Lost in (cyber) Space

For once it wasn't my fault.

Usually when I have a problem with my computer or the Internet I have made a stupid mistake—forgetting a password or stroking a wrong key.

But this time the fault, dear Brutus, was in the stars or in this case, the cloud.

It was Google. It mistakenly suspended my business account because their system failed to retain the new credit card information I inputted after an old credit card was hacked. As a result, they suspended my business account and with it, my connections to the outside world and professional functionality.

No email. No internet. No calendar.

No recourse.

I tried to correct the problem on-line. It became a circular exercise where every conclusion arrived where I started--at a maze. Finally, I found the Administrator of my account who had resigned to return to grad school two years ago. She got me back on-line.

After many more hours of futility in trying to reach a customer service represetntative, I came to realize Google has no human beings. It is "off-brand" for a tech company like Google to have living people servicing customers. It's also cheaper.

But Google does a poor job servicing customer problems that are not of their customers making. Customer service is still a core deliverable for great companies. Google has banished the phrase from the cyber vocabulary.

There are abundant questions that are raised by this consumer's week long interface with Google and the criminal hackers who invade the Internet.

Should private companies have the right to embargo a customer's property? Is Google too big to challenge, especially when the challenges pit humans against machines? Does the onerous burden of navigating the labyrinth also discourage all but the most ambitious criminals?

Somewhere between these ideals—personal rights and personal security is a solution that will make sense for most people. Companies like Google should be held responsible for finding them.

Using another computer last week I dropped a note to Google, asking them to respond to my expressions of frustration. One would think Google would apologize or at least respond to a customer.