Have been a G Suite legacy free user for over 10 years now, given my usage it costs them basically nothing, especially with the revenue they've made from my usage, purchasing via adverts etc.
Fairly recently Google suddenly remembered ~$15 in adwords spend from just over 7 years ago, for a now defunct business I worked at where I had (presumably by accident) used my personal adwords account as a quick test.
The problem is this was the first I'd heard about it, and in the UK it exceeds the statutory limitation period for debt recovery. I stated very clearly that what they were attempting to do is illegal in my jurisdiction and I'm more than happy to take them to the small claims court to recover costs and damages related to dealing with alleged non-payment and any subsequent account closure etc.
While the fee eventually got waived, it was impossible to talk to anybody on the phone (as I had been advised) and I kept going in loops until finally being able to 'chat' to somebody who was more useful than a chocolate teapot. It seemed they wanted me to input some billing details so they could auto-upgrade me when the time comes.
I won't be paying $6/mo, due to a spotty history I've had to rely on paying for domains for years in advance and relying on free services because the absolute last thing I want is one of my most important daily tools (e.g. account recovery, 2FA) being turned off because something unexpected happened - the amount of hassle that would cause is immense and could have some very serious knock-on effects that effectively lock me out of many other things.
I know, Google can decide to block and terminate your account across the board, so far they haven't, but it has been on my mind for a while now.
It's time to step-up my de-googling to the next level, and work on better continuity plans.
Fairly recently Google suddenly remembered ~$15 in adwords spend from just over 7 years ago, for a now defunct business I worked at where I had (presumably by accident) used my personal adwords account as a quick test.
The problem is this was the first I'd heard about it, and in the UK it exceeds the statutory limitation period for debt recovery. I stated very clearly that what they were attempting to do is illegal in my jurisdiction and I'm more than happy to take them to the small claims court to recover costs and damages related to dealing with alleged non-payment and any subsequent account closure etc.
While the fee eventually got waived, it was impossible to talk to anybody on the phone (as I had been advised) and I kept going in loops until finally being able to 'chat' to somebody who was more useful than a chocolate teapot. It seemed they wanted me to input some billing details so they could auto-upgrade me when the time comes.
I won't be paying $6/mo, due to a spotty history I've had to rely on paying for domains for years in advance and relying on free services because the absolute last thing I want is one of my most important daily tools (e.g. account recovery, 2FA) being turned off because something unexpected happened - the amount of hassle that would cause is immense and could have some very serious knock-on effects that effectively lock me out of many other things.
I know, Google can decide to block and terminate your account across the board, so far they haven't, but it has been on my mind for a while now.
It's time to step-up my de-googling to the next level, and work on better continuity plans.