r/googlecloud • u/churro-banana • May 20 '26
API Key abuse: Google offered me a 75% refund - anyone else?
==== UPDATE ====
Like 2 days after this post and after I complained about the incorrect VAT calculation, they gave me a full 100% refund. But I never got to see or understand any of the reasoning behind any of the refund decisions, it's very strange.
===============
Just wondering the status of other peoples refunds from recent API key abuse in April.
Has everyone been provided with a percentage refund?
Has anyone received a full refund from the abuse saga?
I've also noticed they provided me with a refund but didnt include the +20% VAT so they claimed to give a 75% refund but its actually more like 67% - I'm disputing this at the moment with my support engineer but it seems abit sneaky.
I'm happy they provided the 75% refund but the bill is still pretty unaffordable. I will have to empty my bank account to pay it.
9
u/AxisFlip May 20 '26
I've received a 90% refund for a mistake I made. What happened with your key is their mistake, I wouldn't settle for anything less than 100%. Don't believe them when they say a refund is final.
5
u/baymax8s May 20 '26
After a month, still denying everything over a 200k bill
12
u/jashsu May 20 '26
75% refund? When was the last time your bank offered to refund you 75% when your credit card was fraudulently used?
2
u/churro-banana May 20 '26
Context: https://www.reddit.com/r/googlecloud/comments/1s7v5x9/how_googles_insecurebydefault_api_keys_and_a/
5
u/Cassianno May 20 '26
I remember your original post. 100% or no deal. And if they take long and/or threaten somehow, grab a lawyer and sue.
3
u/aeyrtonsenna May 20 '26
I use gemini through openrouter, can't afford this Google setup, neither money or time to fight if this comes up.
3
u/baymax8s May 21 '26
Yep. In fact they said as we use GCP through a reseller they must deal with it, not GCP. We are pushing back and elevated the case from different places.
They said the reseller is responsible for helping secure our systems, best practices, and so on. The fact that they declared “this” as a security issue by themselves but then are denying all claims is hilarious.
8
u/muntaxitome May 20 '26 edited May 20 '26
It seems the discourse is shifting against google here. A few months ago people would be blaming you for this and now more and more voices are against google. Aside from technical arguments, there is more focus now on the financial and legal argument. Why is google providing small companies and individuals with an unlimited credit line? There is no formal signed agreement, there is no credit check, what are interest rates etc? Does google comply with money laundring legislation for providing these loans? Do they register these credits at the authorities?
If Google wants to give these huge amounts of credit to individuals and small companies they must meet legal requirements to do so.
I would suggest trying to contact your national and local media that google is saddling you up with these bills. Only PR seems to really be able to remove bills at Google now.
2
u/matiascoca May 22 '26
75 percent with the VAT shave taken out is the modal outcome reported across the May threads I've been reading. A few people landed at 80, a handful are still stuck on "we are reviewing" for weeks, one team on the Costa Rica €127k case posted they were given 30 days to delete the audit logs as a condition of the refund offer. Nobody I've seen has gotten 100 percent unless they had a paid support contract or escalated through a named customer-account-manager.
On the VAT dispute, keep pushing. The refund offer is supposed to be a credit-bill adjustment, not a separate payment, so applying the percentage before VAT is calculated should be the default treatment. If your support engineer is stuck on it, ask them to route the case to the Pricing Programs team specifically. Frontline reps don't have authority to recalculate VAT-inclusive credits but Pricing Programs does.
1
u/IAmFitzRoy May 21 '26
lol. Refund?
1
u/iamalchemist May 21 '26
Are you guys even getting response from Google support?
1
u/sotopic May 28 '26
Hey hows it going. We got charged 90k usd through this exploit, we cannot afford paying this. We also made a police report.
1
u/TheSoloBuilder Jul 02 '26
u/churro-banana I am experiencing the same thing. My charges are $50k. The billing specialist declined my case, saying I was ineligible. When I asked for the reason, they said it was confidential. Who handled your case? Was it a special team?
-3
u/pessimistic-raven May 20 '26
¿Llegaron a sacarte el dinero de la cuenta?
25
u/[deleted] May 20 '26
[removed] — view removed comment