from Hacker News

Aussie ISV buys ads to wake up Google support

by vlasky on 8/16/19, 1:56 AM with 126 comments

• by throwamay1241 on 8/16/19, 9:20 AM

  I helped my mother reformat her computer remotely. We successfully ported her mail client but managed to lose her gmail password - meaning we had enough access to send/receive emails but not create new sessions. The account was created some time in 2006. A week prior to the reformat she had changed jobs, and lost the mobile phone number associated with her account.

  The second factor email was associated with my account, I could see reset codes come through which were relayed to her but would result in an 'oops, something went wrong'. My guess is a bug due to account age / whatever.

  I figured we had enough evidence to obtain a password reset, so I googled for gmail support contact details. There are none.

  I then tried repeatedly to contact Google via twitter, all my tweets were ignored - probably because I only have like 20 followers.

  In the end, my mother ended up porting her old mobile number to a prepaid sim, as $previouscompany had disconnected the number entirely, and used that as the second factor to reset the account.

  Pretty damn frustrating that Google doesn't have any unpaid inbound support _AT ALL_.

  Next time I'll consider paying a twitter influencer to impersonate me (or my mother), or paying for adspace, or using a mail service that exposes at least some form of support.

• by Animats on 8/16/19, 6:46 AM

  Back when there were telegrams, I once sent a telegram to Kentucky Fried Chicken corporate HQ to complain about a franchisee that was leaving unsold food under the heat lamps for so long it tasted awful. KFC happened to be one of the few nearby eateries open late. Cost about $20 to send a telegram, which was delivered by a Western Union messenger.

  I was contacted by KFC corporate HQ and given lots of coupons. Then I was contacted by regional HQ and given more coupons. Then by the franchisee. More coupons and an apology. The food quality improved markedly. For a while.

• by funkidredd on 8/16/19, 4:36 AM

  Wow!! My company made HackerNews! Yeah, what an arseache it's been - and just checked and nothing has been actioned still despite the negative coverage. Google truly don't give a shit I'm afraid.

• by repairisntcheap on 8/16/19, 6:03 AM

  I decided to escalate support with a major multi billion dollar tech company in a unique way... I took a one-way plane ticket to the city of their HQ, went to the front desk, then when I was rebuffed, i escalated my issues to a major news outlet. .. I also considered Facebook live right in front of their headquarters on public property, but fortunately didn't need to... I was very polite about everything... Never demanding or angry- always expressing gratitude for the incredible opportunity I had with this company! Amazingly, my unorthodox escalation procedure worked-- I wasn't sure if it would.

  My point in writing this is to say- great job thinking outside the box! Even if you can't fly to Google HQ, continue to think outside the box. Some ideas include Hire someone at taskrabbit or Craigslist, or a FB jobs page, to go to their front desk, or if unsuccessful, to hold a sign on public property in front of Google's HQ, you can get a banner or sign professionally made (online process are pretty reasonably priced). You could Skype with your stand-in. It would be really fun to get a Skype video call on a big iPad... or try something else.

  Everybody thought I was crazy. I was. Crazy people get noticed, and often get results. Whatever the outcome, being able to tell an awesome story is always fun! Good luck, mate!

• by marcus_holmes on 8/16/19, 10:30 AM

  I dismantled a business a couple of years ago. I let the domain lapse, dismantled everything. Forgot to cancel Google Apps. I noticed the charge still coming out of my bank account a while later, and tried to get it canceled. Couldn't log in, wasn't given the option to use the backup account, couldn't receive an email. Contacted google support. A few emails later they accept that I'm the person who is paying the bill, but refuse to cancel the account. Their last support message is "you'll have to dispute the charge with your bank".

  On to bank support, who don't have a category for "service is being provided but refusing to cancel" sigh

  Needless to say, never using a Google service again.

• by jay_kyburz on 8/16/19, 3:09 AM

  Gotta post on Hacker News if you want some Google support!

• by marsRoverDev on 8/16/19, 9:32 AM

  I feel lucky to personally know Google employees. The times when I've had an issue and gone via the public channels there has been radio silence. Directly report it via a google employee and it generally gets dealt with. It should not be this way.

• by TekMol on 8/16/19, 6:45 AM

  As far as I know, Google Tag Manger is a tool to inject scripts into websites via an interface. So you add the Tag Manager script to your page and then you can tell Tag Manager via Google's interface to load additional scripts.

  Why does anybody need Google's solution here so badly? It sounds pretty easy to develop such a thing.

• by funkidredd on 8/17/19, 12:02 AM

  UPDATE

  THING FIXED!

  Media release and some of you here helped bigly yuge with the getting of Google to sort out.

  Thanks to you all.

  Bows

• by Animats on 8/16/19, 6:41 AM

  If you want to put stuff on your own sites, what do you need Google Tag Manager for? That's a thing for injecting semi-hostile code into other sites.

• by ec109685 on 8/16/19, 9:16 AM

  Google stinks at customer service. Compare this to Slack, which answers everyone of their customer's /feedback's.