Stories like there are why I won't consider Google as an infrastructure provider for our SaaS, regardless of the technicals around their services. Thank you to the original author/s for writing the post, it reinforces the warning to avoid providers like this.

In HomeAutomation's case, the amounts are relatively small (though still potentially massive to them). If their monthly infra spend for firebase started out at $10k a month and went to $1m, would only way to have issues resolved still be to hit the front page of HN?

Risk factors into our technical decisions, and trust factors into risk. Particularly when billing is concerned, needing to wait a month is ridiculous. Assuming the post is accurate, ignoring billing-related emails is inexcusable. Any organisation this incompetent is one that you should not trust with your critical infrastructure.