Menu items in Admin console not visible and impossible to contact Workspace support

[Peter_Z]

Hello, I have created a Google workspace about 2 months ago, and since about 1 month I can no longer see any menu items in the Admin console.

There is no option (for me) to create a support case via the Help Assistant pop-up window, but only a list of topics that are not relevant to the issue, and I also did not find anything helpful by searching for my specific issue via the 'Search for help' button in the Help Assistant window.

The Help Center article https://support.google.com/a/answer/1047213 shows a button 'GO THERE NOW' at step 6, but it is just bringing back to the Admin console.

Also, trying to access one of the not visible items in the Admin console directly, e.g. via the following link: https://admin.google.com/ac/billing/accounts

leads to a 403 error page stating that I did not have access to that document, even though I had access to that page in the past. Also, I have still been charged for the monthly fee last week.

Ten, when I click 'Create Support Case' in the Customer Care Portal at https://support.cloud.google.com/portal/cases, I get a message that I do not have permission to create support cases.

As far as I see, there is no way to create a support case for the issue that I am facing, and therefore I eventually decided to use the following form:

https://toolbox.googleapps.com/apps/recovery/form?visit_id=638169239982276704-3948680100&rd=1

which is available by clicking on a link after receiving the message that I did not have permission to create a support case. This eventually leads to another form (https://support.google.com/a/contact/recovery_form?product_name=UnuFlow&visit_id=638169239982276704-...) that however requires selecting from a defined set of issues (but none matching my issue), which I did anyway, just in order to get in contact with someone in the support team.

After some exchange the support team (Account recovery team) told me that I obviously can access the Admin console, and that my specific issue is not an issue that they are meant to provide support for, and recommended me to open a support case via the Help Assistant pop-up window or the above mentioned help center article...

Since these options are unfortunately not available for me, I decided to post a message here, in the hope to find some information that will help me to either solve the issue, or some alternative way to contact someone in the Workspace support team that can direct me to whoever can actually help.

Any suggestions are highly appreciated.

[ajojose33333344]

@Peter_Z When you go to the  Help Assistant pop-up window simply paste your issue description and keep on selecting options like This is not my issue, finally it will give you the option to contact support.

and may i know which subscription you are in?

[Peter_Z]

@ajojose33333344  Thank you for your reply.

The Help Assistant is (for me) providing a list of topics to review, a button 'Search for help', and at the bottom a question 'Did we help to resolve your issue?' with options 'Yes' and 'No'.

'Search for help' allows to enter a query, which I tried by 'I can't see all menu items in the Admin console', which results in a set of new topics that are however also not helpful as they are referring (1) either to items that are available via the Admin console menu items (the provided direct links ends up in page 403 error or in a message stating that I do not have access to that resource), or (2) to issues with signing in to the Admin console, which I can.

There is always the option to 'Search for something else', but nothing like 'This is not my issue'.

Clicking 'No' at the bottom (answering 'Did we help to resolve your issue?' brings up a small form with 5 options to answer to 'Indicate any aspects of the Help Assistant that have NOT met your expectations today', which are 'Contacting support is difficult', 'Did not identify my issue', 'Content didn't serve the purpose', 'Solution was difficult to implement', and 'None of the above'.

Selecting the first 3 and clicking 'Next' brings me to a next form where I can type an answer to 'What did you dislike the most about the Help Assistant?' and a button to submit my answer.
I already did answer that question in various ways, e.g. 'It fails to provide either help or assistance', but (earlier) also with stating my specific problem, and submitted it, but there was never any feedback of any kind.

Selecting the 5th option, i.e. 'None of the above' is equally followed by the same next form.

Please consider that the Help Assistant might look different for other accounts without the same configuration issue as my one.

I got a Google Workspace 'Business Starter' subscription.

[ajojose33333344]

@Peter_Z  so I just took a free trial with a business starter and I was able to contact support via both options.

Are you sure that you are having super admin access?

and are you accessing this link with your super admin id?

https://support.cloud.google.com/portal/cases

[Peter_Z]

@ajojose33333344 

Thanks a lot for your continuous support!!

It looks as if there is some misconfiguration in my user's setup. I did have access to all menu items in the Admin console from February until mid March. I only got a single user ID in my Google Workspace and I have never changed anything on its user rights.

Would it be possible to revoke the own Super Admin rights being the only user in a Google Workspace?
If so, would it still be possible to log in to the Admin console with the same user ID?
When clicking on my user in the top right corner of Gmail, I get a note that the account is managed by my domain, and the option to access the Admin console, and I can successfully do that.
Is there a way to check whether my user got super admin right (without being a super admin)?

[ajojose33333344]

@Peter_Z If you are the only user you should surely be having access as super admin.

if you want to check you can go to user , click on user name , then from the below screen on the  widest section scroll down to the option admin roles:

[Peter_Z]

@ajojose33333344

I would need access to the 'Directory' menu item for that, right?

When I try to access the page directly via URL, I get a 403 error:

I sent an email directly to 'workspacesupport@google.com' and asked them to reset the super admin rights for my user ID. Let's see whether they react to an email without case identifier in the subject.

Thanks again for your help.

[ajojose33333344]

@Peter_Z  yea, i dont think you are a super admin.

are you using https://workspace.google.com/individual/ google workspace for individuals by any chance?

[Peter_Z]

@ajojose33333344 

No, I'm sure that I got the "Business Starter" edition, just verified by checking the last bill.

If I get an answer on my direct email, I will post it here. Otherwise I might still try sending a letter to California.

[harrysuips]

Hi,

Did you have a chance to fix this issue?

I am having the exact same issue and this is such a pain.

Thank you.

[Peter_Z]

Hello Harry (?),

I eventually opened a new Google workspace with a made-up domain-name just to contact workspace support, and that way have been lucky to get to a very helpful support team in Romania that went out of their way to help me to solve the issue.

The Google backoffice did not believe them for quite some time claiming that this issue/condition would not be possible, and it was only after considerable convincing by them that they managed to convince somebody in the Google backoffice (that had the respective rights to do so) to revoke and reassign the super-admin rights to the (only) user in my workspace, which eventually led to have the menu items showing up again.

Do you have any other user with super-admin rights in your workspace? If so, that user might be able to do that (revoke and reassign super-admin rights to your user) without contacting Google workspace support.

Best regards, Peter

[Peter_Z]

I am copying here the comments/description that I gave via the feedback form after the issue has been resolved including the respective case IDs, in case that might help someone with the same problem to provide Google Workspace support with a reference case IDs - replaced the full names to the two guys that helped me by their initial letters M. and R.

I had initially tried to get the case solved via Case ID #44398629, but any of my attempts to get proper help on my specific problem has been ignored/rejected by the respective team.
An attempt to contact Google workspace support directly via email has been returned stating that no case ID could be identified in the subject, and it was going to SPAM.
I eventually had to open a new workspace just to be able to contact workspace support (and also named it accordingly: just-to-contact-workspace-support.ch), and so got in contact with M. first on case ID #44533996, which was then closed in order to create a new case (ID #44556884) on my actual workspace, again via the account recovery form (which I had already used for #44398629).
M. (and eventually also R.) have proven to be extraordinarily supportive, professional and friendly throughout our interaction and I would like to commend them in the highest possible degree. M. immediately recognized that my problem is apparently very unusual and it is only thanks to his and R.'s extraordinary effort that it was resolved despite various resistances and lack of coorperation from the Google back office(s). If I still remain with a reasonably positive assessment of Google Support after this experience, it is exclusively and entirely thanks to M. and R.'s dedication.
My support experience could have been easier by (1) adding an item matching my issue to the dropdown list at https://support.google.com/a/contact/recovery_form, e.g. "I am an admin, but I do not see all menu items in the admin console, and I also lack the rights to open a support case", and/or (2) allowing the support team that has been in contact with me on case #44398629 to support me even though my issue did not match the expected pattern, as I had actually already suggested the eventual solution (!) to that team (case #44398629) in my emails of April 14 and April 17.
If M. and R. are reading this as well - thanks again for your help! All the best, Peter

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