A long time ago I created a Google Group to support GTDTW.
Then one day I got locked out of my group and all Google Groups. For any Groups page all I see is this unhelpful roadblock:
Now, I don’t mind being banned by an algorithm. These things happen. What I do mind is that thanks to Google’s robotic customer service I have no recourse. I used their “can’t access Google” help form, and this was their response:
Hello,
We’ve received your report that you’re having trouble accessing a Google product. After completing our investigation, we’ve found a violation of our Terms of Service -OR- product-specific program policies.
As a result, we’re unable to grant you access to this product.
Regards,
The Google Team [screenshot of this email]
The “after completing our investigation” part is rich, as if an actual human took a look at my case. Note that they don’t say why I’m banned, or how I can fix the situation.
Google’s email should have just said, “WE DON’T CARE. WE DON’T HAVE TO. WE ARE THE ROBOTS.”
UPDATE: Google engineer Brian Fitzpatrick reached out and fixed my Google Group ban for me shortly after I posted this. Then I wrote a follow up post about why it’s not good when users have to resort to complaining on the internet in order to get service.
Notes:
- Google, you’re not making me feel super good about how much I rely on you. With one hand you’re ramming your social media strategy down our throats, and with the other hand you’re capriciously banning legitimate users whose only recourse is to make noise about it on the internet.
- Google makes billions every quarter, yet somehow they can’t hire any humans to act as a fail safe against their inevitably flawed algorithms. It doesn’t matter how good a company’s technology is, they’ll always need a human backstop for their automated support.
- Watch for this pattern: Once Google commoditizes a product category, they totally stop caring. Look at Feedburner, Google Reader, Analytics, Groups, and most of their acquisitions: they’re all either stagnant or dead.
- Why do I care that I’m locked out? Because Google uses Groups to support all their other products that I use. Many independent third party software developers also use Groups as a support forum.
- Oh, and for the record, I’m a good person, not a bot or a spammer, and I never used my Google Group for anything but supporting my little open source project.
- What’s with the full on ban? Why not just make Groups read only for me? Lame.
- Remember when I said “if you can’t spot your community manager, it’s you”? I wonder how much of Matt Cutts’ email volume is just good people reaching out to the only approachable human face Google has. (Just like I’m about to do.)