Help, Google just disabled my email accounts

[AJK]

Wow, not only are they "disabled," the accounts are bouncing back emails, so if/when you get back in, you won't know what emails you missed.

I'm biased, of course, but the punishment (given what's potentially at stake with the loss of an email address) is a bit draconian. I can't see a judge sitting in equity allowing this to stand.

[Dan]

Wow, not only are they "disabled," the accounts are bouncing back emails, so if/when you get back in, you won't know what emails you missed.

I'm biased, of course, but the punishment (given what's potentially at stake with the loss of an email address) is a bit draconian. I can't see a judge sitting in equity allowing this to stand.

I feel for you guys and it is heavy handed, but is it different than violating AAs terms?
Clearly they're making a statement.

[AJK]

While it may not be different in a technical sense, I'd submit it's different in spirit. When one brokers AA miles, he or she knows that's running afoul of AA terms, even if they don't know precisely what they are. In this case, I know many people who ordered phones who didn't know that buying them in the manner they did was a violation of the terms. I certainly did not, and I would have never done it had I known. Sure, one is charged with knowing the T&C's they agree to, but in all reality, it's just not a practical expectation.

[Dan]

While it may not be different in a technical sense, I'd submit it's different in spirit. When one brokers AA miles, he or she knows that's running afoul of AA terms, even if they don't know precisely what they are. In this case, I know many people who ordered phones who didn't know that buying them in the manner they did was a violation of the terms. I certainly did not, and I would have never done it had I known. Sure, one is charged with knowing the T&C's they agree to, but in all reality, it's just not a practical expectation.

I think that's why it's likely they will relent, especially if you EECB Google.
But still, you clicked OK to terms that were clearly violated.

[AJK]

Again, to be clear, I'm not arguing there was no breach, I'm arguing the punishment doesn't fit the crime. Suspension from Google Fi? Maybe. Cancelling phone orders? Sure. Suspension of entire email account? Not quite.

[ckmk47]

Again, to be clear, I'm not arguing there was no breach, I'm arguing the punishment doesn't fit the crime. Suspension from Google Fi? Maybe. Cancelling phone orders? Sure. Suspension of entire email account? Not quite.

+100%

[jj1000]

While it may not be different in a technical sense, I'd submit it's different in spirit. When one brokers AA miles, he or she knows that's running afoul of AA terms, even if they don't know precisely what they are. In this case, I know many people who ordered phones who didn't know that buying them in the manner they did was a violation of the terms. I certainly did not, and I would have never done it had I known. Sure, one is charged with knowing the T&C's they agree to, but in all reality, it's just not a practical expectation.

Please blame this on the phone brokers. I had a dozen brokers reach out to me for iPhone resales and eventually turned them all down a few years in a row, losing a ton of cash each time, all for the reason that I read Apple T&C and saw it was prohibited and when done on such a mass scale even if they didn't do anything before they might and are entitled to make an exception if the wanted to.

I would go one step further and say you can't look at google punishing you for breaking the T&C, sure banning someone from Gmail a little crazy for breaking the T&C of buying phones, but imagine 1,000 people joining together and changing the entire distribution network of their top of the line phone.

For example they make ad money from people having these phones and using them in the US, all of this is taken into account for their profits from production etc. And people joining together and shipping them out of country goes against those predicted metrics.

I don't mean to put anyone here down, and I probably would do the same thing and buy knowing there are risks and I'd be beyond mortified if I lost my Gmail, but I wouldn't think I have a right to sue or that Google did something illegal.

I hope they reinstate the accounts soon.

[mmgfarb]

I don't mean to put anyone here down, and I probably would do the same thing and buy knowing there are risks and I'd be beyond mortified if I lost my Gmail, but I wouldn't think I have a right to sue or that Google did something illegal.

I hope they reinstate the accounts soon.

I don't think anybody is under the impression that Google did something illegal, just that the punishment was a little overboard for what they did. Losing a Gmail account that you've had for many years is a very difficult thing to repair especially for people here who have many accounts across many different programs.

[jj1000]

I don't think anybody is under the impression that Google did something illegal, just that the punishment was a little overboard for what they did. Losing a Gmail account that you've had for many years is a very difficult thing to repair especially for people here who have many accounts across many different programs.

I agree, if someone lost their business account it can easily add up to crazy amounts of $$ lost, or family pictures lost online is the modern day house fire. It's scary how much power we give these companies.

[MeirS]

I feel for you guys and it is heavy handed, but is it different than violating AAs terms?
Clearly they're making a statement.

There's 2 points here.

A. Rights. When you click on the agree button, Google could do practically anything. I didn't read the T&Cs in full but if it gave them the right to dig up my grandmother's grave, I probably wouldn't have noticed. So, yes, they can take away the account and everything that's in it.
B. Practicality. Many people have entire businesses with life's savings invested based in their Google account. If there are more than a few dozen people involved, I expect to see this in the news and Google will have to make a comment. They can say "tough luck". But I don't think it's worth it for them to have a name of destroying people's lives for buying 2-3 phones. Hopefully they will rescind this harsh decree.

[MeirS]

People have taken this very hard.
I ask of those who haven't had their primary accounts disabled, sit down for five minutes (300 seconds) and think what it would mean for you to have your entire primary Google account wiped without any prior notice.

[ckmk47]

What can we do to appeal to Google?
What if it is just a few people over all, so it doesn't make the news and pressure Google that way. What can we put in the email to them, or who can we talk to, to make them see reason?

[Mplace]

People have taken this very hard.
I ask of those who haven't had their primary accounts disabled, sit down for five minutes (300 seconds) and think what it would mean for you to have your entire primary Google account wiped without any prior notice.

+1
I  didn't loose my primary account,
But I just realized today, that I had gift cards emailed to one of the accounts that's locked, now I need to figure out how to get it..

[ckmk47]

+1
I  didn't loose my primary account,
But I just realized today, that I had gift cards emailed to one of the accounts that's locked, now I need to figure out how to get it..

Me, too, on both counts.  Thanks for reminding me about the GCs.

[MeirS]

+1
I  didn't loose my primary account,
But I just realized today, that I had gift cards emailed to one of the accounts that's locked, now I need to figure out how to get it..

I also had a gift card on my email but it was relatively recent and still on my phone. I immediately took a screenshot of it.

[jj1000]

What can we do to appeal to Google?

Reach out to media?

[AJK]

I agree, if someone lost their business account it can easily add up to crazy amounts of $$ lost, or family pictures lost online is the modern day house fire. It's scary how much power we give these companies.

That's the lesson to be learned here.  Going forward, I will have all my emails/docs etc, forwarded and backed up to another email account.  It's literally mind boggling to contemplate the amount of lost information that has resulted from this "suspension."

[Mplace]

That's the lesson to be learned here.  Going forward, I will have all my emails/docs etc, forwarded and backed up to another email account.  It's literally mind boggling to contemplate the amount of lost information that has resulted from this "suspension."

but they can shut down that one as well ...

[ckmk47]

but they can shut down that one as well ...

Unless it's a Yahoo, aol, etc.
Who else do we have to choose from?

[AJK]

but they can shut down that one as well ...

How does Google shut down a Yahoo account?