ORIGINAL: I recently found a charge from Google Cloud on my credit card statement (small charge ~$20) that I didn't recognize. Asked friends + family, no one has used my card. Checked GCP and firebase, no usage or charges. I filed a report here (https://payments.google.com/payments/u/0/unauthorizedtransactions#)
And they closed my case stating that it was not an unauthorized charge without stating what the charge was for. Since the case is closed, I have no way to contact them. At this point, I would usually just chargeback the company, but it's Google. I've heard of Amazon shutting off access to their entire platform and products over disputes/chargebacks and I can't afford to do with Google since I have emails and such going back ~15 years.
What would you do in this situation?
UPDATE: I submitted the form again (shortly after my post here) with the same CC charge ID asking for more info, and they closed my case again. I checked my CC statement today and found a new ~$30 charge. But again, I literally checked all my GCP accounts and I can't find any usage anywhere. At this point, should I just cancel my card and chargeback? I'm still scared of retaliation by Google, but I'm also now fearing the possibility that my card's been compromised and I should act instead of counting on receiving a response from Google.
Not only that but people are building business on top of a company that can wipe out your digital presence (gmail) because you try to charge back an erroneous charge. Seems to me like living under a constant threat..?
* What does the Cost Breakdown section of Billing in the Google Cloud Console show?
* Have you gotten a PDF invoice emailed to you? This is done for G Suite but not some other charges.
* Is there any activity on pay.google.com?
* Has there been a login to your account that you don't recognize? You might want to change your password just in case.
* EDIT: Is it possible that someone else is using your card with Google as well? Has your card been compromised?
* What are the total number of subscriptions here: https://pay.google.com/gp/w/u/0/home/subscriptionsandservice...
* Do any of those have extremely low charge thresholds? GCP is usually minimum $100.
* If you're absolutely certain that this is not your fault, you probably want to make this an "issue" on your blog or Twitter to try to get an employee to pull some strings. Don't file a chargeback until then.
I expect someone else is using your card for their Google account.
Then see if any of your google services report a billing issue asking you to update your card.
Contact the card issuer and see how long you have to file a charge back.
You could file charge back nears the end of that period once you're sure it's not attached to any of your google services.
It's always a good idea to back up your data do a Google Takeout.
But if someone else is using your card and you initiate a charge back it's most likely only going to cause issues for them.
I might even just let those charges go, it is scary dealing with amazon and google with things like this in fear of having your accounts closed.
Safest route would probably be to try to get in contact with google again, put in your message it looks like someone is using my card for their account without my authorization, I don't want to have to request a chargeback, but I would like those charges refunded.
Has anyone ever cancelled a google cloud account? do they attempt to convince you to stay? If so, there is a slight chance that google might be somewhat helpful to convince you to stay. Some companies have a "Retention Department" that tries to retain customers. [In a different situation, I once had a company refuse to reverse a disputed fee, but the Retention Department offered me a credit if I would keep the account open (the credit was twice the fee!)]
My only way out was to let the card expire (thankfully, in my case, it was just about to) by totally ignoring the flood of 'renew now or we stop the paid services' emails.
Letting the card expire stopped the charges but also shut down my GC services. I had used the time to migrate things off and abandoned anything that was left (like maps API).
A chargeback will end up with the vicious blocking and deleting of your gmail and everything else you have with Google. If you're going to do that, backup/offload everything you can first as it's all going to be crispy fried by Google the moment you do the chargeback.
Never use Google for anything important that you cannot afford to lose at a moments notice.
As a sanity check, do you use other Google services (Drive, Photos)?
I think cancelling your card is the safest bet; I highly doubt GC will immediately terminate your account just because of a failed transaction. After all, failed txs happen all the time. You will probably receive an email to update your card info.
EDIT: I guess the worry is in doing the chargeback - might be best to cancel first, add a new card to your account and then chargeback? Not sure...
You might have more luck opening a GCP support case, or using the chat support. They may have the ability to help you figure out what's going on, especially if the affected credit card is the one linked to your GCP billing account.