Six "New" Things I Learned The Hard Way About Google!
On the 9th of August 2022, I received a notification on my phone; that my Google account got disabled!
In the last six weeks, I have been trying to get a clue what happened and why Google disabled my 15 years old account without any notice or reason! And I got nothing.
This sudden problem opened my eyes to many things I wasn't aware of! With Google, I always found simplicity and convenience! That's why I used all their products! Now I can see all my mistakes, like centralizing all my data, and alongside that, I learned a lot about Google. This post will show six new things I learned the hard way about Google!
You can check my journey series on my website (managernotes.com) for all the details.
1) Google Employees Can't Help Us
The first question I get when I tell people my story is:
Can you talk to anyone from Google on LinkedIn or Twitter?
I contacted all the people I could find on Google, went to Google's office (They kicked me out), and tried all the phone numbers I could find on the internet. The same response I get is to try to submit another appeal form.
FACT #1
No one, even Google employees, can help with Google disabled accounts.
2) All Google Products are United … "Sometimes."
One of the strong values proposition of Google is the connectivity of their products! We can move files from Gmail directly to Google Drive or attach Google Docs to write meeting notes from Google Calendar! Convenient, right?
They closed my account and removed my access to "ALL" Google products because they are united! A mistake on any Google product like Google Maps can take all the Google access away!
Now, try to ask for help from anyone of Google products teams or go to their office. They are not as united under one name! They can't help if it doesn't belong to them. Not even an email to contact. Nothing!
FACT #2
Google products teams can’t talk to each other.
3) Google Will Keep Charging
Google has become so huge to manage its different departments!
My account got disabled, but they kept charging me for Google One, Google Domains, and Youtube. It's like a donation to Google on top of all the money they are making!
I asked them for a solution, as I'm still paying for things I can't access! And their answer was to block the payments from the bank. Yep, I shall fix this myself.
FACT #3
Disabling a Google account doesn’t include stop getting charged.
4) Google Auto Backup is a Scam
Automation, don't we all like that?
Auto app update and auto data backup, scheduling payments, and auto backing our photos, storing them on the cloud so we can access them anytime and anywhere—all this great value we have today comes with a cost.
We should be aware that auto-backing files from our phones include WhatsApp photos, Facebook photos, and personal photos, and as we asked for backing those files, we are responsible for their contents. And if we have by any chance had a giving birth moment shared with us, a naked photo, or any copywritten content that we may receive by one of those WhatsApp groups. Google AI may consider those "sexual" photos ours and can block our entire Google account without any warning or any human interpretation!
The question now is, how can we convince Google AI that those claims are very far from the truth?
FACT #4
We are responsible for all the photos we backup. The one from WhatsApp groups included!
5) 💰Google Workspace Over Gmail
We all love Gmail; it's professional, easy to set up, easy to use, and FREE!
I created my email when I was at school. I thought I owned an email now, and I own the content of that account connected to the email; all those documents and photos are mine!
The reality is much different; we don't own anything. We are Users! We use Google's email product called Gmail! That is the FREE service we get. If we don't behave as users as Google wants, our data will be taken away from us, and there will be no support to tell us what we have done wrong.
Now, if we pay for their email service and use Google Workspace to connect our domains, we are in a different category, and we can have good customer support to help us.
We are now called the Workspace Admin 😎 Not Users anymore💰
FACT #5
With Google personal accounts, we are users, not owners.
6) Google Listen Only to Appeal Forms
What is the Solution?
I kept asking myself since this whole thing started, and every time I ended up in the same place, The Appeal Form.
Every person I talked to, every video I watched, and every article I read routed me to this form! I sent like 50 of them with the hope that one day I will get an email from Google to give me a clue! And until that day comes, the only thing I will keep doing every week is to submit a new form!
Fact #6
The only way to get a disabled Google account back is the appeal form!
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