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My Google Workspace account suspension

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Re: My Google Workspace account suspension

#21

Post by faidit »

masfuerte wrote: post #17
samlinnfer wrote: post #13

I can't believe I'm praising Microsoft (Office365) here but it actually has a track record of actually having support, support people that you can talk on the phone with and knows how to navigate the dark corners of their convoluted systems and actually solved my problems (even if it was caused by Microsoft's horrific UI in the first place).

An article here a couple of days ago said that the automation behind the scenes in Azure is piss poor and the whole thing is held together by thousands of contractors manually fixing the endless failures. On the plus side, it does mean they have thousands of people who know how to fix problems. edit: https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=47616242

At Google there is one guy who knows how to fix the problem.. he's a monk who is also in 700 different teams and the only one who remembers how the systems were built. You have to climb all the way up to his mountain abode, hope that he is home and pray that he will hear your cries and help you

Re: My Google Workspace account suspension

#23

Post by skeeter2020 »

masfuerte wrote: post #17
samlinnfer wrote: post #13

I can't believe I'm praising Microsoft (Office365) here but it actually has a track record of actually having support, support people that you can talk on the phone with and knows how to navigate the dark corners of their convoluted systems and actually solved my problems (even if it was caused by Microsoft's horrific UI in the first place).

An article here a couple of days ago said that the automation behind the scenes in Azure is piss poor and the whole thing is held together by thousands of contractors manually fixing the endless failures. On the plus side, it does mean they have thousands of people who know how to fix problems. edit: https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=47616242

Any painful automation story feels very different from their customer service. MS has always been superior to their competition with customer service - especially paid service contracts - because it's far closer to their identity: very long-term, tightly integrated enterprise. Google has never had this; even the idea of paying for support came very late (and reluctantly) to them.

Re: My Google Workspace account suspension

#24

Post by bookofjoe »

Once upon a time at Google: The year was 2013, and I'd been selected to be among the first 8,000 people to get Google Glass. I had to go to Google HQ in NYC from my home in Virginia to get it and be instructed 1:1 on how to use it. I was given a toll-free phone number to call for support by a Glass expert, available 24/7/365.

Not only did they answer immediately whenever I had even the smallest problem or question: I twice broke my Glass, and each time I'd call the support number to ask for a replacement.

Google's policy was that no matter how you broke it or how many times it happened, they'd replace it free. They'd immediately send a box to return the broken device (prepaid) and a couple days later a brand new Glass would arrive.

Like I said, once upon a time....

Re: My Google Workspace account suspension

#25

Post by walterbell »

gchamonlive wrote: post #15
pzmarzly wrote: post #14

I guess one way to protect yourself from this would be to use another IAM solution for SSO login to Google Workspace, but is there any reasonable choice for small businesses other than Entra ID or Okta?

There's always keycloak you can rollout yourself. It's not trivial but it's quite doable.

Thanks for the pointer, https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=47649354

edit: looks like there are affordable managed hosting providers for keycloak.

Re: My Google Workspace account suspension

#26

Post by skeeter2020 »

techteach00 wrote: post #16
izacus wrote: post #11

Earlier quoted context omitted.

What do you add to humanity with this crappy take? Why are you shitty to the victim?

Because his honest and accurate diagnosis for why mega tech corps treat people inhumanely is the first step towards stopping it. In my opinion of course.

1. they're wrong in their basic understanding; this is not a free product

2. the response is glib and lacks any empathy

3. there's no suggestions of possible action or resolution path

4. it is all opinion and low value / low effort

So even if it's an "honest and accurate diagnosis" that you agree with, it's not helpful, valuable or even comforting. We can do better.

Re: My Google Workspace account suspension

#27

Post by walterbell »

techteach00 wrote: post #16
izacus wrote: post #11

Earlier quoted context omitted.

What do you add to humanity with this crappy take? Why are you shitty to the victim?

Because his honest and accurate diagnosis for why mega tech corps treat people inhumanely is the first step towards stopping it. In my opinion of course.

What's a good alternative to Google Workspace for SMB customers?

Re: My Google Workspace account suspension

#28

Post by ValentineC »

pbowyer wrote: post #8

Dealing with Google is a nightmare. I'm one of the volunteer sysadmins for https://forum.buildhub.org.uk/ , a DIY and self-build forum. For 10 years it ranked very well on Google, particularly in the UK, and then on 28 December 2025 it disappeared from Google's index. Nothing has helped, the Google forums are tumbleweed and there's no one to reach out to for what could be an algorithm change or something gone wrong.…

> Nothing has helped, the Google forums are tumbleweed and there's no one to reach out to for what could be an algorithm change or something gone wrong.

The own-brand forum (Google, Microsoft, Apple) seem to be infested by netizens from lower-income countries trying to build online customer support portfolios by providing utterly useless answers.

That, or trying to game the system and getting shortlisted for a free trip to Google HQ for one of their contributor summits.

Re: My Google Workspace account suspension

#30

Post by ValentineC »

skeeter2020 wrote: post #23
masfuerte wrote: post #17

Earlier quoted context omitted.

An article here a couple of days ago said that the automation behind the scenes in Azure is piss poor and the whole thing is held together by thousands of contractors manually fixing the endless failures. On the plus side, it does mean they have thousands of people who know how to fix problems. edit: https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=47616242

Any painful automation story feels very different from their customer service. MS has always been superior to their competition with customer service - especially paid service contracts - because it's far closer to their identity: very long-term, tightly integrated enterprise. Google has never had this; even the idea of paying for support came very late (and reluctantly) to them.

> MS has always been superior to their competition with customer service - especially paid service contracts - because it's far closer to their identity: very long-term, tightly integrated enterprise. Google has never had this; even the idea of paying for support came very late (and reluctantly) to them.

If we're comparing cloud services, surely GCP has customer service? I can't imagine any big enterprise using it otherwise.

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