Google Video Tech Support Trouble for Google Apps Premier

Last week, we discussed the ongoing problems we have with Google Video not working on the Google Apps Boles University domain.

This week we still do not have a resolution -- but Google Tech support did finally reply asking for the following information:

- Screenshot of the error
- Can this issue be observed in PC/Linux/Mac using FF/IE/Safari?
- Does this issue exist for all users in the domain or just this account?
- Does this issue exist when the "disable admin mode" is active?

- HTTP headers captured when you try to access the video files using
either HTTPLiveHeader (FF) or HTTP Watch Basic (IE), or provide a
test account for us to perform this task

- Outputs of the following commands when the issue is observed

nslookup www.google.com
ping -s 3 www.google.com (Windows) or ping -c 3 www.google.com (UNIX)
tracert www.google.com (Windows) or traceroute www.google.com (UNIX)
ipconfig /all (Windows) or ifconfig -a (UNIX)

nslookup video.google.com
ping -s 3 video.google.com (Windows) or ping -c 3 video.google.com (UNIX)
tracert video.google.com (Windows) or traceroute video.google.com (UNIX)
ipconfig /all (Windows) or ifconfig -a (UNIX)

The reason for collecting this information for your Video service is
because the behavior you've identified appears related to a connectivity
issue.

We responded that we had already answered most of those questions -- including providing screenshots -- and that we do not have time to beta test this problem for Google. We are paying customers and we expect them to test their service and fix it when it breaks.

Blaming our internet connectivity for the problem -- and not the Google Video service itself -- is the old ploy of blaming the customer that we do not find pleasing.

Here is the error we are getting using a Mac with the Firefox browser on Comcast. We cannot access any videos at all and zero videos appear for our users even though we uploaded two videos. Our Google Apps Dashboard reports to videos. We have yet to see them under any circumstance.

Here's the same URL -- admin mode doesn't make any difference -- using a different Boles University account on the same Mac with the Safari browser on the same Comcast cable internet connection.

How can it be a network issue when we can hit the site just fine by changing browsers? It might be a browser issue, but on all the other Google Apps services, Firefox is certainly the browser of choice, so we find that hard to believe.

Google replied to our plea for them to test their own service by instructing us to give them a "test account" so they can login and look around.

The only problem with that plan is that it punishes us by requiring us to purchase another account for them to use to test for $50 a year -- so Google is forcing us to pay an additional $50 in order for them to maybe/not fix our problem. We find that cruel, uncouth and unseemly.

So, I guess we'll just have to look around for other alternatives for our Big Video Plans. We hoped to do a teaching mash using Google Sites and Google Video -- but that is not possible now. We'll entirely abandon our Sites plan in response to the failure of Google Video.

Our experience with Google support not being able to fix what is wrong has stretched across the entirety of our relationship with them since GApps was announced -- and that instability in fixing what's broken without blaming us -- is what unfortunately forces us to look to other, more robust, services we have successfully used in the past like Basecamp and Office Live.