Google Workspace Technical Support Services Guidelines
Last modified: May 31, 2023
This is not the current version of this document and is provided for archival purposes. View the current version
The following technical support services guidelines ("Guidelines") apply to support services for Google Workspace Services ("Services"), except for the services and editions identified in Section 5 (Excluded Services and Editions) below that are not eligible for support services. Capitalized terms not defined herein have the meaning set forth in the agreement that governs Customer's use of Google Workspace Services ("Agreement").
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1. Support Request Submission
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1.1 Customer Efforts to Fix Errors. Prior to making a Request to Google, Customer will use reasonable efforts to resolve issues and fix any error, bug, malfunction or network connectivity defect without escalation to Google. Customer Contact may then submit a Request for technical support as specified at
https://support.google.com/a/answer/1047213 or as such URL may be updated by Google. -
1.2 Characterization of Requests. Customer will designate priority when submitting Requests. On receipt of a Request from a Customer Contact, Google will determine whether the Request is a "Service Unusable," "Standard Request" or a "Feature Request" (as defined in Section 7 (Definitions)). Any such determination made by Google is final and binding on Customer. Google reserves the right to reclassify Customer's Priority designation if (a) Google believes that Customer's Priority designation is incorrect or (b) Customer fails to maintain continuous availability, as described in Section 1.3 (Procedures for Acknowledgement and Resolution of Requests). Google will inform Customer of any such reclassification in Google’s response to the support Request. Customer may appeal any such reclassification to Google's Support management for review through any available support channel. Any reclassifications by Google of the Priority designation pursuant to subsection (b) will be reversed if Customer resumes continuous availability in accordance with Section 1.3 (Procedures for Acknowledgement and Resolution of Requests).
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1.3 Procedures for Acknowledgement and Resolution of Requests. When making a Request, Customer will provide requested diagnostic information including but not limited to: (i) describing the problem, the configuration, and Customer's network; (ii) providing relevant data; and (iii) answering questions and assisting Google Support Personnel as appropriate. Customer must provide up-to-date contact information (i.e., phone or email) to assist with data gathering, testing and applying resolutions. In the case of P1 Requests, Customer must maintain continuous availability until resolution of such Requests.
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1.4 Request Acknowledgement. Google may respond to a Request by acknowledging receipt of the Request. Customer acknowledges and understands that Google may be unable to provide answers to, or resolve all, Requests.
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1.5 Feature Requests. If Google deems a Request to be a Feature Request, Google will log such Request for consideration to add to a future update or release of the Services and will consider the matter closed. Google is under no obligation to respond to or resolve any Feature Request or to accommodate any such Feature Request in any future update or release.
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2. Accessing Support
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2.1 Google Help Center. Customer's End Users of the Services may access the Google Help Center at
https://support.google.com/a/ or such other URL as Google may provide. Customer is responsible for responding to any questions and complaints from End Users or other third parties relating to Customer's or its End Users' use of the Services, with such support services to be provided at Customer's own expense. -
2.2 Customer PIN. Customer is required to provide a current Customer PIN when making a Request. Customer will obtain such Customer PIN in the Admin Console in order to access and receive support for the Services from Google. If Customer is unable to provide the current Customer PIN when prompted, Customer will only be able to access the Google Help Center and post a question to its online help forum, until such time as the Customer PIN is restored. The Customer PIN may be updated periodically and is only available in the Admin Console.
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2.3 Compliance with Applicable Law. Google will not provide TSS if prohibited from doing so by applicable law.
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3. Chrome Support
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3.1 Availability of Support. In addition to Requests related to the Services, Google will respond in accordance with these guidelines to Requests related to Chrome:
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i. For all Workspace End User Accounts;
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ii. If Customer is paying for 100 or more concurrent Workspace End User Accounts, for all other end users associated with Customer's domain.
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3.2 Supported Issue Types. Google Support Personnel will respond to Requests related to Chrome installation, Chrome Core Functionality, Chrome’s security, administrative policies, and Chrome’s interoperability with Services on Supported Platforms as set forth in these Guidelines. Google may choose not to respond to Requests for other Chrome related technical issues, such as but not limited to, rendering problems for specific web pages, technical issues related to the underlying operating system, device driver or printer problems. If Google makes a code change to resolve a technical issue, the code change is released in an upcoming release and will not be ported back to an earlier version of Chrome.
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4. Support Levels
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4.1 Generally. As part of Customer's order of the Services, Google will provide Standard Support to Customer. Customer may order additional TSS for an additional fee.
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4.2 Standard Support. Customer will receive the following:
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i. Automatic product upgrades of the Services
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ii. Maintenance updates of the Services
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iii. Online self help and training for End Users and Administrators designed to assist Customer with implementation and use of the Services
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iv. Ability to submit a support Request
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v. Status Dashboard and support portal providing real-time publicly available status information for the Services
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4.3 Fee Commitments. Some TSS require a 1-year fee commitment. When Customer enrolls in such TSS, any applicable Fees will be pro-rated for that month and then continue to apply for each month in the 1-year commitment period.
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4.4 Support Hours and Target Initial Response Times.
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i. Google will provide access to Google Help Center support for Customer on a 24 x 7 basis.
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ii. Target Initial Response Times.
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Target Initial Response Times during the Hours of Operation
Priority
Standard Support
Enhanced Support
Premium Support
P1
4 hours 24x7
1 hour 24x7
15 minutes 24x7
P2
8 hours
4 hours 24x7
2 Hours 24x7
P3
24 hours
8 hours
4 hours 24x7
P4
24 hours
8 hours
8 hours
4.5 Enhanced Support. Enhanced Support will be provided in English language (24x7) and in Japanese language during Business Hours. For any Requests in Japanese language submitted outside of Business Hours, Google will respond within the target initial response times stated for Workspace Standard Support.
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i. Value Add Services. Customer may purchase the following Value Add Services for Enhanced Support for an additional fee.
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a. Technical Account Advisor Service (TAAS). Customer will receive access to a Technical Account Advisor. TAAS includes: (a) guided support onboarding, (b) guidance on best practices for case handling, (c) management of technical support escalations, (d) reviews of operational and case metrics, and (e) recommendations for training and optimization of the Services.
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4.6 Premium Support.
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i. Premium Support will be provided in English language (24x7) and in Japanese language during Business Hours. For any Requests in Japanese language submitted outside of Business Hours, Google will respond within the target initial response times stated for Workspace Standard Support.
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ii. As part of the Premium Support offering, Customer will receive access to a named Technical Account Manager to (a) assist Customer in developing a strategy with respect to the Services, (b) provide best practice guidance on implementation and use of the Services, and (c) manage technical support escalations and coordinate with Google subject matter experts to address technical inquiries related to the Services. Additional access to Technical Account Management may be purchased, subject to additional fees and terms.
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iii. Value Add Services. Customer may purchase the following Value Add Services for Premium Support for an additional fee.
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a. Assured Support. Google will provide TSS for Assured Controls (“Assured Support”) in accordance with the Customer-selected support portal controls. All requests for Assured Support by Customer must be submitted via the “new case” option from within the support portal. Notwithstanding Section 6.2 (Language), Google will provide Assured Support in English language only.
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4.7 Legacy Standard Support. Notwithstanding any other term of Section 4 (Support Levels), the following terms will apply if Customer enrolled in Standard Support prior to October 6, 2020: P1 Priority support Requests are responded to with a target initial response time of one hour and are responded to 24 x 7; and P2, P3, and P4 Priority support Requests are responded to with an initial target response time of 1 business day or less.
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5. Excluded Services and Editions
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Notwithstanding any term of the Agreement that may indicate otherwise, (a) Google does not offer TSS for any of the following: Chrome Sync (when included in any edition of Google Workspace for Education); the Google Workspace Essentials Starter edition; or any Additional Products; and (b) TSS is provided for AppSheet under the AppSheet support service guidelines at
https://www.appsheet.com/Home/TSSG and not these Guidelines.
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6. General Provisions
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6.1 Maintenance. To ensure optimal performance of the Services, Google performs periodic Maintenance. In most cases, Maintenance will have limited or no negative impact on the availability and functionality of the Services. If Google expects planned Maintenance to negatively affect the availability or functionality of the Services, Google will use commercially reasonable efforts to provide at least seven days advance notice of the Maintenance. In addition, Google may perform emergency unscheduled Maintenance at any time. If Google expects such emergency unscheduled Maintenance to negatively affect the availability or functionality of the Services, Google will use commercially reasonable efforts to provide advance notice of such Maintenance. Maintenance notices will be provided via the Google Workspace Dashboard, Admin Console and/or support portal. In addition, if Customer subscribes to Maintenance notices, Customer may also be able to receive email and/or RSS Feed notifications of Maintenance.
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6.2 Language. Except as stated otherwise in these Guidelines, all support provided by Google Support Personnel pursuant to these Guidelines will be provided in English language, or during listed hours in one of the additional languages documented in these Guidelines or at
https://support.google.com/a/table/3247295 or such other URL as Google may provide. Support outside of these hours can be obtained via English language support channels. -
6.3 Term of Support. Google will only provide the support services described in these Guidelines during the term of the Agreement and will have no obligation to provide any support services to Customer after the expiration or termination of such Agreement.
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6.4 On-site Support. Google may, at its discretion and upon approval from Customer, send Google Support Personnel on-site in response to an issue that cannot be resolved remotely. Google Support Personnel performing support at Customer's facilities will comply with Customer's reasonable onsite policies and procedures made known to Google in writing in advance.
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7. Definitions
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For the purpose of these Guidelines, the capitalized terms below will have the following meanings:
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7.1 "Business Hours" means business hours in Japan, namely, 09:00 to 17:00 on Monday to Friday Japan Standard Time.
7.2 "Chrome" means the Chrome web browser as released by Google for Supported Platforms and available for download at the URL
https://www.google.com/chrome/ or the MSI installer provided at the URLhttps://www.google.com/chrome/business/ or at another URL that Google may provide.7.3 "Chrome Core Functionality" means the features and functionality in the latest released Chrome browser version, excluding Google Chrome extensions, Google Play, and Google Cloud Print.
7.4 "Customer Contacts" means Administrators designated in the Admin Console.
7.5 "Feature Request" means a Request by a Customer Contact to incorporate a new feature or enhance an existing feature of the Services that is currently not available as part of the existing Services.
7.6 "Google Support Personnel" means the Google representatives responsible for handling technical support requests.
7.7 "Hours of Operation" means the hours listed at
https://support.google.com/a/table/3247295 for each country except for holidays in local time for each region as documented in the Admin Console.7.8 "Maintenance" means maintenance work that is performed on hardware or software delivering the Services.
7.9 "Priority" means the level of impact a Request is having on Customer's operations and is used to establish target response times. Definitions of available priority levels can be found on our help center:
https://support.google.com/a/answer/1047213 7.10 "Request" means a request from Customer to Google Support Personnel for technical support to resolve a question or problem regarding the Services and Chrome.
7.11 "Service Unusable" means a production issue that prevents more than one of Customer’s End Users from access to, or use of, the Services, or where Customer's network is not receiving any inbound email (and/or sending outbound email) from the Services. Customer must identify a Request as Service Unusable by designating it as a P1 Priority support Request.
7.12 "Standard Request" means a Request made by Customer to Google that is not a Service Unusable Request or Feature Request.
7.13 "Supported Platform" as listed at
https://support.google.com/a/bin/answer.py?answer=2763059 means an operating system and version for which i) Chrome is released by Google and ii) support under these Guidelines is provided. Google may choose not to respond to issues with preview versions of Chrome (also known as beta, dev, and canary) or preview features. Chrome OS is not a Supported Platform under these Guidelines; dedicated Google technical support and hardware service for Chrome OS is available under a separate agreement. For clarity, Chrome Frame is a separate product not covered under these Guidelines.7.14 "Value Add Services" means additional TSS available to Customer for an additional fee.
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