[chesh]

When I had a Google Adsense account blocked it took a call to a Google VP that I know. But even then the first call was not enough and he had to escalate internally a second time.

This definitely sounds like something for the EU consumer champion Neelie Kroes to take on.

[chesh]

Oh yes at least Paypal has some real competition and other payment vendors like Braintree, Stripe, Square are growing like crazy at Paypal's expense.

[chesh]

Just by change I had to contact Google Support for a Gmail problem in Google Apps for Business. The initial time to response was more than 24 hours. But after that the support was super proactive and helpful. The agent even phoned me after I emailed to say the ticket could be closed. He explained that the initial 24 hour delay was not normal, and he would flag that.

Overall it seems they are really taking some concrete steps to improve things. It seems from the thread to be patchy depending on what business unit. For example Google Apps has more competition so they cannot afford to be slack.

[deanclatworthy]

Sorry to hear about your experience. I'm currently going through exactly the same. Would you mind sharing any tips about how to escalate the issue?

[blahedo]

Other than "be friends with a VP at Google"?