I signed up for the trial of Google Workspace.<p>I entered my credit card information but my "Payments Account" required ID verification, so I submitted my ID.<p>I then cancelled my trial of Google Workspace, accidentally 1 day after the trial expiration.<p>I was not allowed to pay the outstanding balance of $1.16 at the time because my "Payments Account" had not been verified.<p>I closed my Google Workspace account so I wouldn't incur further charges and figured I'd just pay the invoice later.<p>2 weeks later they invoice me for the $1.16. However, I cannot pay without signing in to my cancelled Google Workspace account. I do not want to re-activate the account, though I try unsuccessfully with the instructions provided to me by support.<p>Support now tells me that after 20 days a deleted account cannot be recovered. I contact collections to pay the invoice but they "do not handle these types of accounts".<p>I am concerned this will effect my excellent credit.<p>I have tried multiple times to pay but support does not provide a means to do so.
I’ve gotten to a (privileged) point where I don’t give a flying shit about my credit score now. The way I deal with these kinds of inhuman disputes involves removing my payment/contact information from the vendor’s system, filing any applicable chargebacks, and then entirely ghosting them.<p>Maybe it will come back to bite me in the ass one day, but I honestly don’t care anymore. Mostly, because no one cares about me as a person anymore. I am just yet-another consumer to be exploited as much as possible.
Similar happened with me on AWS about 10 years ago - ended up with my account being shut down.<p>I managed to exceed a free tier and get charged $0.01 USD for S3 storage. They kept trying to take the payment from my card, but my bank couldn't process it as 1c is less than 1 GBP penny.
I had a similar problem with Skype. I was being billed a monthly subscription for an account I could not log into and for which Microsoft could not confirm my identity. I asked my bank to block payment , which they did, and which worked for a month, until Microsoft clued in and
simply swapped in the same subscription under a different name, which snuck past my bank’s block. The final solution was canceling my card and issuing a new one, which of course resulted in endless other problems.
Had the same issue with Amazon AWS. They used to deduct the invoices from my bank account. But the last invoice when the project ended was only $1. They refused to do the bank deduction claiming that they only allow that for >$100. They also refused to allow alternative payment methods, because they were by definition unverified. I emailed support, they apologized profoundly via email after about a minute that they can't solve the problem. 3 months later someone finally called us back.
Have written evidence, and take screenshots of the websites and datetimes where you tried that.<p>Have all documentation in a way that it holds up in court (a phone call is worthless, but an email history goes a long way), so that in worst case when this escalates you can prove that there was no means of payment available.
Your credit score matters far less than you think.<p>Your credit score is maintained by a bunch of goons in a protection racket. 'Shame if anything would happen to that fine credit score, let me 'protect' it for you".<p>Unfortunately, there are few legal standards in this area. Any business can report that you have not paid something.<p>Write a letter to google's corporate address with all your evidence, enclose a literal paper check, keep a copy of everything. Point out in your cover letter that you are discharging your responsibilities especially regarding collections, and collections will be considered an illegal action. If it comes back and harms you, you have cause of action and documentation. Take whatever action is appropriate for harm (apparently arbitration can be really good for small cases like this, less hurdles, more getting the companies money).<p>And just don't get bent about it.
Google currently owe me a couple of bucks, problem is every time I complete their form to receive the refund it errors out.<p>So I have a few bucks just sitting there doing nothing because it’s not like it’s an account credit which will be used as part payment on my next charge. So the money just sits there.<p><a href="https://i.imgur.com/QgjYLcD.jpeg" rel="nofollow">https://i.imgur.com/QgjYLcD.jpeg</a><p>(Was a failed YouTube super chat, they took the cash but failed to process the message, so decided to refund me, but that failed too - was only a couple of bucks so not like I’m losing any sleep over it)
Sometimes you have to do things old school. Post them the $1.16 via registered post to (Accounts Payable, 1600 Amphitheatre Parkway Mountain View, CA 94043, USA. (650) 253-0000). Do not include a return address (so no return to sender) just an the invoice number. Cash is still legal tender.
Is there a physical address on the invoice?<p>Write a paper check (or get a moneyorder / cashiers check), attach a copy of the invoice and a quick letter explaining that their system won't let you pay any other way, then go to the post office, send the whole thing by certified mail and be done with it.
This happened to me About eight years ago I think, and I was finally able to get someone on chat at the time who escalated it and was able to get it resolved. I think I needed to re-open the account in order to get the chat though.
Honestly, given that it's only $1.16, I'd probably try mailing a check with the account name in the hopes that someone figures it out. Though I suspect they wouldn't and would just mail it back or lose it.