YouTube locked my accounts and I can't cancel my subscription • Hacker News Board

Re: YouTube locked my accounts and I can't cancel my subscription

#111

Post by eatrocs_allday » Sat, Apr 11, 2026, 6:37 PM UTC

surgical_fire wrote: post #64

Gareth321 wrote: post #61

Earlier quoted context omitted.

It was after the hundredth post like this that I de-Googled my life. It was only a matter of time until something happened to my account, and I had so much of my life tied up in their services. The biggest and best change was buying my own domain and changing my email address. Now no one can ever remove access to my emails.

I've been on this path for years, with varying degrees if faulure. How did you manage it? Some bits are harder than others. Most of my important email was migrated to a Protonmail account. With the exception with a couple of things tied to government services that don't have a path of changing your email, which sucks. Android: Next time I switch devices I am going for GrapheneOS. Technically still an Android, sandbox…

for youtube i use ytdl (very easy to install with pip or w/e new thing there is now). then at least it's more of a deliberate choice to watch something rather than random thrill seeking.

Re: YouTube locked my accounts and I can't cancel my subscription

#112

Post by SergeAx » Sun, Apr 12, 2026, 5:09 AM UTC

ddtaylor wrote: post #10

I had a strange and similar interaction with Google recently. I was asked to do the Android developer verification, but then I missed a deadline at some point. Support said that I would need to create a new Google account for all of this. I said this was unacceptable as this was a Google account I had for nearly 25 years and I didn't want to create another. They said tough luck, go make the new account. Luckily, I ha…

For about 10 years, I have had a habit of creating a new, separate Google account for every new project I start, and then adding my personal account as a team member/collaborator. This way, the potential blast radius is (hopefully) limited.

Re: YouTube locked my accounts and I can't cancel my subscription

#113

Post by kulahan » Sun, Apr 12, 2026, 9:22 PM UTC

devn0ll wrote: post #41

kulahan wrote: post #22

500000000th person discovers google is not creating youtube for you, but for them to make cash. Crazy story. Really shocking and definitely not one of the most standard complaints in existence. Anyways, there's absolutely no such thing as "I can't stop paying for this". Just do a chargeback on your card. It's not a real problem.

You probably do agree that this should not be normal. And not the expected way to get your money back? There is no blocklist option at my bank, so I'd have to do that every month in perpetuity? Simply because I cannot login and cancel my account? side note, these are things I feel should be: 1. Illegal: "noreply@" addresses. My inbox is not a dumping ground and email is two way, not one way. 2. Required: phone number…

What do you mean there is no blocklist? Your bank has no way to stop someone from taking your money, no matter what, if it’s ever authorized even one time? That makes no sense. Your country desperately needs some way to fix your system.

In America, the authorization to charge a card lies with the card itself. You call the bank and revoke the authorization. Done. This solves the problem of requiring every single company needing to hire some untold number of people to sit around at phones and hopefully agree to stop taking your money?? Or whatever weird setup your country has.

It also doesn’t matter if it’s normal or okay or whatever. You’re dealing with a business - it’s effectively an inanimate object. You don’t live in a vacuum, so you can complain that it isn’t a friendlier company, or you can find a solution. I’ve found one for you, at least that works in the US.