputation)
Re: An Example of a Sad Google Account Recovery Failure and Its Effects
#104Earlier quoted context omitted.
What I don't understand is why there isn't some kind of paid escalation option. I fully understand why they don't provide free human support for a billion unpaid users, but couldn't there be a $50 "OK, we will actually take a look at your issue" option? Surely that wouldn't be a money loser. Hell, you could outsource it. It seems instead that they just don't even want to touch it.
Interestingly, many people already pay for Gmail (or rather Google one) for extra capacity. Yet, I'm pretty sure they get the same support experience. I think it's just not worth for them to change, given that everyone seems ok with the current approach (that lady and a few others obviously aren't, but I don't think they really even make a dent in Google's reputation)
If you pay there is some identity attached to the account so it might actually possibly to recover the account, as opposed to ‘I don’t have the password nor devices previously used or any other recovery mechanism’
Re: An Example of a Sad Google Account Recovery Failure and Its Effects
#105Earlier quoted context omitted.
I have several accounts and Google will only show remiders for those I barely log in. It even used to send reminder emails but that seemed to stop after I marked them as spam.
Welp, no offense but this gets the "dumbest thing I've read on the Internet today" award.
No it doesn't? Have you ever been on the internet?
Re: An Example of a Sad Google Account Recovery Failure and Its Effects
#106> They’ve all basically hit the brick wall of Google suggesting that at their scale, nothing can be done about such “edge” cases. The thing is that at scale your “edge” cases are still millions of people. Companies love the benefits that come from scale, like having a billion people use their service, but they never seem to be capable of handling the other parts that come with it :(
What I don't understand is why there isn't some kind of paid escalation option. I fully understand why they don't provide free human support for a billion unpaid users, but couldn't there be a $50 "OK, we will actually take a look at your issue" option? Surely that wouldn't be a money loser. Hell, you could outsource it. It seems instead that they just don't even want to touch it.
This exists… if you know a googler. I got locked out of my 14ish year old account due to the AI deciding I was no longer the rightful owner even with TOTP codes, SMS, and printed backup codes. I asked a friend who works at Google, and there’s an internal form they can fill out to recover an account. I received a non-template response less than 30 minutes later with a link to reset my password.
Re: An Example of a Sad Google Account Recovery Failure and Its Effects
#107Earlier quoted context omitted.
Gmail is not free. You may not be paying for it with cash money, but you are paying for it with your privacy, and you’d better believe they profit from having your data.
Exactly. And Google is very quick to kill free products that are not generating good revenue for them.
Google killing free gmail would be a big hit to their brand. I don't think they can afford that
Re: An Example of a Sad Google Account Recovery Failure and Its Effects
#108Earlier quoted context omitted.
"Don't be evil" was /killedbygoogle too :)
In a somewhat underhand way, they removed the motto from the company and moved it onto their employees. Something like "Googlers shouldn't do evil". I'm sure HR and the legal teams preferred this shift from corporate mission to employee guideline. This might or might not be completely unconnected with subsequent high profile stories of Google employees being sacked on ethical, labor organisation and culture war groun…
Perhaps it was simply causing so much snark that google offloaded it.
Re: An Example of a Sad Google Account Recovery Failure and Its Effects
#109Earlier quoted context omitted.
In the case of a free GMail account, the user who doesn't get the support they need can get a full refund. In all seriousness, how does it even make sense to regulate expensive customer support for a free product? If you do, you may not have any free products anymore. But perhaps we'd be better off having decent customer support with no free products. As for paid products, it does make some sense to have some minimum…
I don't pay anything for my bank account, but there will absolutely always be a human at the bank I can talk to about problems. It's also not as if users aren't paying for Gmail, business users are paying for it with currency, regular users with data. Such legislation isn't theoretical or difficult, India already has their new IT law rules: >The IT rules 2021 provide for creating avenues for grievance redressal apart…
> I don't pay anything for my bank account, but there will absolutely always be a human at the bank I can talk to about problems. It's also not as if users aren't paying for Gmail, business users are paying for it with currency, regular users with data.
Not only this, but most banks have to be members of a consumer arbitration body, or need to be overseen by an ombudsman.
But this still wouldn't stop any bank from using their contractual rights to terminate a relationship if it may be unprofitable or risky to them.
Re: An Example of a Sad Google Account Recovery Failure and Its Effects
#110> They’ve all basically hit the brick wall of Google suggesting that at their scale, nothing can be done about such “edge” cases. The thing is that at scale your “edge” cases are still millions of people. Companies love the benefits that come from scale, like having a billion people use their service, but they never seem to be capable of handling the other parts that come with it :(
What I don't understand is why there isn't some kind of paid escalation option. I fully understand why they don't provide free human support for a billion unpaid users, but couldn't there be a $50 "OK, we will actually take a look at your issue" option? Surely that wouldn't be a money loser. Hell, you could outsource it. It seems instead that they just don't even want to touch it.
100% this. It seems so obvious. If edge case escalation is uneconomical, price it so it's not.
I once lost a Google account because of their "the password is not enough, we'll randomly decide what is" policy. It's very unpleasant to get to that "make another account" page, and realise it's all gone.
I'd have happily paid money to go through identity verification and so on to get it back. Its sad they're just leaving this money on the table, hurting both themselves and their customers.