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Tell HN: Google Cloud suspended our production projects at 1am on Saturday

news.ycombinator.com

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Re: Tell HN: Google Cloud suspended our production projects at 1am on Saturday

#151

Post by nikanj »

Spare_account wrote: post #30
booi wrote: post #18

Earlier quoted context omitted.

$2500 is honestly not that much. Google cloud dropped the ball on this and shouldn’t need to be handled with special relationships

All of the relationships I have with suppliers are handled by an account manager at the supplier who I can call to get things sorted out. This is normal. Why should a business relationship with Google (or any other cloud service) be any different? I don't use GCP but if I was going to start, I would ensure that I have a person to call or its a non-starter.

Because the account manager would be a human. Google never hires a human if it can use shitty AI instead.

Re: Tell HN: Google Cloud suspended our production projects at 1am on Saturday

#152

Post by belter »

intellectronica wrote: post #115

Generally, all cloud providers have two ways of engaging with and billing customers. One is using a credit card, which is very easy for getting started. The other one is having an established relationship with a sales / account team and setting up billing by invoice. Smaller companies sometimes don't understand that and stick with credit card billing for too long. Once you move to production and have your own custome…

These type of stories, that appear regularly on HN, seem in the vast majority, related to only one specific provider.

Re: Tell HN: Google Cloud suspended our production projects at 1am on Saturday

#153

Post by harha »

intellectronica wrote: post #115

Generally, all cloud providers have two ways of engaging with and billing customers. One is using a credit card, which is very easy for getting started. The other one is having an established relationship with a sales / account team and setting up billing by invoice. Smaller companies sometimes don't understand that and stick with credit card billing for too long. Once you move to production and have your own custome…

If you’re dealing with customers that way you should have a big red warning sign everywhere to not run anything in production under any circumstances.

Otherwise don’t take their money and advertise that everything will be easier and more reliable

Re: Tell HN: Google Cloud suspended our production projects at 1am on Saturday

#154

Post by madeofpalk »

dvfjsdhgfv wrote: post #135
intellectronica wrote: post #115

Generally, all cloud providers have two ways of engaging with and billing customers. One is using a credit card, which is very easy for getting started. The other one is having an established relationship with a sales / account team and setting up billing by invoice. Smaller companies sometimes don't understand that and stick with credit card billing for too long. Once you move to production and have your own custome…

I'm very happy Hetzner has all these options built in from the very start. There's no need to make any "extra effort". Actually, most of my servers are on yearly billing to make things even easier for everybody.

It's not really the payment method that's key here, it's having a relationship with sales / account manager.

Re: Tell HN: Google Cloud suspended our production projects at 1am on Saturday

#155

Post by FBISurveillance »

dvfjsdhgfv wrote: post #135
intellectronica wrote: post #115

Generally, all cloud providers have two ways of engaging with and billing customers. One is using a credit card, which is very easy for getting started. The other one is having an established relationship with a sales / account team and setting up billing by invoice. Smaller companies sometimes don't understand that and stick with credit card billing for too long. Once you move to production and have your own custome…

I'm very happy Hetzner has all these options built in from the very start. There's no need to make any "extra effort". Actually, most of my servers are on yearly billing to make things even easier for everybody.

Except finance.

At certain scale (in my case, 5 figures/mo spend with a vendor and up), paying upfront is not something finance usually likes and NET-60/NET-90 is the norm.

Re: Tell HN: Google Cloud suspended our production projects at 1am on Saturday

#156

Post by nikanj »

ggm wrote: post #107

Is there no model of service where Google can't make real human support possible at scale for profit?

Probably, but there is more profit in not having real human support. The savings are massive, and the cost is just a few dropped customers here and there

Re: Tell HN: Google Cloud suspended our production projects at 1am on Saturday

#157

Post by b112 »

belter wrote: post #152
intellectronica wrote: post #115

Generally, all cloud providers have two ways of engaging with and billing customers. One is using a credit card, which is very easy for getting started. The other one is having an established relationship with a sales / account team and setting up billing by invoice. Smaller companies sometimes don't understand that and stick with credit card billing for too long. Once you move to production and have your own custome…

These type of stories, that appear regularly on HN, seem in the vast majority, related to only one specific provider.

Google is just horrible, when it comes to any form of support, paid or not. They make paypal look helpful by comparison.

I really can't understand why anyone would use any of their services. Support counts. It's one of the first things I look at, when evaluating any external partner. What does it cost, how long does it take for it to happen, etc?

Whatever anyone else says in this thread, that's what you need to determine for yourself. Whatever company, what is the support channel like, how responsive is it?

If you don't know? If you can't get immediate emergency response and support, and I mean immediate, then why are you even hosting there?

Re: Tell HN: Google Cloud suspended our production projects at 1am on Saturday

#158

Post by helsinkiandrew »

baobabKoodaa wrote: post #133
intellectronica wrote: post #115

Generally, all cloud providers have two ways of engaging with and billing customers. One is using a credit card, which is very easy for getting started. The other one is having an established relationship with a sales / account team and setting up billing by invoice. Smaller companies sometimes don't understand that and stick with credit card billing for too long. Once you move to production and have your own custome…

Ah yes, it was the customer's fault. Stupid customer using method recommended by service provider.

Hang on - what would you do if you were running a business with hundreds of thousands of users and someone doesn't pay? Was it an accident? has the customer gone bust, or died, or are they trying to defraud you and get a month or two of free service.

Credit cards are exceptionally finicky, very susceptible to fraud, and payment can often fail. They're great for one off purchases and services that don't matter if they don't go through - but not suitable unless you're going to check that payments are made, which the OP seems not to have done. Perhaps GCP notifications should be better (I've experience the similar scenario with AWS and everything got fixed within a day) - but surely its up to the customer to make sure they pay.

Re: Tell HN: Google Cloud suspended our production projects at 1am on Saturday

#159

Post by thematrixturtle »

Cantinflas wrote: post #139
thematrixturtle wrote: post #111

Earlier quoted context omitted.

You have a person to reach out to if things go pear shaped, and N(weeks|months) to sort out payments issues instead of having everything get suspended by robots.

What about telling those robots not to suspend everything and wait for N(weeks|months) or human intervention?

Bitcoin miner goes brrr!

Re: Tell HN: Google Cloud suspended our production projects at 1am on Saturday

#160

Post by Hnrobert42 »

baobabKoodaa wrote: post #133
intellectronica wrote: post #115

Generally, all cloud providers have two ways of engaging with and billing customers. One is using a credit card, which is very easy for getting started. The other one is having an established relationship with a sales / account team and setting up billing by invoice. Smaller companies sometimes don't understand that and stick with credit card billing for too long. Once you move to production and have your own custome…

Ah yes, it was the customer's fault. Stupid customer using method recommended by service provider.

I don’t take GP’s comment that way. I take it as a suggestion for how to avoid issues. I try not to be quick to judge when someone is offering helpful information.
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