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Help HN: Insane Google Cloud Issues

4 points by ciguy ↗ HN
I have a somewhat dystopian Google situation and am coming here to HN after running out of other options. I'm hoping someone at Google Cloud reads this or someone someone can refer this to someone at Google Cloud.

I've recently been engaged by a client to help them build out their Google Cloud infrastructure. I've been a DevOps consultant for 10+ years but usually prefer AWS due to issues I've had to GCP in the past. But this particular client was using them already, so that's what we are going with.

This client has an account setup with a few projects running within the free tier. We are now ready to deploy a more mature development environment (Mostly GKE and CloudSQL) that will take us out of the free tier limits. We've added billing information to the account and even made a $500 payment in advance.

When trying to deploy however we still hit quota limits. The error gives a URL at which quota limit increases can be requested. When trying to do so however the console gives an error message saying the account is not eligible for a quota limit increase and asks us to contact sales.

The sales contact page it gives us has a form, a chatbot and a phone number. Calling the default phone number reveals that it is out of service. The chat bot is broken, and after collecting your contact info it resets and goes blank. The form seems to work but then I never receive the promised case email.

We were finally able to get through to a sales or support person in the Philippines after trying the Swiss support number instead of the American one (Which is out of service). That person didn't seem to know much but claimed they'd lifted the quota restriction on the account. Of course they didn't, and the issue remains.

I'm worried if we try to start over with a brand new account it will look even more suspicious to Google and we'll get perma-banned or something. Any contact you have in Google Cloud or help anyone can provide would be appreciated.

26 comments

[ 2.7 ms ] story [ 19.5 ms ] thread
dekhn
I searched for 'Google Cloud Sales' and it gave me this page: https://cloud.google.com/contact The phone number works, the chat number works, and the form works (I tested all three from the US).

I used to work for Google and many customers were able to reach sales (or more correctly, obtain a TAM and use them to deal with quota problems)

ciguy
What number are you seeing on that page? The one they give me (1-800-654-2533) is out of service when I call it.
ciguy
Also as I mentioned we did get through to someone via the Swiss number, they did not help.
brudgers
That's the end of your professional responsibility.

Take your ball home.

codegeek
For me in the US, it is showing 844-613-7589 Representatives are available Monday—Friday, 8:00 AM - 8:00 PM EST on that linked sales page.
foobarbazetc
Sounds like the account is flagged for ~reasons~.

I've never had to contact sales to get any quota increases, so I guess it's YMMV.

See dekhn's comment for contact details.

ciguy
I have not either in the past, which is why I think this account must be flagged.
ohyeshedid
FWIW, You mentioned in the OP that you added billing information, but unless their account is very very old: billing information is required on sign up, afaik.

It's possible they did something goofy with a card that expired or a prepaid card upon opening the account that's causing the current issues.

ciguy
Nope, fairly new account, billing added. Looks like they limit the number of projects which can have billing attached to 3 by default. So any created after that just have no billing associated, with no warning. What a Trainwreck.
dataminded
Great opportunity to be a consultative partner to your client and get them out of GCP.

At a minimum get a paid support plan and leverage that. Show them what support will look like before they are too far in to move.

ciguy
Yep, I don't exactly love AWS either but at least it generally works in a sane and predictable manner.
brudgers
Google Cloud probably does too, even in this case. Or I'd put my money that way rather than on the client. The fact that you are thinking of trying to set up a new account despite the possible consequences to your business, is a tell of who you are working for.
ciguy
There is no consequence to my business. Are you drunk or high right now? Because you're coming across as weirdly paranoid and reading way too much into the situation.
brudgers
My beard is gray. I tend to apply Occam’s razor. The problem with code is almost never a bug in the compiler.

The simplest explanation for your experience is not Google being incompetent.

I have read AskHN’s written a bit later under similar facts. The consultant is trying to get their own account reinstated because they made a new account on behalf of a client experiencing “arbitrary” mistreatment.

Outside of that, the market for consulting clients is a market for lemons. Good clients already have consultants. Those consultants hang onto good clients like grim death.

I could be misreading what you wrote. You might not have written down something that would change my take.

Maybe this is not a situation where you pay the dumb tax. But everyone pays it sometimes.

As for paranoia: https://www.amazon.com/Only-Paranoid-Survive-Exploit-Challen...

ciguy
So yes, you're high? You are making so many weird assumptions and jumping to strange conclusions here. Or you're a Google shill, I honestly can't tell which.
brudgers
I am not using much of my imagination to guess how your interactions with Google customer support went. These days companies have access to a customer rating services. And you experienced 404, number not in service, and connection to the Philippines where there are call centers for hire dedicated to “the most demanding” customers.

Hopefully you are billing time and materials.

dekhn
I've worked closely with two of the clouds (GCP and AWS) and the one thing you need to appreciate is that with GCP, moreso than AWS, if you want to go from training wheels to basic car, you need to make contact with a human and establish a relationship, ideally by phone or video chat. This is doubly true if you're in EU where GCP has traditionally had a hard time billing small customers due to VAT issues.

I'm not defending GCP here (personally I think this is another sign Google doesn't actually take cloud seriously as a business as Microsoft or Amazon do) but, the reality is that many of these things unfortunately do require high-touch human interfacing to get started and to expand. I'm more a "take my credit card and shut up" person...

brudgers
Google takes the cloud seriously. But at the scale of Google and with its history in regard to ordinary users, it is not really culturally structured to provide small scale B2B or retail B2C customer service for anything it offers.

In contrast Amazon has a B2C culture and Microsoft a B2B one. Amazon has scaled its up to B2B and Microsoft’s success has been in large part from providing a B2B approach to B2C customers.

Google default is users are product. Customers are people signing multi year contracts for millions per year.

brudgers
Companies have track records. Simple question, what happened to the company's previous consultant? or to put it another way, what is the least flattering answer to why did they call you instead of someone else?

Decide if this client is worth associating with in terms of future work. Are they worth going to war with against Google?

You already have a suspicion that a perma-ban could be in the cards.

If their account is flagged, you can't help them. If Google isn't going to help, you can't help them. You can't help them if their problem can't be fixed.

It might be time to call your lawyer and figure out how to walk away...there's a Kenny Rogers song about it. Good luck.

ciguy
There is no previous consultant this is a seed stage startup trying to deploy a simple web app. What are you even on about?
brudgers
Why did they call you instead of someone else?

Who set them up on GCP?

jasmes
You should make sure you're not about to start chasing sunk costs. If you're familiar with AWS already and GCP is unusable, do some napkin math on the cost of migrating to AWS.

Maybe more important: if this kind of scaling-up/quota issue occurs again on their GCN account further along in development, it could be a serious show-stopper. That would really concern me.

ciguy
Yep, I'm already setting the ground work for a migration. But they were really excited about using Google Cloud, so it will be a hard sell.
is_true
No one should be excited about anything related to Google. It works til you need support, then is too late.
jasmes
Make sure you don't just sell them on the negatives of staying with Google, also show off some of the cool stuff AWS can do beyond what their product currently requires. Maybe Show off how easy Alexa development is, some machine learning stuff, Elastic Transcode, make sure that they realize AWS is both a massive and powerful platform as well as an exciting cloud tech playground.