Google has a long history of providing poor developer support, particularly to smaller, independent studios and teams. However, the company’s overall customer service is lacking, and today’s horror story is the kind that will possibly prompt a Google Takeout backup, just in case. One customer’s Google account was fully disabled at midnight last night.
They say that the contents of their Google account — email, images, Google Pay balance, and even the ability to pay their internet bill via Google Fiber and cellphone bill via Google Fi — were snatched away without notice or explanation.
What Exactly Happened?
An email was sent to a Google customer named Chris last night, informing him that his Google account had been disabled because “it appears that it was used in a way that severely violated Google’s policies.” The email arrived while they were sleeping, and there was no further detail on why the account had been suspended.
Chris filed an appeal, thinking it must have occurred by accident, but it was rejected, leaving him with no apparent choice and no access to his ten-year-old Google account.
For some of us, this might be a minor annoyance, but Google’s services are numerous and widespread. You could lose access to your emails if you’re locked out of your Google account and the only company service you use is Gmail.
Chris, on the other hand, was even more invested, using Google Fi for phone service, Google Fiber for internet connectivity, Google Pay for debt repayment, Google Drive for school and work, and Google Photos for photo backups.
Furthermore, email is often used for two-factor authentication in a variety of industries, including financial services and healthcare. This lack of email account access can also impact third-party providers external to Google, and Chris may lose access to both his doctor and his bank as a result of Google’s actions.
Decade Old Google Account Being Disabled! A Big Issue or Not?
If we aren’t smart enough to make frequent backups, one-sided action by Google can be massively detrimental to our lives, equating to terms-of-service-sanctioned loss of all our digital property. Regrettably, it’s also becoming the standard.
At times, suspension of Google Account remains a mystery, same happened with Chris. In some cases, Google suspends an account to assist the account holder — for example, if the account has been compromised, this will protect the account holder’s data. But the only reason Chris has is a late-night backup set up via Google’s Backup and Sync programme, which made a record of video editing ventures, possibly containing copyrighted music, and which was set for that time of day to save bandwidth, although they are unshared.
Chris will have to wait to see if he hears anything more on the matter. He believes that he has been unable to contact a “single human” to clarify what happened, and that all customer service representatives he has spoken with have only directed them to Google’s support site.
While Google may approach their specific case with greater clarity, not everyone is so fortunate. Meanwhile, I’m sure I’ll be backing up my Google account data tonight, and I strongly advise you to do the same.
Having said above, our IT Consultants strongly believe in providing customer support to our clients. As we are official Microsoft Partner, we tend to fulfill our objectives and try our best to provide technical support to the customers whenever, they need it.
