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The only way to get hold of a human at Google

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

#101

Post by capo »

JumpCrisscross wrote: post #61
capo wrote: post #30

You have my sympathies and all but this is getting annoying, every once in awhile the HN front page gets cluttered with these sorts of posts, wait the day out it’s not that unreasonable. Complaining when not even half way through the designated time period comes across as whining. And for the record you could have gotten human support if you were a paying Apps costumer, for the free stuff you have to deal with automa…

I don't mind paying for a premium account with support. But as an individual with a small data footprint I really don't have a need for Google Apps (the OP pays for extra storage which isn't evidently magic enough). If they gave me the option I'd gladly pay for the service (in fact, on some level I'd feel more comfortable).

My point is that for the price of "free" their support is good enough. Not to mention that they did so to protect your account.

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

#102

Post by km3k »

FaceKicker wrote: post #86
Duff wrote: post #80

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I think that the root of this issue is the stupid Google policy of not distinguishing any variation of your address if a '.' character is in there -- until someone registers it. People get confused and try to login. So if your address is jsmith@gmail.com, you can send email to (or login with) j.smith@gmail.com or jsmit.h@gmail.com.... at least until someone registers jsmit.h@gmail.com! I was an early beta GMail user…

> So if your address is jsmith@gmail.com, you can send email to (or login with) j.smith@gmail.com or jsmit.h@gmail.com.... at least until someone registers jsmit.h@gmail.com! Uh, if this is true it's a security abomination. I'm pretty sure Gmail doesn't allow registration with a login that would be considered the same as an already registered one (but I'm too lazy to check a few to confirm, just because I refuse to b…

I just tried logging in with a random '.' in my username and got in.

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

#103

Post by capo »

pyre wrote: post #71
capo wrote: post #30

You have my sympathies and all but this is getting annoying, every once in awhile the HN front page gets cluttered with these sorts of posts, wait the day out it’s not that unreasonable. Complaining when not even half way through the designated time period comes across as whining. And for the record you could have gotten human support if you were a paying Apps costumer, for the free stuff you have to deal with automa…

Gmail isn't free. We are paying for it with our eyeballs. Gmail would only be 'free' in the way that you imply if Google was getting nothing in return. Just because money isn't changing hands doesn't mean it's free.

which means pennies for every hundred user, the support is good enough for ~free.

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

#104

Post by j_baker »

bmelton wrote: post #81
robomartin wrote: post #27

This is a general problem with Google and their customer-no-service attitude. It's just deplorable. It really is. You have to wonder: What is it going to take for them to give a shit and actually do something about it? Very soon the word gets out that HN is where you can get your Google bullshit problems fixed and we'll be treated to pages-upon-pages of people with Google problems. The general issue is that of accoun…

Giving away an awesome mail service for free to the world is not evil. Being too busy to support every Tom, Dick and Harry that has problems with it is also not evil. An analogy: "Hey Tom, I'm not using this rake any more. Would you like to have it? I'll give it to you." "Sure Dick. Thanks, this is a very nice rake indeed." The rake breaks. "Hey Dick. The rake doesn't work any more. Come over here and fix it." "Sorry…

You make it sound like Google prices Gmail for free out of the kindness of their heart. They're a business. I use gmail for free because I feel it's in my best interests to do so, and they provide it to me for free because they feel it's in their best interests to do so.

The moment that agreement becomes invalid is the moment a person has the right to become frustrated.

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

#105

Post by stfu »

DrJokepu wrote: post #67
snowwrestler wrote: post #51

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Google owns Blogger and hosts all their official blogs there. Example: http://analytics.blogspot.com/ That does not prove gmailaccountrecovery.blogspot.com is an official blog though. Edit: for clarity

The site you've linked doesn't have any Google branding. Moreover, none of the real Google blogs have adverts on them. In addition, the visual design of the page looks rather unprofessional. It's very unlikely that this site is affiliated with Google.

Plus there is some other hint: " This page is not sponsored by or affiliated with Google."

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

#106

Post by DavidAbrams »

cletus wrote: post #15

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 l…

Or hey, get a real host, domain, and E-mail account.

In other news: Someone else's blog is under my Blogger account, and there's absolutely no way to contact Google about it.

The new credo of doing business is HIDE FROM THE CUSTOMER. It's disgraceful.

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

#107

Post by [deleted] »

patio11 wrote: post #26
cletus wrote: post #15

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 l…

cough If any Googlers are reading this, Google often phrases error messages more like that quote ("Us us us us us us, ergo, you don't get what you need") instead of like cletus did ("You you you, you you you, ergo, we're going to take this action on your behalf".). Dale Carnegie, Cletus, and every sane copywriter on the planet strongly suggest rewriting that prompt and related ones. After taking baby steps like sound…

[deleted]

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

#108

Post by bmelton »

j_baker wrote: post #104
bmelton wrote: post #81

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Giving away an awesome mail service for free to the world is not evil. Being too busy to support every Tom, Dick and Harry that has problems with it is also not evil. An analogy: "Hey Tom, I'm not using this rake any more. Would you like to have it? I'll give it to you." "Sure Dick. Thanks, this is a very nice rake indeed." The rake breaks. "Hey Dick. The rake doesn't work any more. Come over here and fix it." "Sorry…

You make it sound like Google prices Gmail for free out of the kindness of their heart. They're a business. I use gmail for free because I feel it's in my best interests to do so, and they provide it to me for free because they feel it's in their best interests to do so. The moment that agreement becomes invalid is the moment a person has the right to become frustrated.

Frustrated, sure. The remedy for frustration is to take your business elsewhere. Frustration doesn't entitle you to get support on a free service.

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

#109

Post by donniezazen »

cletus wrote: post #15

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 l…

Their is no excuse for not using two-factor authentication with all Google products.

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

#110

Post by rory096 »

rbanffy wrote: post #69
gergles wrote: post #22

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I do pay for GMail storage, so the predictable parade of "WHAT DID YOU EXPECT FOR FREE?????" (answer: exactly what was advertised, a working email service) is tiresome -- and besides that, there isn't even a contact form for this issue. There is no way to communicate with anyone or to even raise an alert of "hey, I have a problem". The only way that it is going to get fixed is for someone to manually intervene, and t…

> exactly what was advertised, a working email service Claiming Gmail (even the free one) doesn't work when, in fact, it experiences seemingly random and very infrequent outages, is disingenuous. It's incredibly hard to make a complex application like Gmail work perfectly all the time for all its users and I'm completely sure they are well within their ToS. Much like we are willing to live with software that has some…

To be fair, the OP shouldn't be able to expect a 100% working email service. But to expect that the provider not be actively causing it to fail seems reasonable.
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