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OPINION | By Michael Bridge

There are so many online services and apps we can take these days, I wonder how many we actually need.

Not sure if this has happened to you, but this week I decided to cancel a subscription to an online service and all hell erupted.

Like most of us, I was looking at several of my monthly outgoings and I noticed I was paying THB70 a month for a service called Google One.

This had been going on for a number of years.

To be honest, I really did not know exactly what this service offered me, so along with a few other subscriptions, I clicked to unsubscribe and thought nothing of it.

Then about four days later up came a big red warning at the top of my Gmail inbox saying you are over your storage limit and future emails may not be posted. 

It gave me two options, sign up or start deleting emails, photos videos, and files immediately.

OK, so I started to go through old files and began to delete, however afterwards the same warning still appeared on my Gmail account.

 

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So, like most of us I reluctantly re-subscribed and immediately received two emails saying “Welcome back to Google One. You once again have expanded storage, phone backup, expert support, and additional benefits - all in one shareable plan.”

I felt I had been unfairly persuaded to resign as the deleting process they originally suggested made no difference to my storage, but they still insisted I had a major issue.

It felt slightly similar when you take the car for a service, and they tell you, you need to replace the springs or water cooler or whatever.

Not being a car mechanic I am instantly at the mercy of the garage, who could be just trying to make more profit that week out of us drivers.

My point is I sometimes take up services when maybe I did not need them in the first place. 

But maybe through ignorance, I just went along with it for peace of mind.

Just an observation!

 

 

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Google  is not targeting ex-pats based in Thailand.

I think you need to do some research as to what any companies online (or any company) have to offer before buying into it.

Everything you deleted from your Google drive is collected and still counted in the Google drive trash folder.. However it took me a year and multiple devices until I finally found a "manage storage" function under my Google account on PC browser and then finally could empty the trash and regain the "deleted" file space.. 

4 hours ago, webfact said:

Like most of us, I was looking at several of my monthly outgoings and I noticed I was paying THB70 a month for a service called Google One.

What has this got to do with being an expat.  It is Google is is a world wide problem.

 

If he had mentioned some of the advertorials on AN that would have been expat specific!

 

PS;  If he has been "Duped" then what is the deception he is accusing Google of?

If you don't read the not so fine print ... oh well.  Som nam na

 

With few exceptions, I'm Anti-Apps, and see no need for them.

4 hours ago, webfact said:

Like most of us, I was looking at several of my monthly outgoings and I noticed I was paying THB70 a month for a service called Google One.

Not me, you bought into big brother... no get out of jail free card.

5 hours ago, webfact said:

It gave me two options, sign up or start deleting emails, photos videos, and files immediately.

Let's put it in other words: "Manage my storage sensibly or buy additional space, local or cloud based". Think about it.

Is this article a coincidence, an advertorial ?

 

https://www.ais.th/googleone/en/

 

I just received a sms from AIS morning, telling me, as post pay customer that I got 100GB free for myself and family.

 

I know of google drive, but never google one. Seems like a rebranding and push, nothing is free.

 

Sounds like the writer is feeling the pain of using a service such as google.

They are prooviding you with cloud storage for €2 a month ... Just need a bit of storage housekeeping ... 

The risk I see is that when u use a credit card on line, Google 'grab it' and constantly want u to sign-up or buy a service with the card details they have stored !!!

Lazada same, where when u purchase something they don't even ask for the security 3 number code ....

5 hours ago, webfact said:

I noticed I was paying THB70 a month for a service called Google One.

This had been going on for a number of years.

To be honest, I really did not know exactly what this service offered me

If only there were a website that would let you search for "Google One" and find out what exactly that service offers! Who knows, such a website might even have a name very similar to the name of the service being searched...

So now we getting rants as news now?? Man aging is brutal!!

A troll post has been removed.

3 hours ago, ugghuggh said:

Everything you deleted from your Google drive is collected and still counted in the Google drive trash folder.. However it took me a year and multiple devices until I finally found a "manage storage" function under my Google account on PC browser and then finally could empty the trash and regain the "deleted" file space.. 

This is correct, although Google does dump the trash automatically every 30 days.

 

I had a similar problem and discovered that anything people have "shared" with me takes up virtual space in my account. I deleted years of junk from my "Shared with me" section and that got me down to just a few gig and I was able to downgrade my account. Be advised it takes google up to a 24 hours to update the "storage used" calculation we see in out accounts.  Good luck ????

I used to have the 2 TB plan, annual payment, until I realised I didn't need it.

 

Probably the most ridiculous thing I've read all week. What on Earth has this got to do with Thailand-based expats, and are you expecting Google to provide you with free cloud storage just because you cancelled it and then didn't delete enough to get below the limit for a free account?