What to do when your Google account's disabled
I have a Google applications account for 2 domains I own. One that I use rarely and another that I use fairly frequently. This morning Chris broke a story of Nick Saber whose Gmail account was disabled. Possibly due to security reasons, quite possibly something else - either ways he was locked out.
This is not the first time Google's been heavy handed about this.
Here's a form that you can use to address hit issue, but you need to know a lot of details you probably dont remember. Good idea to keep this written down someplace.
Brings me to another question: If its free should you expect any customer support? Obviously you sign an end user license agreement (EULA) which prevents you from account misuse etc. when you sign up. So lets assume you have not willingly violated any agreements. Still, if its free what recourse should you expect?
I suspect most companies that provide services would say - nothing.
I also suspect most individuals using the free services would say - complete restoration and basic support (with basic varying from ridiculous to the bizarre). Or they would want an explanation of why - which any vendor will not / should not provide since it then opens that vendor's system to gaming. E.g. if I know that Google locks my account if I send more than 10 emails a day (fictitious) then I will send 9 daily and use another hack to send more.
So what would I do/suggest? For the account I care about I plan to pay the $50 / year for Google domain applications. Its a small price to pay for something that I use daily and also I dont have the time and patience to look for customer support when there's none to be expected.
This is not the first time Google's been heavy handed about this.
Here's a form that you can use to address hit issue, but you need to know a lot of details you probably dont remember. Good idea to keep this written down someplace.
Brings me to another question: If its free should you expect any customer support? Obviously you sign an end user license agreement (EULA) which prevents you from account misuse etc. when you sign up. So lets assume you have not willingly violated any agreements. Still, if its free what recourse should you expect?
I suspect most companies that provide services would say - nothing.
I also suspect most individuals using the free services would say - complete restoration and basic support (with basic varying from ridiculous to the bizarre). Or they would want an explanation of why - which any vendor will not / should not provide since it then opens that vendor's system to gaming. E.g. if I know that Google locks my account if I send more than 10 emails a day (fictitious) then I will send 9 daily and use another hack to send more.
So what would I do/suggest? For the account I care about I plan to pay the $50 / year for Google domain applications. Its a small price to pay for something that I use daily and also I dont have the time and patience to look for customer support when there's none to be expected.
Unfortunately from this example you can't make the conclusion that being a paid user helps since Nick actually paid for additional storage on Google Docs as far as I understood, and it still took quite some time to have the issue sorted out.
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Svetlana
Thanks for the clarification. Paying for additional storage versus for the Google applications means different things I think. I got a 800 number for support when I subscribed to Google applications for my domain. I have a customer and support pin number. I got a live person quickly.
There he would find these numbers:
* System critical issue support line (Local): 1-800-598-3901
* System critical issue support line (Global): 1-650-253-7875
To contact support, you will need the following:
* Customer pin & Support pin
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Obviously different paid services must include different support packages and I'm glad that with the Google apps it is not a problem to get support when you need it. Anyway it is interesting to watch people making the buying decisions after this case of strange surprise from Google
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Just had an exact repeat episode…account disabled. I my case its because there was a security issue with Google Checkout…the worthless redundant buying service that I signed up for to get 10% off some gear. What a fool. The Googlesphere is inherently evil and here’s why. They promote trust that lures users with awesome free cloud computing service. I foolishly trusted Google and used Gmail, Docs, and Picassa to safeguard my data. Now, because of some BS Checkout problem, they’ve locked me away from my data. IMAP made the situation far worse, since I now have lost 3-years worth of email data. INSANE. I blasted the cheerleaders at Lifehacker who promote all things Google. I suggest that anyone who suffers a similar fate do the same. The word needs to get out that Google can’t be trusted.
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It happened to me. I was not able to reactivate my google accounts. They said they need to do that foe security reasons. The sad part is I forgot my secondary email which is the most important.
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