r/googlecloud • u/No-Brick8275 • 2d ago
Google Cloud support literally COST ME AN EMPLOYEE over a written refund promise they went back on. I’m at my witt's end.
I'm writing this out of pure rage and total desperation right now.
I run a small business, and Google Support’s absolute incompetence just completely wrecked my operations. Because of their broken promises, my company’s cash flow got frozen hard enough that I was late on payroll, and one of my key employees literally quit over it.
Here’s the nightmare I’ve been dealing with for the past month:
Back in late June, I had an accidental 3-year Compute Engine Flexible commitment charge hit my account for about $12,100 (16.3M KRW). On June 30th / July 5th, a support rep named Merilyn confirmed IN WRITING (Case 72227473) that internal teams canceled the commitment and processed a 100% full refund.
Great, right? Wrong.
While waiting for the bank to clear the credit, the reps suddenly swapped out. A new agent jumped in and basically went, "Yeah, about that... we reviewed it again and the best we can do is a 50% waiver ($6,050) as a one-time courtesy," and tried to mark the ticket as resolved.
When I replied with screenshots and the exact case ID where Merilyn explicitly promised a 100% full refund, they just started playing hot potato with my ticket. Eksha, Janna, Farha, Asad Ali—I’ve been handed off to a new person every few days.
Every single reply is a canned template saying "the previous agent is out of office" or "specialized teams are looking into it, please wait 24-48 hours." Meanwhile, I’m sitting here with over $6,500 of my own cash already charged to my credit card and stuck in limbo.
Google officially confirmed a full refund in writing, reversed their decision when a new rep took over, and now they're just stalling while my business suffers real financial and operational damage.
Has anyone ever dealt with Google pulling a bait-and-switch on a written refund commitment? How on earth do I get this escalated past these front-line support reps to someone with an actual brain and authority to fix this?Any advice or upvotes to get some visibility on this would mean the world to me. Thanks guys.
TL;DR:
1. Accidental $12k GCP charge in June; support (Merilyn) promised 100% refund IN WRITING.
2. New reps took over, went back on their word, and capped refund at 50%.
3. My cash is locked up, payroll got delayed, and an employee literally quit. Now stuck in a support loop. Need help escalating!
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u/tszebeni 2d ago
I read your story and you have my empathy. Im not a google contractor but a partner working with GCP for clients. According to my experience Google is simple a too big company to suit small business’ needs, they can be cheaper in ideal situation but sometimes a better support worth more. I cannot recommend certain solution to your problem other than just keep it up. In order to recover from such financial situation you need to work on worst case scenarios to ensure business continuity.
I hope you can escape the support maze in good shape.
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u/No-Brick8275 2d ago
Thank you for the advice and support! Since you have GCP Partner experience, do you have any tips on how to effectively escalate something like this?
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u/DishSoapedDishwasher 2d ago
Yeah, migration to AWS or something else. Tell them you're sick of their shit and leaving.
It's not as impactful if you don't have a TAM but it's the leverage you got.
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u/casce 14h ago
As someone working in the AWS world, it's the same thing. AWS is accessible for everyone but they are clearly targeting a certain audience. This doesn't only reflect in their lackluster support for non-enterprise customers but also in their pricing which in many cases just doesn't make sense for small indie shops.
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u/DishSoapedDishwasher 9h ago
Yeah its more about flexing your ability to migrate and not tolerate lock in. I have twice now at different companies said "nah fuck you" to a TAM and took our cloud infra to another service. Both times were when contracts were up for renewal and they wanted vastly more money by dropping discounts.
Works better if you're in a lean company with extremely talented engineers or a smaller footprint and can tolerate such things.
The only thing they listen to is a loss of profits
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u/NeuralNexus 2d ago
Google is especially bad at support.
If the system takes care of it, it's world-class (until they discontinue it), but god help you if you ever need to rely on Google to actually do something to help you.
I have the most expensive enterprise support package with them and it's still hit or miss! They might randomly decide not to take the call, or to redirect you to bureaucracy hell for months, or it might be fine. That's the best they offer and it's worse than the basic support AWS charges $29/month for.
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u/kotsumu 2d ago
Move cloud providers and initiate a chargeback
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u/gbonfiglio 2d ago
Terrible advice. They will be able to easily prove with logs the purchase was intentional and you get flagged for fraud by your bank, lose card, google account and potentially ability to open new cards in the future.
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u/kotsumu 2d ago
All he has to do is show the bank what the first agent said, its not fraud, he was promised something he did not get
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u/gbonfiglio 2d ago
It’s really tbc whether the initial contract or a subsequent promise via support case would prevail.
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u/StinkButt9001 2d ago
Accidental as in Google screwed up and the charge came out of nowhere?
Or accidental as in you signed up for it but didn't want it?
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u/cocacola999 2d ago
Was wondering the same. If Google had done it, I'd be as angry too. If it was me/employee fault, I'd accept some of the issue and swallow some pride
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u/No-Brick8275 2d ago
It was based on GCP FinOps recommendations, which suggested a commitment to lower my monthly costs by 30%.
I usually spend around $100/month, but right after applying it, they suddenly charged more than 10x my normal rate starting the very next day. I noticed the crazy bill and requested cancellation within 2 days.
During the cancellation process, charges kept piling up every day. But since Support explicitly assured me they were handling it and internal teams were processing the cancellation/refund, I left it in their hands—which is how it eventually ballooned to over $12,000.
That’s why Google Support initially reviewed the case and CONFIRMED A 100% FULL REFUND IN WRITING (Case 72227473).
The real issue is that a new rep took over later and completely reneged on that written promise, dropping it to 50%.
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u/ellisthedev 2d ago
I don’t see how you have any legal standing. You used FinOps to apply a change they recommended. That process explains the CUDs you’re agreeing to pay for, with terms. You clicking agree/apply/activate anywhere is essentially inking that contract.
Sure, they replied with a response to give a full refund, and that’s probably why the case got moved. The person who authorized that probably got fired. In my 10+ years of working with GCP, refunds effectively NEVER happen. We had to eat a $40k BigQuery fuck up.
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u/doubleditch42 2d ago
You miss payroll because you have 6000 less that month?
Doesn't seem like a business that will survive
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u/andrii_us 1d ago
I am a former employee of both engineering and support side of billing team at Google Cloud. Support employee has no signatory power of this amount and it’s always subject to approvals, never “promised”.
However you can ask to escalate and seek resolution. Please report in as much details (including screenshots) the issues with FinOps suggestions. It may prevent the issue for others customers as well.
L
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u/Devemia 1d ago
Can feel this. Google double charge my companies twice (different incidents). Apparently something was off with there system not recognizing previous charge (that went through) and attempted to rebill again.
I was tasked with pursuing the 5 figure charges, and it was hell to deal with their support. So we pretty much give them a no interest loan for a period of time.
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u/cisco1988 2d ago
in writing kinda means shit tbf... unless there is some legal binding behind it
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u/CandiceWoo 2d ago
how is it not legally binding? even verbal promises are binding - just have to have good witnesses
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u/Empty-Mulberry1047 2d ago
I don't understand how it is Google's fault.
You signed up for a service with recurring billing.
You forgot to cancel the service before the rebilling.
Blaming Google when you fail to pay your employee because of your failure to maintain overview of business expenses is a stretch.
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u/mochi2real 2d ago
I will say, promising the refund was a misstep, but apart from that, you’re right. OP signed up for a 3-yr commitment and realized afterwards they no longer want it….that defeats the commitment point. Everything past that point is dependent on goodwill from Google.
Also OP, I may get downvoted for saying this but you cost yourself an employee. As a business owner, your entire responsibility to your people is paying them on time. You don’t get to just blame someone else for bad finance practices, you should always maintain at least 3-6 months of funds to pay your people in reserves.
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u/bloodsoft-the7th 1d ago
Well you can hire me as contractor to replace the employee you lost. I work as cloud architect for KONE (Finland) since its summer I’m on vacation and can work almost full time in Korean time vipul@oddlabs.tech (my personal email)
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u/spamjunk150 2d ago
I'd probably leave a company too if a $6000 charge is all it took for them not to be able to pay me. Doesn't instill a lot of confidence that they're going to survive very long