Note: This is re-telling of a message I just posted to Google's support forums.
Well, this week has not been good.
I have five clients on Postini. All of the clients accounts were purchased directly, either slightly before or during the Google acquisition. In each case, the service Just Worked. Spam filtering was immensely effective. We knew that support was dicey, at best. In the one or two times we've had to contact Postini/Google for help, they weren't for urgent issues. So, the 24-36 hour response time was O.K. ... scary, but O.K. The service worked so well that we put our heads in the sand.
This week all five clients' accounts have been deactivated. These all came without warning. We've received no emails to the registered administrator accounts since the day the accounts were activated. We do not have access to the billing portal and have never been able to get access to the support portal. The manual renewal, suggested on the forums, doesn't work for me. All clients are getting killed with spam, of course.
The ONLY communication I've had with Google in these last 24 hours is a response to a support ticket indicating that I "want to deactivate" my service and "upgrade it" The responder warns, however, that we would lose all configurations and the service would not be available to us for up to a week. I have responded that this is not what I am asking to do; I want to reactivate my account, to continue it.
So, in a way, I am begging to put money in Google's hands. Please! Let me renew! And yet there's no way to do it. At least, not obviously.
Laughably, it's been simpler and quicker to sign up all five clients with a competitor service. This kills me. I know that service isn't going to be as successful as Postini. But, alas, Google has shut me out.
Of course, I am hopeful someone with Exciting News will chime in, point out a URL or (God forbid) a damned phone number with a live human on the other end.
Sure, shame on me for not preparing for the worst. But, really, why should I expect all five clients, who were not activated at the same time, be deactivated simultaneously? And with no quick, definitive way to contact support? Really? What year is this?
If anyone has any suggestions on what to do, please let me know. Otherwise, I have to continuing moving my clients. :-(
Ok guys.
My pleas on the Google support forum went answered.
Apparently during the setup process for a Postini account, one creates a Google Checkout account. The email address associated with THAT account gets renewal notices.
We checked the checkout account and found all manner of warning about renewal and deactivation. We went and checked the email account associated with the Checkout account and the messages about setting up an account at the Billing portal were there.
We set up a Billing portal account for one client, renewed the service, and it's back online.
Yay.
I hope this helps someone else.