It has happened to me - I lost everything, calendar, email, g+ (which I had not ever updated and had no ToS violations on), absolutely everything.
In the next two days I googled (yes, I did) for answers while receiving automated messages that seemed to indicate I was never getting my accounts back (submitted the form they asked me to, but nothing came of it).
I lost my appointments, contacts, and had business people doubt my veracity, as I'd just given my gmail to several new contacts and their initial emails all bounced.
If I hadn't had multiple friends inside of google I might never have gotten my accounts back, and I heard they weren't even sure what exactly happened other than a confluence of events. I then learned how very very common it is to lose a google account and never know why, and never be able get back anything on them (family pictures, phone numbers stored in contact lists...)
I'm now mostly divested from google and the things I still have there I now have backups and redundancies for.
And she had all of her digital life in there.
She made for herself another Gmail account which she has safeguarded a lot more, but it's still chilling to know that you have no recourse.
Gmail is so convenient, that it's hard not to use it, but I'd pay for customer service.
So pay for it? I'm not saying that it's right for Google to do this, but they do offer that option. With a Google Apps subscription, you get support.
Generally, if it can't be implemented by an algorithm, Google's not going to do it, ever.
e.g. "24/7 Support" meant I was free to sent them an e-mail anytime, day or night. Or I could call the 800 line and leave a message ("Calls are usually returned within two business days!").
When I did get through this way, I had to run a gauntlet to convince the asshole (and he was an asshole) that I'd exhausted every imaginable self service option before having the audacity to call for help directly - even though this was the exact service I was paying for.
Seriously, you'd think I'd called 911 to report that I was running out of milk and eggs. In reality, my accounts had vanished completely. Business accounts, I might add. Not that it mattered to Google.
Like an earlier commenter noted - if you use Google for anything that matters, you'll probably be okay. After all, the odds are in your favor. But if you do get screwed, you get screwed completely, suddenly, and without warning. And that's true of customers and users alike.
a PAYING customer of gmail lost his account.
but still, he is having problem with his account used for gmail, which he pays.
why does he have to pay yet another product to have support for the one he is having problem with?
do you have to buy a 2liter coke to be able to complain that they delivered the wrong toppings in your pizza? makes no sense.
This is the story we hear again and again - you CAN get customer service from Google if you have contacts inside or you can raise a big stink at some forum that Googlers read.
The black box google currently presents makes me uninterested in trusting them, since to do so would present a lot of risk (losing my email) with very little reward (a sort-of-better facebook clone).
[You may be able to allow < 13 year olds with parent's permission, but most sites probably feel that it's too much effort/risk to do that.]