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The only way to get hold of a human at Google

news.ycombinator.com

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Re: The only way to get hold of a human at Google

#11

Post by anigbrowl »

On a more general note, on what planet is "you don't get any email for a day and have no recourse, and we won't tell you why, or let you do anything to fix that" an acceptable action?

ON a planet where you get high-performance email services for free, apparently. I feel for you, but the lack of personal response (IME) doesn't mean that your communications are being ignored, just your need for a response. This is still far from ideal, but typing out responses take time away from simply fixing problems.

If you pay for gmail storage or an apps account, then obviously the above doesn't apply.

Re: The only way to get hold of a human at Google

#12

Post by wpietri »

> on what planet is "you don't get any email for a day and have no recourse, and we won't tell you why, or let you do anything to fix that" an acceptable action?

On the planet where you're the product rather than the customer?

The financial truth of 99% of their business is that users to the extent that they look at ads. And since ads aren't worth much individually, people must look in large numbers.

All the people I know at Google are great folks, and they sincerely want to serve users. But customer service is expensive. So is writing special-purpose code for weird edge cases.

Re: The only way to get hold of a human at Google

#14

Post by donpdonp »

I agree its maddening to be locked out of gmail for no specific reason. I imagine the customer to employee ratio is a billion to one, so even if they had a ticket system, it'd be overwhelmed in a short amount of time.

What are the chances your account was hacked and is now being used to pump out spam? Turn on two-factor authentication if you haven't already, once you are able to get back in.

Re: The only way to get hold of a human at Google

#15

Post by cletus »

I'm sorry for the trouble you're having. I have on idea of what's happened and why but thought it timely to point out for the benefit of those reading this thread:

I highly suggest you use two-factor authentication with GMail:

http://googleblog.blogspot.com/2011/02/advanced-sign-in-secu...

Or Jeff Atwood's post on this:

http://www.codinghorror.com/blog/2012/04/make-your-email-hac...

Your email is too valuable to be left open to attack, hijacking or theft.

Re: The only way to get hold of a human at Google

#17

Post by ChuckMcM »

gergles wrote: post #8
andybak wrote: post #5

And this time I'd like the outcome of this thread not to be just "A Google insider wandered past and fixed this guys problem" but "Here's how we're going to make sure it doesn't happen again. Because next time it might be me and by then Hacker News might have grown weary of these kind of posts and I won't be able to get the necessary attention. Nothing. I repeat - nothing - is pushing me to move away from dependence…

Yes, I posted this because I've noticed that is what happens -- someone comes here and waits for a Google employee to wave their magic wand -- but I am well aware that people will get sick of seeing these on HN (and a company the size of Google offering products people rely on should not have the only contact method being "go to the secret club and say the magic word"). If there were additional authentication methods…

I note (for completeness) that if you pay for your mail service you get an escalation path that goes to a human.

I agree that it would be nice if the free accounts had this option too but having been inside the chocolate factory I can also see why this is not practical.

Re: The only way to get hold of a human at Google

#20

Post by gergles »

ChuckMcM wrote: post #17
gergles wrote: post #8

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Yes, I posted this because I've noticed that is what happens -- someone comes here and waits for a Google employee to wave their magic wand -- but I am well aware that people will get sick of seeing these on HN (and a company the size of Google offering products people rely on should not have the only contact method being "go to the secret club and say the magic word"). If there were additional authentication methods…

I note (for completeness) that if you pay for your mail service you get an escalation path that goes to a human. I agree that it would be nice if the free accounts had this option too but having been inside the chocolate factory I can also see why this is not practical.

You can't pay for @gmail.com addresses, or else I absolutely would. If I'm going to make everyone change the e-mail they send me things at, I'm sure as hell going to change it to a non-GMail address now.
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