Trying to get access to Google's new agentic AI

Or how to deal with Google customer service

Google has a new (but in this case trial) agentic AI. It is called Project Mariner.

The limited trial is being given to personal customers of Google AI Ultra package - at a mere AUD205 per month with a three month minimum subscription.

Hell - it is stock research. And I signed up.

But then they did not give me access to Project Mariner because it is not being offered to Australians.

This led me to write this email to Google Investor Relations. I suspect they will flick me access to Project Mariner - but if I do have to go through with my threat to take them to the petty claims court in Australia I will report it here.

It is not the money. I actually want to trial the product…

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My letter to Google Investor Relations

a. I own >100 million dollars worth of Google stock for the fund I manage.

b. I have a blog with tens of thousands of readers
c. I subscribed to Google AI Ultra because the site that I subscribed from said that it came with access to Project Mariner - but it did not come with access to Project Mariner because I am an Australian. This has been excluded for Australians.

I was subscribing to Project Mariner as stock research. I wanted to see what Google was up to.

Can I either have

a) access to Project Mariner so I can get what I paid for or
b). an address for service - because I will sue Google in the petty claims court in Australia for the refund. And I will blog it.

Let me know within 48 hours which way you want to go because I have an itchy finger to sue you and make a stink about this. To say I am annoyed is an understatement.


John Hempton

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Hi,

We hope this email finds you well. Thank you for contacting Google Play Support.

Issue status

We received your refund request of A$204.99 for Google AI Ultra (30 TB) (Google One), Transaction ID SOP.3396-2024-6745-51051, but this purchase doesn't qualify for a refund under our refund policy. We understand that this must be frustrating and apologize for any inconvenience caused.

Learn more about our Google Play refund policies.

Next steps

To prevent accidental or unwanted purchases in the future, we recommend that you turn authentication on, check your authentication settings, or change your password. If you use biometrics for purchase verification, use caution in storing biometrics of children or others on your device, as those could be used for purchase verification.

Thanks, The Google Support Team

Google Asia Pacific Pte. Limited, 70 Pasir Panjang Road, #03-71, Mapletree Business City, Singapore