As my readers will know, I’ve detailed my isses with Google, or more specifically, Picasa Web in the past. Well, today, I was surprised when Picasa refused to upload new photos for me. I cannot use my iPhoto exporter anymore, since that broke with one of the last two updates to iPhoto, so I tried the web interface and then the “Picasa Web Albums Uploader” application Google provides. The reason it failed? No storage.
“That’s odd,” I thought. I have extended storage and about 5 GB free. But alas, it expired. In fact, my storage SHOULD have expired in August, but just did recently. So I tried to upgrade again. After all, Google’s been good to me on the whole. But my order was cancelled by Google. The reason: “Another order modified the user’s storage plan before this order was received“
What the heck? So I tried again. And once again: cancelled. So my storage has been cancelled for a few days now, no upgrade has been applied, no warning whatsoever from Google (at my account, which is a Gmail account!), and no way to upgrade!
Gmail has been a fantastic app for me, but I’m just not sure about extended Google services. I’ve heard way too many nightmare stories about people having stuff cancelled and there is just no recourse: Google provides no support, no assistance, no real time communication, nothing other than crappy, slow-to-respond Google groups from very unofficial people.
Google’s storage engine has been modified heavily lately, and this does not bode well. If it can expire without notice – will they delete my stuff? How long will they hold it, being as though I can’t upgrade? If Google deletes even one bit of my stuff, I am through with PicasaWeb and Google’s expanded storage for good.
Boo Google! Boo! It may be time migrate to smugmug, Zoto, or zooomr.com.
Been happening to me too. Should have expired Jul 8th, then with no warning expired yesterday. And I get the same stupid message when I try to renew.
Me too – really frustrating. I re-entered my billing info on Google checkout several times thinking it might be a credit card issue… nope. And Google is mum on the subject.
I came across this post after looking to see if anyone else has had the same problem with disappearing Picasa upgrade storage at renewal time.
Same thing just happened to me – renewal email assuring me everything should be fine and dandy, no need to take any action etc. as the storage would automatically renew. Then today I go to upload more images to Picasa and all of a sudden my storage is back down to the default level and I can’t upload anything.
I try to manually upgrade the storage via Google checkout only to have the order cancelled with the message “Another order modified the user’s storage plan before this order was received”. Checking the purchase history in Google checkout shows no automated renewal attempt at all.
Like you, I will be seriously re-evaluating Google’s ability to securely store my valuable information if this results in any data loss.
With free services (GMail, GoogleDocs etc) then I accept that you don’t get any guarantees. However when I pay Google for something I believe I am entitled to a basic level of customer support. In this case the slew of automated Google-bot responses I have had to date just don’t cut it!
Lets hope Google can re-instate my extra paid for storage quickly…. what happened in the cases above (I note these are a few months old now)? Did Google gets things sorted or did you take your business elsewhere?
Exactly the same case here but couple of years later. So I just get to the point:
I cannot upgrade my online storage anymore. It is a serious bug but nobody in google forum or picasa-support responds š
More than 25 days have passed since Annual Renewal date of Google Paid Storage (renewal of 10GB) but my storage limit is still 1GB. And when trying to checkout manually, this text appears: “An order for additional storage has already been placed from this account. Please allow up to 24 hours for this order to successfully complete before resubmitting”
All reported issues I have found so far have happened in 2007 or 2008. Am I alone?
For those who discover themselves in same desperate situation. Today, after some picasa help forum posts and after some reply’s to picasa-support robo-mail I finally received Checkout receipt and I can see my bought plan on Checkout page. I hope my storage will go accessible very soon.