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Comment by ambition | Hacker News Reader

No. One of the first rules I ever learned about human factors was to translate "user error" into "design flaw." A mistake that is easy to make is a design problem. In this case, this easy-to-make mistake benefits Google.

It's probably not intentionally deceptive, but it is deceptive and Google should fix the problem.

Default actions should not affect deleted items. Think about GMail: "All Mail" excludes your Spam and Trash.

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> In this case, this easy-to-make mistake benefits Google.

And, worse, it seems to be a pattern. Clicked the wrong button in your adsense campaign? No appeal, we take your money. We detected fraud in your google payments account? No appeal, we take your money. We detected click fraud in your adsense displays? No appeal, we take your money.

I'm glad I don't do any business with them.

Why would they give you an appeal? They are not a charity organisation they are a business for profit. If something they are doing is illegal then by right you have access to the courts. Use them.

The market mechanism should step in before the courts (i.e. they would give you an appeal to stop from losing you to the competition). The problem in this case is that there are no significant competitors.

That's like saying, "Why would you talk to their customer service when you could just sue?" The courts are there as a last resort, not as a default place to settle things. Your statement also implies that there's not a relationship between how one treats their customers and bottom line, which is pretty far from the truth.

>> "Clicked the wrong button in your adsense campaign? No appeal, we take your money."

Perhaps you mean Adwords sigh.

I did indeed, my humblest apologies.

>> "...translate "user error" into "design flaw." A mistake that is easy to make is a design problem."

How easy is it to make? One person has blogged that he made it. It's not easy to make IMHO at all. If you translate "user error" into "design flaw", then your product will always have flaws. If you have functionality, someone will get confused and misunderstand.

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