August 5, 2008 417 Comments

When Google Owns You

Nick Saber Nick Saber isn’t happy now. Monday afternoon, after lunch, Nick came back from lunch to find out that he couldn’t get into his Gmail account. Further, he couldn’t get into anything that Google made (beside search) where his account credentials once worked. When attempting to log in, Nick got a single line message:

Sorry, your account has been disabled. [?]

That’s it.

Nick sent a message or three to Google for support. He got back this:

Thank you for your report. We’ve completed our investigation. Because our
investigation was inconclusive, we are unable to return your account at
this time. At Google we take the privacy and security of our users very
seriously. For this reason, we’re unable to reveal any further information
about this account.

And that’s it.

Suddenly, Nick can’t access his Gmail account, can’t open Google Talk (our office IM app), can’t open Picasa where his family pictures are, can’t use his Google Docs, and oh by the way, he paid for additional storage. So, this is a paying customer with no access to the Google empire.

If he was doing something wrong/illegal/invalid, they might’ve said so (not thinking that he was). If he had been hacked, wouldn’t that be something vaguely apparent? I dunno, but it seems like that’d be the way.

So, what happens now? What does Nick do? He’s sent a bunch of emails. But now what? Locked out of ALL of Google’s apps, the apps that I praise daily, the apps where Julien Smith and I are writing a book. Should we be doing that? I didn’t see a problem until this. What if we’re the next Nick?

What’s your take? And what do you think of hands off customer service in this case?

**UPDATE: Nick got back in after quite a lot of work.
**UPDATE: Jay explains in the comments how this is supposed to work. Mind you, I’ve used Google for years as a non-paying customer, so Jay’s advice wouldn’t help. Right?

**UPDATE: Google Gets Back to Nick. We’ll be talking about some ideas based on this in the next newsletter.

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  • http://twitter.com/BradAndersohn BradAndersohn

    I had the same thing happen to me. My adsense account was starting to finally produce some revenue and without any notice or reason whatsoever, I received that robot email that said my account had been disabled. I have tried to notify Google on many occasions (at least 15 times) and no response. No customer service, they just shut me off and with no reason or contact from any human being at Google.

    I have always written about and praised their products, tools and services. If you Google search “Top 50 Google Tools for Business” I’m in the number one spot on THEIR search engine.

    Chris, what do you recommend I do? I’d love to get my acct reinstated but there’s no one to talk to and they won’t respond to any of my requests or emails? It does make me concerned that one day they may just shut it all down and I have too much time and money invested in their products and services?

    Talk about feeling a bit out of control, what do you suggest?

  • http://www.powerhunter.com Local Listings

    How can one backup theri emails from gmail ? any advice

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  • Prism Software

    I always keep backups of mails, because we cant depend everytime on single resource !

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    Sorry to hear that, but I haven’t run in such issue with GG.

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    I can only pray for the safety of everyone.

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  • http://bydio.com Donkeyrock

    I got my google butt whooped mid-March, 2011… sucks to lose all of the services and rebuild again. I had some backups, but not all.

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  • http://www.droidplex.com Droid Fan

    Google has a lot of fantastic products and services but my biggest problem with utilizing them is Google has a severe lack of customer service. I guess when you have a company simultaneously going in so many different directions at once, it would have to be nearly impossible to staff adequate service representatives to handle issues. It seems Google’s method of handling customer service issues is to lock them in the closet or sweep them under the rug and pretend they don’t exist.

    While this is fine for free services or applications, it is not acceptable for paid services.

    In the past, I encountered significant technical issues with both Adwords and Gmail after which I discontinued use of those services due to lack of adequate resolution to problems.

    On the other hand, I do have an Android phone and I have to admit it’s the absolute best thing Google has ever come up with !

    • Linux Experi

      Probably they didn’t actually have any customer care, I guess their engineers do that as part time job.

    • Linux Experi

      Probably they didn’t actually have any customer care, I guess their engineers do that as part time job.

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  • Keithsbrown

    Google probably had a tough dilemma on their hands. If the account has been hacked, do they want to send an email that could accidentally tip off the hackers?

    Keith Brown Norfolk Virginia

  • Jain Gaurev

    same here.. i am a paid customer, 2 factor authentication enabled; android phone syncs.

    i travel to another country, and lo, my account is disabled.

    send over 10 requests to google in last 15 days, no response yet :(

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  • Videoproductionplus

    I have just been locked out of my gmail account.  Did they give you a reason why they locked you out?  Wondering how long this is going to take.  I guess I will not be using gmail in the future………..

    • Linux Experi

      Me too, none except Google search. But they too cache user specific data on that. Why on earth, no nobody raises their voice again Google’s dictatorship. They talk about free speech, freedom on internet and what they do. They didn’t even have a organized customer care. BTW did you get your acc back. I thinking if you don’t, I wouldn’t too, Then I should start thinking about my alternatives.

  • Thomasmax

    i’ve been locked out of my google account for 5 days now. i have replied to their automated forms on their “help” forums and posted there several times not one word about what happened or why my account was disabled. 7 years of emails gone. lesson learned. google is a multibillion dollar multinational capitalist company. they exist to make profit. they sell people, their clicks and their attention to companies. they have proven time and again they don’t care about privacy or their product (us), they care about profit. lesson learned: do not t rust an evil corporation with anything important.

  • Thomasmax

    i’ve been locked out of my google account for 5 days now. i have replied to their automated forms on their “help” forums and posted there several times not one word about what happened or why my account was disabled. 7 years of emails gone. lesson learned. google is a multibillion dollar multinational capitalist company. they exist to make profit. they sell people, their clicks and their attention to companies. they have proven time and again they don’t care about privacy or their product (us), they care about profit. lesson learned: do not t rust an evil corporation with anything important.

  • Linux Experi

    I am in the same boat, just 2 days of disabled Google account and I am terribly tensed, I use Google services for most of my critical work. Google adsense, Google webmaster, Google code, Gmail to name a few. Worse is I even had Google account(not email ID and all) as authentication to may website, eg My domain registrar. Google screwed everything to very deep of my online presence, I already started to move out from Google domain, I will never again trust, Google for their service, they say “Don’t be evil”. Google is itself a evil, wait Google taking your OS online in their cloud, With this Google attitude and trend, I am sure Google will end with much more worse reputation than Microsoft, they speak of free speech, freedom on internet, Wait Google is the dictator on Web, Web is owned by Google, your digital life is owned by Google, Google is Web’s GOD.

    • Linux Experi

      People you can’t complain about Google, You accepted their TOS, in their every TOS, they mention ripping your privacy off. Dumping you life, at their will, will of their stupid bots, poorly designed. Go read a Google TOS and you’ll understand what I mean.

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  • CT

    I finish university classes to discover Google to have locked me out of my Gmail because they think I might be underaged to have a Google Account.

    The 3 ways I can get my account back is either:
    1. Pay them for what has been free services (up until now)
    2. Mail them personal information such as my passport
    3. Scan and electronically give them a copy of my passport or other government ID

    First off, I’ve been using your services for close to a year. Why in arse’s name are you asking me this now of all time?

    Secondly, why should I pay you for advertising-ridden email services, which is supposed to be free? To boot, I’m a flat-broke college student.

    Thirdly, no, I am not sending you anything with my Government ID, residential information, and any other personal detail despite you writing in your help pages that you will delete these files after your DoB verification, because obviously, you can’t be trusted.
    I would be very very inclined to sue you if I sent these information over only to find consumer-targeted advertising in my mailbox.

    I’m sorry, but I am going back to Hotmail. Obviously, you are finding whatever excuse you can come up with to try to get me to pay for what is free with not just cash, but also extremely sensitive information. Just because I never clicked on your advertisements doesn’t do this justice.
    Besides, I think I can live without Google Reader and those manga updates. And I’m pretty sure I’ll be able to read mail all the same with hotmail’s horrible embellishment.

    Now I just have to tell all my friends I’m back to using Hotmail, and that I’m out to ruin your brand-name using facebook and twitter.

    Good day to you, slimy sicko.
    Codename CT

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  • Anonymous

    Thanks for the info. Ironically I used google to find information on this…

    Anyway, just found out my account was disabled. I’m most worried about my email (I use it to talk to clients) and my blog. I guess life goes on, but man does this suck!

  • http://twitter.com/gillmore22 mr bill

    yes this happen to me to was watching netflix all of a sudden my google account disabled i had enough good by google

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  • http://www.michaelrurupandersen.dk/ Michael Rurup Andersen

    They got better at customer service since, but still one of Googles weak points. Just like facebook I might add.

  • Dianelynnrocks

    I have been locked out of my gmail acct someone d……….s@gmail.com changed my pass and back up pass so I am locked out Google has done nothing I called and the Guy said he had no computer and hung up he wasn’t a call center I answered all my questions right and gmail won’t even her back to my new email I had to create for messages even though they have a Backup that may of been compromised gmail has all my email Accra and some stranger is now adding AdSense whatever that is because I tried to log in and gmail disabled my accredited for that I am sick and don’t know what to do and Gmail knows the mail address that did this because the dots are there but I know they can see the email all has been changed too I want my acct back and what was the point if the hackers to do this anyway

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