My Google Workspace account suspension • Hacker News Board

Re: My Google Workspace account suspension

#131

Post by cj » Sun, Apr 05, 2026, 5:44 PM UTC

e40 wrote: post #93

cj wrote: post #43

Using a Google Workspace Super Admin account for your non-admin day to day needs is similar to using your AWS root account instead of IAM users. In my experience Google Workspave support is very good. I’ve always been able to get a knowledgeable person on a call to debug issues without much difficulty. But yea, if you’re locked out of your admin account, that’s another story. Very sjmilar to if you get locked out of…

So you're saying for a simple setup of 1 user, you really need to pay for 2 users. The admin account and the real user you want to use, which doubles the cost.

In an ideal world, 3 users, because you want a backup admin in case your primary admin is lost.

I don’t love it either, but these are Google’s published best practices / recommendations

Re: My Google Workspace account suspension

#132

Post by Evidlo » Sun, Apr 05, 2026, 5:47 PM UTC

protimewaster wrote: post #20

I think Google has done some cool stuff, and I think in a lot of ways they're, at least historically, one of the less evil big tech players. I gotta say, though, that my experience with trying to get them to sort out any kind of issue with their services makes me reluctant to spend any money with them. I bought a Pixel phone. As per the sales terms, the phone came with one year of Gemini AI Pro service. Except, the r…

Anyone have an idea whether it would be practical to go to small claims court? I'm curious if this is a path consumers can take if a corporation breaks an agreement?

Re: My Google Workspace account suspension

#133

Post by TacticalCoder » Sun, Apr 05, 2026, 5:51 PM UTC

protimewaster wrote: post #20

I think Google has done some cool stuff, and I think in a lot of ways they're, at least historically, one of the less evil big tech players. I gotta say, though, that my experience with trying to get them to sort out any kind of issue with their services makes me reluctant to spend any money with them. I bought a Pixel phone. As per the sales terms, the phone came with one year of Gemini AI Pro service. Except, the r…

> ... my experience with trying to get them to sort out any kind of issue with their services makes me reluctant to spend any money with them.

When you pay for Google Workspace you are the client, not the customer and they do answer phone calls for support. The only two times my wife and I needed them for our SMEs, they picked up the phone and helped us resolve our issues. Super professional too. Haven't needed to give them a call in something like 8 years now.

Don't know about Pixel phone and Google One subscriptions but for SMEs Google Workspace is a godsend: it's incredibly cheap per employee and it's the way out of the Microsoft mediocrity. Everything only requires a browser, no matter the OS (wife works from Linux and now added a Mac Mini, for example): Windows can, at long last, get the middle finger in SMEs.

I'll forever be thankful to Google for allowing me to help many people get rid of Microsoft products, including Windows.

Re: My Google Workspace account suspension

#134

Post by [deleted] » Sun, Apr 05, 2026, 5:55 PM UTC

Jimmc414 wrote: post #46

Google needs to understand that watching this nightmare scenario play out over and over again is actively destroying trust in their platform. When your email, authentication, documents, payroll, and CRM all flow through a single provider and that provider can lock you out overnight with no meaningful recourse, you’ve invited customers to place their entire digital presence into a house of cards. The fact that this sa…

[deleted]

Re: My Google Workspace account suspension

#135

Post by jeffbee » Sun, Apr 05, 2026, 5:55 PM UTC

sfmike wrote: post #105

jeffbee wrote: post #77

If you wanted to intentionally trigger every account abuse system at Google, follow this guy's script.

people who travel shouldn't trigger account abuse

Changing your account recovery and 2FA settings then immediately trying to recover your account from an unusual country should temporarily lock out your account, every time, and this is what all normal users want.

Re: My Google Workspace account suspension

#136

Post by rglover » Sun, Apr 05, 2026, 5:56 PM UTC

Just had to fix an AWS account lock out this morning. Why? Despite having a $0 balance and payment info on file, until I set a budget (a new feature per their UI), all of my Cloudfront-hosted files were just unavailable on my business' site (I Cloudfront all static assets so all images, fonts, etc were just broken all of a sudden).

These are the limits of scale. Too big, too complex, and not enough skilled people to maintain and/or support it. And our hubris as humans prevents us from accepting it. Why? Why can't we accept smaller but more functional things/systems?

We don't have to live like this.

Re: My Google Workspace account suspension

#137

Post by ratorx » Sun, Apr 05, 2026, 6:05 PM UTC

gib444 wrote: post #82

Arcuru wrote: post #80

If a service offers "Login with Google/Apple/Facebook/etc" you should never do that if they offer a username/password. It just increases the single point of failure. Avoid places that only offer the "Login with Foo" if at all possible (looking at you Tailscale). As an ex-googler, the only reason I was comfortable keeping even my personal email there was because I could reach out internally if there was a problem. I l…

> Avoid places that only offer the "Login with Foo" if at all possible (looking at you Tailscale). Tailscale is the only serious company that I can ever recall offering /only/ third party login. It's bit bizarre on the face of it. Anyone know the reason?

I think I read somewhere (but could be wrong) that it was because they didn’t want to own any “authentication” services. Their infrastructure was zero trust (as in they don’t hold any passwords or private keys), just a discovery server for different devices.

Re: My Google Workspace account suspension

#138

Post by quadrifoliate » Sun, Apr 05, 2026, 6:10 PM UTC

Spooky23 wrote: post #124

quadrifoliate wrote: post #66

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> He deleted his sole token (Google makes it trivial to add many) in the most fraud signally way possible. Are we reading the same blog post? He had his password, 2FA authenticator set up, and backup codes -- everything Google asks you to have to be on the "golden" auth path. He only deleted his SMS authentication path (one thing I don't understand is how he was able to do this in the first place without being logged…

We’re hearing one side of the story from a frustrated user recounting a borderline traumatic and stressful event. The SMS only fallback is when other things have failed and they suspect that there’s been a takeover. Microsoft does something similar to tie it to some tangible thing. I’m not excusing Google. Their exception handling is poor at best. I’ve seen issues at customers where phones left in flight get flagged…

> Point is, this type of shit happens and you should have a contingency.

Let's work through what the contingency could have been. Always make sure you buy international roaming everywhere you go? Always be able to switch your MX records (from a provider whose account isn't tied to a Google-controlled email)?

They seem to get increasingly less practical to be honest. People travel all over the world everyday, this shit shouldn't be hard for a company like Google that supposedly ingests mountains of data.

More to the point, I think email has become sort of a fundamental right given how much of your identity depends on it. Companies that control this sort of identity foundation need to be heavily regulated, and perhaps nationalized.

Re: My Google Workspace account suspension

#139

Post by deepsun » Sun, Apr 05, 2026, 6:15 PM UTC

I tried to read it assuming the blog post author is a hacker. The hacker could have stolen an OTP device with DNS access, but couldn't steal for the phone number (so they removed it, there was no explanation why phone number is removed). And honestly, how else could they prove they are legit? What if they really are a hacker?

It would be cool if Google (and other media giants, especially IdP ones) had an office where you could bring your passport and verify it's you. I don't think there is.

Re: My Google Workspace account suspension

#140

Post by quadrifoliate » Sun, Apr 05, 2026, 6:17 PM UTC

calvinmorrison wrote: post #118

ryandrake wrote: post #69

It's been [0] days since the last "Cloud provider banned me and I lost everything" article. Everyone who depends on the good graces of a cloud provider for something (not just Google, but Amazon, Microsoft, Apple, whatever) needs to at the very least, take a moment, and figure out what their plan is when they are suddenly banned and locked out permanently, without any way to contact the company. Does life just go on,…

> It's been [0] days since the "business I contract with to provide services locked me out of the building we rent, ghosted me, and threw all my shit out" article. We really need to just fix the laws.

> We really need to just fix the laws.

This. There are something like 150 million Americans with a Google account, and these days it is more important than a phone number to have a working email.

Email is a utility. Email companies should be heavily regulated and controlled like phone or other utility companies.