Google Cloud has restricted my personal account billing and is demanding $650 for an "Organization" setup mistake. I am a student and cannot pay this. Any advice?
Hi everyone, I am in a desperate situation and looking for guidance.
I am a student, and I accidentally selected "Organization" instead of "Individual" when setting up my Google Cloud account. I have never used the account for any commercial purposes, and there are no active services running (usage is $0).
However, Google Cloud has restricted my account because it is linked to 13 orphaned billing accounts from that deleted organization. Google Support is now demanding a $650 "prepayment" ($50 per account) to reactivate the billing so I can close them.
I am not a business entity, and I physically cannot pay this amount. This is my primary personal Google account that I use for daily life, studies, and gaming accounts. I am terrified of losing access to my personal data and years of progress in my games.
I have tried explaining to support that these accounts were never used and are already closed, but they keep sending automated replies stating that the prepayment is the only way to proceed and that the system will "automatically refund" it later. I am not comfortable paying such a large sum without a clear guarantee or alternative solution.
Has anyone dealt with this before? Is there any way to escalate this to a human who can close these accounts without a prepayment? I am desperate for any help.
Thank you.