Thursday, August 1, 2013

Is this the end of Tech Transformation?

Over the past couple of weeks I've faced quite a serious problem, and since I can't solve it I'm putting it out there for my blog readers to see if they know the solution for me.   As many of you know, I started writing my blog Tech Transformation in 2009 when I was teaching in Switzerland.  At that time the URL of the blog was transformingtechnology.blogspot.com.   Some time later I decided that I wanted this to be "my" blog, so I bought a domain name using GoDaddy and directed my Blogger account to that.  This is the domain name that you see at the top of this blog:  maggiehosmcgrane.com.  I bought this domain using my Swiss credit card, and it has renewed every year since using the same credit card.  All well and good.

Last year I moved to India.  I closed my Swiss bank account and therefore gave up my Swiss credit card.  In my Google Wallet account I added a new card and made it the default.  I thought I'd done everything I needed to do to continue using this domain name.  I was wrong.

Over the past few weeks I have received many emails from the Google Apps Team.  You can see an example of one of these below:


I did what anyone would do - I clicked the Log in button.  This took me to a log in screen where I was able to enter my password and this brought me to the response you will see at the top of this blog - "Invalid Request".  How can this be, I asked myself?  Who could I ask to help me to fix this problem.  I have to admit that at the start of this problem I thought it would be an easy fix.  Three weeks on I'm pulling my hair out and resigning myself to the fact that I may end up losing everything I have in my Google Apps account.  I have an ordinary Google account, not a business one where I can ask for telephone or email help.  I have tried to contact a person at Google for help, but so far have not been successful.

This is what I have done.  I have tried using different browsers and I have tried logging in from different locations and even from different countries.  I have tried 2 different computers (Mac and PC) and an iPad.  I have cleared my cache and deleted my history.  I have made sure I have no other Google accounts open.  I have checked online and googled "Invalid Request" but while I can see others have had exactly the same problem I cannot find their solution.  Finally I am turning to my readers.  In the past day over 4,000 of you have read my blog.  In total over 400,000 people have read my posts and some of those people have read more than once.  Surely someone has the answer to this problem.  Maybe that someone is a Google employee who knows someone who can help me.  Maybe that is someone who is a teacher and who has experienced this before and can tell me what he or she did to fix the problem?

I don't know what will happen next.  If the domain name ceases to work in a week's time, please try to log onto my old URL:  transformingtechnology.blogspot.com

Fingers crossed this won't be necessary and that someone will come to my aid before then.
Thank you for anything you can do to help.

4 comments:

  1. This can not happen! I so enjoy your blog posts and especially begin able to look back over past posts... I am traveling over the next two days but will see what I can think of as to me I agree with your first instinct "this should be an easy fix".

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  2. Big Thank Yous - to Jordan at Google in the USA who sent me loads of emails to help me solve this problem and to Tuulia in the Google Offices in Ireland who phoned me on my mobile in India and walked me through the whole billing process for the domain. Ladies I am tremendously grateful to you both and Tech Transformation lives on!

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  3. I'm having the same problem. Could you please let me know what the solution is?

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  4. Isabel, I'm sorry to hear this - the problem caused me many sleepless nights until it was fixed. Google has changed the billing procedure I think, and my problem was made worse by changing country and bank. Eventually I managed to get a message through Google Wallet and then I got a phone call from a really helpful person at the Google Offices in Ireland. She helped me through the whole procedure of adding a new card in. I would recommend you go to your Google Wallet account and contact someone through that. Good luck!

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