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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

#91

Post by paul »

Duff wrote: post #80
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…

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…

False. It is not possible to register multiple variants of the same address. The reason you get misdirected email is because people are entering the wrong address in forms. You should see all the email that goes to paul@gmail.com :)

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

#92

Post by debacle »

eli wrote: post #85
debacle wrote: post #72

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I think that model creates a moral hazard considering that in this instance the account was locked down by Google.

Yup, it's perhaps a tough PR sell because it create the potential for misaligned incentives, but I don't think it is a totally crazy idea. I'm pretty sure Microsoft waives the fee for their paid TechNet support if the problem was due to a legitimate bug or problem on their end.

Microsoft probably has a much higher ARPU than Google does.

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

#93

Post by joevandyk »

gkop wrote: post #55
dredmorbius wrote: post #39

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Google's got enough of my info. If they want to come up with a two-factor auth, I'm happy to provide the public half of a PKI keypair. Of my choosing. Not my phone number, thanks. My real email is too valuable to be left to GMail.

You can get a list of 1-time pads instead.

To setup 2 factor auth, you have to give them a phone number that you can receive a call or sms on, I believe.

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

#94

Post by bmelton »

Karunamon wrote: post #87
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…

> if you want support, you pay for it. That's no excuse to provide a shitty service. For 99% of people GMail is not shitty and is infact quite awesome. That doesn't change the fact that with the amount of people Google has, not having even a queue for people to get minor issues fixed (Freaking MICROSOFT can get this right, for crying out loud!!) is ridiculous.

I disagree. The amount of people they'd have to hire to support that 1% of their users could make the service untenable as free to the rest of us.

In my opinion, the thing done wrong was offering support through unofficial channels. It sets the wrong expectations and perpetuates the notion that if you know the right people, you'll get the support that others can't, and honestly don't deserve.

If I give rakes out to 100 people, should I have to hire staff to fix the ones that break? No. I gave them something for free. If they don't like it, they can go somewhere else. If they buy a rake, then they'll get a warranty, and be entitled to speak to a human about it.

To your point directly though, it IS an excuse to provide shitty service, if they did that. As you said, it's beautiful and perfect for more than 99% of their customers.

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

#95

Post by ramses0 »

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…

Can you even pay for gmail?

http://groups.google.com/group/Gmail-Help-Logging-In-en/brow...

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

#96

Post by oneilse14 »

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…

And for all things not Google, check out http://www.duosecurity.com/. Completely painless to set up on my box at home.

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

#97

Post by paulgb »

paul wrote: post #91
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…

False. It is not possible to register multiple variants of the same address. The reason you get misdirected email is because people are entering the wrong address in forms. You should see all the email that goes to paul@gmail.com :)

Out of curiosity, is it enough to make the account unusable? Do you have to set up strong filters?

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

#98

Post by bmelton »

ramses0 wrote: post #95
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…

Can you even pay for gmail? http://groups.google.com/group/Gmail-Help-Logging-In-en/brow...

http://www.google.com/enterprise/apps/business/pricing.html

Also, I don't know anything about this, since I've never used it, but in looking at my account options on the 'Help' page, they have a "Prioritized Phone Support" that it seems you can pay for: http://support.google.com/accounts/bin/answer.py?hl=en&a...

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

#99

Post by vivekkrish »

joevandyk wrote: post #93
gkop wrote: post #55

Earlier quoted context omitted.

You can get a list of 1-time pads instead.

To setup 2 factor auth, you have to give them a phone number that you can receive a call or sms on, I believe.

Which is why I provide my Google Voice number for this purpose. Works perfectly!

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

#100

Post by jen_h »

Duff wrote: post #80
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…

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…

With Gmail, j.s.m.i.t.h@gmail.com is the same address as jsmith@gmail.com as j.smith+nospam@gmail.com - it's likely that someone's mistyping their own email address all over the Internet (this happens to me all the time, having a common first name/last name combo. I get bills and newsletters and etc. Never got an underwear pic, though, alas!).

Good thing to remember this when writing a system that compares email addresses--always normalize Gmail addresses on the backend before processing--but woe betide you if you normalize on the frontend, people love their dots!

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