[powerapple]

Google has the worst customer service. If you have to use big vendors, find something else. I will use any services where I don't need to have an account with them. I have lost 15 years old gmail account, all digital services associated with it.

[radicality]

Was that a normal free account or paid? If it’s a free one, then I imagine all-bets-are-off and google can do whatever it wants?

I’m definitely not a huge fan from the privacy point of view and should degoogle at some point, but I’ve been using the google version with my own domain for ~13 years now (when it was free) and since a year ago have to pay for the Workplace edition, something like $10-15 a month.

What I understand is that at least if I’m paying for it, there’s a contractual agreement to not yolo-delete my account like in your example, and presumably there would be a way to reach some human in case of problems (unlike with free account).

[powerapple]

No, I didn't pay for my email. It is Google, so I was using it as main email account for 15+ years, and have used GDrive for some documents.

I have learned my lesson. I guess for free iCloud account, I am paying by using Apple products.

[FinnKuhn]

Most open-source programs recommended as alternatives don't offer any customer support either. For non tech people the chance that they mess something up is pretty high, which a lot of people seem to forget. For them something like iCloud would be a way better alternative than "Immich".

[powerapple]

iCloud is great. I ended up switching to iCloud. I could contact a person when there is an issue, and there are some common senses in Apple to solve problems, solutions are more well thought from customer's point of view. Google reminds me the time when all softwares display error code on screen, and menus were designed by programmers.