Actual Googler looking into a complaint personally happening on HN - 9 years ago - https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=2795465

"[Googler], can you suggest a strategy for dealing with Google support issues that doesn't involve "get Matt Cutt's attention on Hacker News"? - 9 years ago - https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=2797972

"Guess we won't be able to get Google support from Matt on HN this month. :)" - https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=3709520

"You'll notice over time that Hacker News is the only way to contact google support without spending thousands of dollars on adwords." - 7 years ago - https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=6932516

"That happened a few weeks ago, and thanks to some inside people at Google, the mailing-list reappeared" - 7 years ago - https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=5523992

"From my friend at Google: "It looks like he used the wrong account to update his credit card..." - 7 years ago - https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=6837411

"I have seen people have to post on HN to get things resolved by google employees reading HN threads! While it seems like a personal touch, people are resorting to it (and I assume googlers are helping) because there is not another avenue that works for MOST products that google has." - 7 years ago - https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=5716357

"You can post a problem on google support forums, and pray and hope for an answer from their developers." - 9 years ago - https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=2922073

"Google also has a history of disabling accounts and providing no communication, support or other mechanisms to get it restored. Usually kicking up an almighty fuss in public if you have a prominent twitter/blog works" - 9 years ago - https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=3885588

"Google itself is well known for being impossible to deal with unless you know someone on the inside." - 7 years ago - https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=7018354

"Disclaimer: I work for Google Google's support is a complete joke. The only way to get things fixed in a timely manner (if at all) is to ask someone who works for Google to escalate internally. Then you stand a chance. Otherwise you're SOL. [...] I would recommend the OP to contact a Googler friend if they have one." - 7 years ago - https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=6006534

"Google support is abysmal, [but] they respond if you know the appropriate channels" - 6 years ago - https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=8098842

"and there's just no way to contact Google's support unless you know someone at Google" - 4 years ago - https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=12442802

"Particularly if you don't have a friend inside google or the ability to hit the front page of HN to get customer service." - 4 years ago - https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=12975195

"She only managed to get this cleared up via a tech support friend who has contacts at Google." - 3 years ago - https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=15992090

"far far too often do I see folks who have to reach out to a dev on Twitter or their friend at Google to get a simple billing error resolved correctly. Its a problem with most cloud providers, but Google seems to be notorious for it." - 2 years ago - https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=17669161

"this contradicts basically every other google support story I've ever read on HN. Similar to what the few other comments are saying at the time of me writing this, it seems like this guy made a fuss somewhere that caught the attention of someone who didn't want the bad PR." - 2 years ago - https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=17707473

"I ended up getting help by going into the google slack and kicking up a fuss. Never heard back from the "official" support channels." - 2 years ago - https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=17564220

"Two effective strategies I have seen are: (1) Contact a friend who works at Google[...]" - 2 years ago - https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=17106803

"even though a friend at Google submitted an internal request to get me the account back" - 2 years ago - https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=19367972

"monetize on their content for a while (or a long time if they don't have a friend at Google who can escalate the issue)." - 1 year ago - https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=19953722

"Gotta post on Hacker News if you want some Google support!" - 1 year ago - https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=20711833

"It seems like the most reliable support system with Google is to have a SWE friend who works there who will document and enter tickets for you" - 1 year ago - https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=21334183

"if you're lucky and you have a friend that knows someone who works there he can expedite your ticket." - 10 months ago - https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=21971932

"large tech companies like google and amazon for this, where kicking up a fuss on social media is literally the only way you can hope to have a human at the company look into it." - 2 months ago - https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=24168390

"Google support .... That’s the joke." - 1 month ago - https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=24572759