Sorry for yet another rant, but I feel obliged to share these kind of experiences so others out there don’t feel alone.
Another customer of mine that I set up long ago on the “Google Apps” free edition and they must be transitioned over to a paid account. Single user, pretty straightforward — or so I thought. I recommended they use the ACH payment option, as it would remove a potential point of failure where renewals go. (As the banking details don’t expire) I knew from experience that Google supported using the account details as a payment source.
So, I log in to this customer’s computer, and open up the appropriate page, using an Incognito instance of Chrome. I go through the setup process, all of the accurate business information, etc. and then I come to the payment source.
When selecting ‘Bank account’ as a payment source, the sub-options presented are ‘Checking’, ‘Savings’, and ‘Business’. I selected Business and filled in the account and routing numbers. I was then presented with options to either provide Google with my bank login, or verify the account via test deposits. This customer was particularly old-school, so I didn’t even ask if he wanted to give Google his bank’s login details. (Yes, I know, it’s a secure third party and all that, but still…)
Selected the test deposit route, and that’s when I was presented with the message shown in the attached image. I clicked to acknowledge this message, and then clicked to Finalize the order.
Received an error message:
“An unexpected error has occurred. Please try again later. [OR-CAC-01]”.
My only option there is to dismiss the message. Attempting to re-submit the order provides a different error message:
“You cannot add this bank account as it already exists in your account. [OR-BSBBF-70]”
Clicking any additional times results in the most recent error message repeating itself.
So, I disconnect from the client’s computer and carry on from one of my own. I initially attempted the steps again on my own isolated computer and had the same result. Then I went the Google support route, thinking that surely they’ll have a dedicated, cheery team just for helping customers get payment details set up properly.
Nope. I couldn’t make up some of the stuff I encountered during my chat sessions (yes, plural) over several days.
The first representative insisted that I needed to wait for the deposits to appear. He said that he thought I just needed to enter the amounts once I saw the deposits. When I asked him where I would enter the amounts, he pasted some info from a support page that didn’t apply. Ultimately he agreed with my joking that a magical box would appear as soon as the deposits are cleared.
A few days later, after there were indeed no deposits, I opened a new chat. This guy was a real wizard. After sending him a video of the whole process, including the deposit notification, errors, etc. (just like the first rep), the second one proceeded to ask me where the deposits were coming from. (what?)
Then, he insisted I needed to verify that the account had sufficient funds to cover the deposit. And also he was reaching for reasons to let me go, asking how long I had waited after the first attempt, etc.
Ultimately, when I put him on the spot and insisted, he transferred me to the Payments team, apparently an escalation department. After all was said and done here, I performed a packet capture on my attempt and submitted it to Google. I asked them from the beginning to have all case information sent to my email, because the account I was using to chat with them was an admin-only user account, with no access to email. With 7 days remaining before suspension, I asked him to extend it so I wasn’t cutting it so close. He said they were unable to do that, and that it would definitely be resolved before that timeframe was elapsed.
So, now there are 2 days remaining, and I’ve yet to receive a single email regarding the case. Opened a new chat with Google, asking this rep to please update the case with my email address so I could receive updates. I then proceeded to modify the email routes to modify the recipient when addressed to my account’s alias.
It’s looking like I’ll be moving this customer over to Microsoft. It’s just another stark reminder of how difficult it is to get ahold of the right people at a big company such as Google. Ideally, I’d have dialed in to Google, pressed the option for the billing department. Possibly I’d have needed a supervisor, but doubtful. I’d have read the routing and account number over the phone, and they would either ask for an image of a canceled check or just bill the $5/month without it.
I have one last idea that might work, which is for me to get a prepaid credit card and use that for the initial billing setup. Then, after that’s set up, I might be able to more easily add the bank account in order to use it for billing. If that does work, I’ll update this post to let you know!
Hope that this might help someone, or save some frustration. The best advice I have would be to insist on the chat being escalated to a Billing specialist. At least you’ll be chatting with someone who doesn’t think you need to check your balance to make sure you have enough to receive a deposit. 🙂 –Josh
UPDATE: I recorded a video and made one last attempt to set up billing with ACH as the source. Still received the same error messages. No word back from Google still either. So, I set up billing by using a prepaid credit card I purchased, and immediately after doing that, I went to the Billing settings and chose to add a new payment source. Entered the bank details, and like magic, now it shows the account as pending and there is a button to click to “verify” the deposit amounts. I have a feeling Google’s onboarding process is just broken, at least for some, so if you encounter this then your best bet is to grab a prepaid card for the initial payment. Hope this saves someone some time, as I certainly wasted enough of it for a few dozen people.
(P.S. Using some new software to post this, so hopefully it’s not too out of whack!)
