Google had been winning the P.R. battle with Disney over the absence of ESPN, ABC, and other Disney-owned channels from YouTube TV by doing nothing. Mainly because Disney and ESPN have been regularly stepping on rakes.
But Google has found a rake of its own. Instead of automatically applying a $20 credit to the accounts of millions of users who haven’t gotten what they automatically pay for every month, you have to go claim it.
It is — and I say this with full appreciation of the fact that YouTube and its parent company, Google, and its parent company, Alphabet, are a multi-trillion-dollar conglomerate — bullshit. They’re adding an obstacle knowing that some people won’t realize that the credit has to be claimed, won’t know how to do it, won’t have the time to do it, or will forget to do it.
And so we beg each of you to GO DO IT. NOW. Here’s the link. Go get your money.
It is your money. They charged you for something they didn’t deliver. It’s not a gift. They’re doing the right thing by giving you a partial refund.
Actually, the right thing to do would be to apply an automatic credit. But every customer who forgets to do it is $20 in found money for Google. That’s how they’re viewing it. Don’t let it happen.
GO GET YOUR MONEY. NOW.
I just did it. It’s easy. But they’re counting on people not doing it.
And both sides to this lingering dispute can now officially go straight to hell.
