Tell HN: Locked Google account reopened after two years
A long time ago I set up a Gmail backup account and transferred all my Yahoo Mail emails there to save them for posterity. Once in a blue moon I would log in, reminisce over 20+ year old messages and attachments, and move on. I did just that in June 2021, except this time it triggered some suspicious activity flag and that account got locked. Unfortunately (lesson learned!) I did not associate any recovery information with this address, so Google basically refused to let me back in, despite the valid password. I tried every suggestion I came upon - resurrected old phones and laptops, attempted logging in in the same geographical area that I used to live in, etc - nothing worked. Eventually I came to terms with the idea that those memories are forever lost, behind Google's unresponsiveness.
Every few months I tried logging in, without any expectations or success. Except today it worked! Logged from an incognito window and during the recovery process got asked for a phone number. And then I was in (and as a first step fixed the backup info). I can't help but notice that almost exactly two years have passed since the lockout. Don't know if there is significance there, but just wanted to share with folks that there might still be some hope. Too many stories of locked out Google accounts with zero transparency or follow-up possibility from the company.
77 comments
[ 3.6 ms ] story [ 126 ms ] threadA standard IMAP client will do this for you easily.
You never know when you will be screwed over by your provider.
If only I can find that 20GB IDE disk with all the data I've migrated since my first computer...
Or maybe that was a POP sync. I don't even remember anymore.
It's unbelievably stupid.
In other words, they now force you to give them your phone number, which is incredibly valuable to them.
It’s unbelievably smart on their part.
With so many people centralizing on gmail over the years, this really feels like another blow to the usefulness of email overall. It has me thinking more critically around recovery workflows I've built or assumptions that people will have records of previously sent messages.
One day out of the blue my Google Pay account was marked as fraud and locked down. I couldn't update/add/change any of my payment information. I have no idea why. I don't remember when/how I even found out it was locked down, I wasn't really sure at that point what stopped working, if anything. I didn't have anything TELL me that it wasn't working so I thought this was just an isolated event that would get resolved quickly and wasn't affecting anything important.
Then throughout that week I started to notice what wasn't working. I could log into gmail (IIRC) but I wasn't getting any email. My custom domains that forwarded to gmail stopped resolving. My cell phone wouldn't make calls anymore. I never had a problem with SSO logins, thankfully.
The credit card I was using for all of my Google services was coming up on its expiration and I desperately needed my 15+ year old gmail to work. I'm pretty sure I was in the middle of selling a house when this was going on. I have so much mail in the inbox that it won't accept mail without paying for the service. Google has this form you fill out and attach a picture of your drivers license to so that they can investigate the "fraud." Over that month I sent in my DL at least 3 times. I never received any response.
I was without a phone for a week because they had no customer service to even speak to, not that I could even make any outbound calls. I wound up getting another phone plan elsewhere because that was the most critical thing to me. I was so pissed at Google I switched to an iPhone.
I was getting no response from Google and days/weeks were going by so finally I bit the bullet and de-googled everything I could. I migrated all of my 15 years of email to Fastmail. I moved all of my DNS records. Changed my ISP. It was infuriating.
It's been about 2 years since I did that, I've still never heard from Google about anything. But now all of my accounts are unlocked.
I will never, ever trust my important accounts to Google again.
The swap to iPhone is just another "fuck you" to Google, which they earned there.
I’ve been extremely happy with my iPhone. Apple has all of the little polish and cross connections that make it a wonderful experience. I think Android made sense while the smartphone market was growing, but all of the platforms are mature now. Android fragments further and Apple polishes more.
I was looking for somewhere to leave my dog for a few weeks while I was out of country. There's a lower rated place where the negative reviews that match this are things like "One of the other dogs scratched my dog! They got her to the vet and paid the bills, but they shouldn't have let that happen!". There's another with a better overall rating where the reviews are "This staff at this place are phenomenal and really love the pets but the owner is an absolute ass. If anything happens, don't even bother asking for a refund or trying to complain."
I sent my dog to the first place.
Accidents, mistakes, and general "life doesn't go according to plan" things _will_ happen. I'm less interested in the best case scenario, and more interested in how they handle this stuff. That tells me what the worst case scenario looks like. If my worst case hotel scenario is "mildly inconvenienced", that's a damn sight better than "left out on the street at 1AM with nowhere to go".
So on that note... yeah, that's pretty much why I have an iPhone.
At some point it suddenly stopped accepting one of my credit cards and refused to let me re-add it. Apple literally has a `/contact/` page on their site where the 800 number is easily discoverable. I called and was connected almost immediately. They asked if I could use another card and I told them I could, but only if I _had_ to, I prefer to use this one for all my recurring charges. "No problem." They spent about 40 minutes on the phone with me (including calling me back immediately when my signal dropped and we got disconnected) and resolved the problem. This is support in relation to a ~$800 one time device purchase and a $0.99/mo subscription.
When I was paying Google over a million dollars a year I couldn't get answers out of them or get my issue resolved.
Even ignoring all the other anecdotes I see online... no way in hell I'm trusting Google with anything I care about.
This is why it is so valuable to post negative reviews on your competitors. People actually believe this s...[0]
> They got her to the vet and paid the bills
Doesn't sound fake, it doesn't even need to be. You post a few more reviews 1) They paid my vet bill too! 2) Mine is scared of everything after going there. 3) etc
With google it is different tho, their bad reviews aren't anecdotal. It's stunning that law makes haven't touched the subject.
For extra irony, google is running what seems to me the biggest business review scheme in the world. It isn't even legal[1] but if they had any sense or decency they would build their own customer verification system without law makers demanding they do so.
Everyone suffering their fake reviews would love to provide their customers with a link and a review token. Then, even if you've screwed up horrendously you can express how you regret things went that way and apologize. Responding like that to fake reviews is out of the question. Your best case scenario is if you can pay the fake reviewer to stop.
You can buy google ads tho.
[0] - https://www.wdbj7.com/2022/10/17/five-star-fakes-small-busin...
[1] - https://www.softwarefair.de/en/2022/06/02/google-fails-to-im...
What value would you get from reading such a review?
I guess in a scenario similar to mine, you'd look for patterns. The same guy saying the same specific thing makes me think of a grudge too. However if it is multiple sources complaining about similar things, then it's a pattern. You'd also get to decide whether what matters to them matters to you. I think a sister comment was saying something similar. For example, it is routine where I live for people to complain about pizza joints that "do not even send ketchup" with delivery orders. This I am not too hung up on. :)
But your accounts are unlocked isn't it?
As a result, within the last 15 years I have only contacted someone back once. That was about funeral dates/coordination.
(It's almost all from YouTube, Gmail, and Google Photos)
Of course, there are catches. But maybe it might work for the non-six month archives.
https://github.com/nelsonjchen/gtr
Knowing that if an issue arises there'll be a team of humans eager to help is quite reassuring.
[Another feature I value is Apple's "Hide My Email" (unique to paid accounts). While other services offer similar redirect/disposable email, Apple uses its @icloud.com domain, so the services you subscribe can't just ban the domain, they have to accept it].
My only issue with iCloud these days is the excessive amount of legitimate emails ending up in the spam folder, but I've noticed this problem persistently with Gmail as well.
Full disclosure: I am not the CEO of Apple, just a (mostly) satisfied customer.
It's worth noting for people who are unfamiliar with the store - while they do sell some home goods in addition to clothing and beauty/jewelry, they do not sell tires. When asked afterward, the clerk said he did not know/recognize the woman.
Some companies just recognize how vital points of contact are with people and try to empower their employees to help customers and more generally people, because they consider it a priority to maintain a positive perception.
AppleCare support has historically tended to be very open, covering phone/online technical support for all of your Apple devices and services if any of them are actively covered.
There are certainly parts of interactions with Apple that _are_ frustrating, such as certain classes of device repairs where they gate the ability to e.g. get a battery replacement based on the results from a diagnostic tool.
Employees and even managers appear to have very limited capability to override those processes, presumably because you could otherwise ask for a battery replacement for a devices with a damaged screen and back panel, and pay an order of magnitude less than a repair on the damaged display and back.
Ok now it makes more sense!
So there's no way to get a battery replaced on a device with a damaged display?
Replacing the battery on most iPhones involves removing the display. If the display is already damaged, it's likely that removing it will damage it further, possibly to the extent of making it stop working entirely. Apple is, understandably, hesitant to either 1) potentially return a device to a customer in worse shape than they got it, or 2) eat the cost of replacing the display when servicing batteries.
I’m pretty sure it’s better than Google’s automated no-support, but it’s certainly nothing to praise.
In current state of affairs support largely relies on individuals who are knowledgeable and capable. Those are 1% by most optimistic expectations. Everyone else is giving BS responses just to get you off the line. Apple is no different - in my recent case support was little bit less that terrible.
Sometimes I think what happens when those people eventually leave and new generation will take their place. Would be a sad state of affairs.
Even while I was an Apple user their support was variable at best, some issues just would not be resolved (like keychain issues etc, "we don't understand why it's broken sorry, case closed") and would not be escalated.
Do you mean a phone number entered during registration, or an arbitrary phone number?
I use gmail as my primary email client, and use both a gmail.com address and several of my own domains. But I regularly sync everything to a local email client (Thunderbird), so that even if Google cut me off, I would have access to all but my most recent emails, and to all my contacts.
You essentially pay 1€ per month, I get full privacy and I can adjust the level of security, ...
I don't have a recovery option since I know that I don't loose my password and no one else would guess it.
It's actually ridiculous the byzantine methods sometimes required to regain access to Google accounts. To even have a chance in such cases—even when a recovery email has already been configured—one has to use the exact browser version number that has been previously logged into (how many users would even note this), same geographic area even if different IP (obvious), and importantly if prompted for a phone number not to use one that has been used on 2-3 other accounts (even if only used to login and not entered as the recovery or 2FA number).
The last straw that prompted me to leave them was when they began asking for a home address. Just voluntarily after successful logins and not part of any forced login or security requirement. The audacity that they expect users will just give it to them was so offputting, apart from everything else they try.
What happens if google locks you out if your domain?
I don't know if that's an unfortunate coincidence, but I seem to have been banned from google the same day. :) I didn't know you can actually be banned from google! (and I haven't even been there for a month or two)
403. That’s an error.
Your client does not have permission to get URL / from this server. That’s all we know.