[oliwarner]

Because there's money in letting people make mistakes on their own dime.

For every story about a mistake in the tens of thousands, I wonder how many there are in the single-thousands, hundreds and even tens where people just suck it up and pay the bill. When you provide such a limited billing support surface, employ a thousand lawyers in-house, and hold as many cards as Google does (losing my G account would ruin my year).

Multinational service providers need better regulation to ensure consumers' rights are protected. In the UK utilities and banks have to absorb (or insure) against some leaks, theft and external fraud. If Google (and others!) were subjected to similar regulation, problems like this would evaporate overnight.