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Google Reviews & Complaints

Google LLC, a Delaware company headquartered in Mountain View, California, and a subsidiary of Alphabet Inc., provides Search, Gmail, Maps, Google Play, Google Ads and many other services to U.S. users. Below: Google's own routes for account recovery, Play refunds, unrecognized charges and Ads appeals; BBB and Trustpilot figures; two FTC privacy settlements from 2011 and 2012; the Justice Department's search and ad-technology antitrust cases; and the $700 million state Google Play settlement. Complaints and lawsuits are allegations unless a court or regulator states a finding.

REVIEWS & COMPLAINTS103on USAComplaints · none in last 3 yrs · latest 2020
WEBSITEgoogle.com
HEADQUARTERSMountain View, CA
PROFILE CHECKED2026-11-02
Submit a Complaint Read reviews & complaints ↓ Official website ↗

Contacts

Customer service & general contact

Cancel, billing & returns

Account & login

Corporate & press

VERIFIED

Locations

  • Headquarters1600 Amphitheatre Pkwy Mountain View CA 94043
EDITORIAL

Google: how to get help, refunds and appeals

"Google" covers many products, and each has its own help route. These are the routes Google publishes for the most common problems.

  • Locked out of a Google Account or Gmail, or hacked. Follow the recovery steps at support.google.com/accounts/answer/7682439, which cover forgotten passwords and usernames, hacked accounts and recently deleted accounts. Google says changes to recovery info can take up to 7 days to take effect, that you cannot call Google for help signing in, and that it does not work with any service that claims to provide account or password support. Never give out your password or verification codes.
  • Google Play refunds. Google's refund policy (support.google.com/googleplay/answer/15574908) says Google does not give refunds for most Google Play purchases, with exceptions. Within 48 hours of buying an app, game or in-app item you may be able to get a refund depending on the details of the purchase; after 48 hours, contact the developer, who can process refunds under its own policies. An app or game can be returned for a refund only once. To ask: go to play.google.com, click your profile picture, then Payments & subscriptions, Budget & order history, find the order and click Report a problem, choose the option that fits, note that you would like a refund and submit. Google asks you to allow 1 to 4 days for a decision; repeat requests do not speed it up.
  • A Google charge you do not recognize. Google's help article on unrecognized Google Play charges (support.google.com/googleplay/answer/2851610) says Google Play purchases appear on statements as "GOOGLE*App developer name", "GOOGLE*App name" or "GOOGLE*Content type" (for example GOOGLE*Books). Google says a charge in another format did not come from Google Play and that you should contact your card or payment provider's fraud department right away. First check whether a family member or friend with access to your card or account made the purchase; that may still qualify for a refund. For a charge you believe is fraudulent, Google can act on credit card, debit card and PayPal transactions only within 120 days of the transaction: file its unauthorized-charge form, one claim per payment method, and expect an email update typically within 7 business days. After 120 days, go to your card company or PayPal.
  • Google Ads: disapproved ad or suspended account. According to Google's Advertising Policies Help, you can fix a disapproved ad or appeal the decision, and you can appeal an account suspension, while signed in to your Google Ads account. Policy questions go to Google Ads Support.

If Google does not resolve it. For a credit card charge, send your card issuer a written billing-error dispute within 60 days after the first statement showing the charge was sent to you; the Fair Credit Billing Act protects disputes made in that window. For a debit card, the Electronic Fund Transfer Act and Regulation E apply: if your card was lost or stolen and you tell your bank within 2 business days of learning of it, your liability is capped at $50; and you should report an unauthorized transfer within 60 days after your bank sends the statement that first shows it, or you risk liability for later transfers. You can also file a complaint with the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau (consumerfinance.gov/complaint) about a card issuer's or bank's handling of the dispute, report fraud that uses Google's name to the FTC at ReportFraud.ftc.gov, and contact your state attorney general or BBB.

EDITORIAL

Company Information

Legal name
Google LLC
Founded
1998
Business type
Internet search, advertising, email, maps, mobile software and cloud services company headquartered in Mountain View, California; Google LLC is the U.S. contracting entity named in the Google Terms of Service
Website
google.comSource: Google Terms of Service, U.S. version, checked 2026-11-02
Headquarters
Mountain View, CASource: Google Terms of Service, U.S. version, and BBB profile, checked 2026-11-02
Owned by
Alphabet Inc.Source: Alphabet Inc. Form 10-K for fiscal 2025, Exhibit 21.01, checked 2026-11-02

Google's U.S. Terms of Service name Google LLC, 1600 Amphitheatre Parkway, Mountain View, California, as the business you contract with, BBB lists the same headquarters address, and Alphabet Inc. reports Google LLC as a subsidiary in its SEC filings. Being an identifiable, registered company does not settle any individual dispute. Be careful with anything that only uses the Google name: many posts on this site describe work-at-home kits, prize emails and escrow offers from unrelated sellers. Google's account help also warns that you cannot call Google for help signing in and that Google does not work with services that offer account or password recovery, so a caller or website selling Google account recovery is not acting for Google.

EXTERNAL SOURCE

Independent Sources

Shown for context — not merged with USAComplaints' own numbers.

BBBComplaints in the last 3 years
649 reviews · 10,056 complaints · BBB business grade A+ · average customer rating 1.21 / 5
TrustpilotTrustScore and total reviews, unclaimed profile
10,489 reviews · TrustScore 2.3 / 5
CONSUMER ALLEGATION

Reviews & Complaints on USAComplaints

USAComplaints currently maintains 103 historical complaints about Google, published between 2004 and 2020. No approved complaints have been published on this site during the last three years. For a current reputation snapshot, see the independent sources on this page.

Show 15 more on this page
EDITORIAL

Complaint Themes

Unauthorized or unrecognized chargesAdWords, AdSense and Google Ads billing or account actionsGoogle Maps directions and listingsPrivacy concernsCustomer service and support

Themes summarize what people write about most often. One complaint can touch several themes, and some complaints (a positive report, or one later retracted by its author) fit none, so themes are not a count of complaints.

Had an experience with Google? Tell other people what happened.

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EDITORIAL

Google complaint record: BBB, Trustpilot and this site

BBB. Google, LLC in Mountain View is not BBB accredited and has a BBB rating of A+. BBB shows 10,056 complaints in the last 3 years, 3,416 of them in the last 12 months, and a customer review average of 1.21 out of 5 from 649 reviews. BBB's letter rating and its customer review average are separate measures, which is why they can point in different directions.

Trustpilot. The Google profile on Trustpilot is unclaimed and shows a TrustScore of 2.3 from 10,489 reviews. Trustpilot notes that the company has not invited customers to leave reviews, so the reviews may not be representative.

Complaints on this site. 103 published complaint reports are linked to this profile. They concern AdWords, AdSense and Google Ads accounts, Maps listings, Gmail and Google Play; related reports were filed under card-statement descriptors that begin with "Google" and under product names such as YouTube, Orkut and Android. BBB, Trustpilot and this site count complaints separately, and the figures are not added together. Many older posts on this site use the Google name for work-at-home kits, escrow offers and prize emails sent by unrelated sellers; those are not about Google's own services and are not linked to this profile.

EDITORIAL

Google: FTC privacy orders and U.S. antitrust matters

FTC, 2011: Google Buzz. On March 30, 2011 the FTC announced that Google had agreed to settle charges that it used deceptive tactics and broke its own privacy promises when it launched the Buzz social network through Gmail in 2010. The order bars future privacy misrepresentations, requires a comprehensive privacy program, and requires independent third-party privacy audits every two years for 20 years. The FTC gave final approval to the settlement on October 24, 2011, after a public comment period. The FTC notes that a consent agreement is for settlement purposes only and is not an admission that the law was violated.

FTC, 2012: Safari tracking cookies. On August 9, 2012 the FTC announced that Google would pay a $22.5 million civil penalty, then the largest the agency had obtained for violating one of its orders, to settle charges that it told Safari users they were opted out of a DoubleClick tracking cookie while placing that cookie on their devices, in violation of the 2011 order. The Justice Department filed the complaint and proposed consent decree for the FTC in the U.S. District Court for the Northern District of California on August 8, 2012, and the court approved the settlement in November 2012. The decree is not an admission that the law was violated.

Justice Department, search. In the search case (D.D.C., No. 1:20-cv-03010), filed in October 2020, the court entered a Final Judgment on December 5, 2025. According to the Justice Department, it bars exclusive distribution contracts for Google Search, Chrome, Google Assistant and the Gemini app and requires Google to share certain search index and user-interaction data and to offer search syndication to qualified rivals. The judgment is on appeal, and briefing on the government's cross-appeal ran through October 2026.

Read the rest of this section

Justice Department, ad technology. In the ad technology case (E.D. Va., No. 1:23-cv-00108), the court ruled on April 17, 2025 that Google unlawfully monopolized the publisher ad server and ad exchange markets for open-web display advertising and unlawfully tied the two products, while rejecting the claim of a separate advertiser ad network market. On September 2, 2026 the court declined to order a sale of Google's AdX exchange or other structural remedies and ordered behavioral remedies instead, including Prebid integrations, publisher data export, limits on AdWords bidding and a monitor for six years. The parties filed a proposed final judgment on October 2, 2026; the final judgment has not yet been entered. Google has said it will appeal the part of the liability ruling it lost.

State attorneys general, Google Play. On May 1, 2026 the Illinois Attorney General announced that a federal court had said it will approve a $700 million settlement of the multistate lawsuit, brought in 2021, over Android app distribution and in-app payments on Google Play. Most of the money goes to people who bought something on the Google Play Store between August 2016 and September 2023; most will be paid automatically by PayPal or Venmo without a claim form, and people without either can file a claim. Details are on the official settlement website, googleplaystateagantitrustlitigation.com.

PUBLIC RECORD

Court & Public Records

United States and Plaintiff States v. Google LLC (search; antitrust, monopolization)

Judgment

U.S. District Court for the District of ColumbiaDocket 1:20-cv-03010Source ↗

Judgment entered

The Justice Department and eleven states sued Google on October 20, 2020. A Justice Department release of September 2, 2025 says the court (Judge Amit Mehta) barred Google from entering or keeping exclusive contracts for the distribution of Google Search, Chrome, Google Assistant and the Gemini app, ordered it to share certain search index and user-interaction data with qualified rivals, and ordered it to offer search and search text ads syndication. The court entered its Final Judgment on December 5, 2025; under Section VIII it takes effect 60 days after entry and expires six years after that date unless extended or ended early. The court appointed technical committee members in January and May 2026, and the Justice Department filed status reports on Google's compliance with the Final Judgment on May 4 and September 17, 2026. The judgment is on appeal: the DOJ case page lists the government's response brief and opening brief on cross-appeal (July 28, 2026) and its reply brief on cross-appeal (October 29, 2026), and no appellate ruling.

U.S. and Plaintiff States v. Google LLC (ad technology, filed 2023)

Filed

U.S. District Court for the Eastern District of VirginiaDocket 1:23-cv-00108Source ↗

Filed — no final outcome recorded

The Justice Department and a group of states sued Google on January 24, 2023. After a bench trial, Judge Leonie Brinkema's Memorandum Opinion of April 17, 2025 found that Google violated Sections 1 and 2 of the Sherman Act by monopolizing the open-web display publisher ad server and ad exchange markets and by unlawfully tying its publisher ad server (DFP) to its ad exchange (AdX); the court also found that the plaintiffs had not proven a separate market for advertiser ad networks. On September 2, 2026 the court issued its remedies opinion (unsealed on September 16, 2026) and an order declining the plaintiffs' structural remedies: a divestiture of AdX, open-sourcing of DFP's final auction logic, and a contingent divestiture. Instead, according to a Justice Department release of September 16, 2026, the court ordered behavioral relief: integrations between AdX, DFP and the open-source Prebid and competing publisher ad servers, data export for publishers, a ban on preferential AdWords bidding into AdX, and a monitor and technical committee for six years. On October 2, 2026 the parties filed a joint notice of their proposed final judgment; the court has not yet entered a final judgment. After the liability ruling, Google's vice president of regulatory affairs, Lee-Anne Mulholland, said the company had won half of the case and would appeal the other half.

EDITORIAL

Google: who operates it

For U.S. users, the Google Terms of Service (effective July 30, 2026) say that Google services are provided by, and you are contracting with, Google LLC, a company organized under the laws of Delaware, at 1600 Amphitheatre Parkway, Mountain View, California 94043. California law governs the terms, and disputes go exclusively to the federal or state courts of Santa Clara County, California. In the EU, consumer services are provided by Google subsidiaries such as Google Ireland Limited.

Google LLC is a subsidiary of Alphabet Inc.: Alphabet's Form 10-K for fiscal 2025 lists Google LLC (Delaware) in Exhibit 21.01, "Subsidiaries of the Registrant". The 2015 founders' letter on abc.xyz describes the reorganization in which Google became a wholly owned subsidiary of Alphabet and Alphabet Inc. replaced Google Inc. as the publicly traded company. BBB lists the business as Google, LLC, started September 4, 1998. The Gemini AI assistant has a separate profile on this site, so it is not covered here.

VERIFIED

Company Relationships

  • Owned byAlphabet Inc.
  • Affiliated withGoogle Gemini
CONSUMER ALLEGATION

Related Complaints

Names this company in a role other than the primary subject — not necessarily current or complete.

EDITORIAL

Frequently Asked Questions

How do I get a refund for a Google Play purchase?

Google says it does not give refunds for most Google Play purchases, but within 48 hours of a purchase you may be able to get one, depending on the details. Go to play.google.com, click your profile picture, then Payments & subscriptions, Budget & order history, click Report a problem next to the order, and submit the form saying you would like a refund; allow 1 to 4 days for a decision. After 48 hours, contact the app developer, who handles refunds under its own policy.

What can I do if I am locked out of my Google Account?

Use Google's recovery steps at support.google.com/accounts/answer/7682439; they cover forgotten passwords and usernames, hacked accounts and recently deleted accounts. If you just changed your recovery phone or email, Google says it can take up to 7 days to take effect, so try again a few days later. There is no phone line for sign-in help, and Google does not work with paid account-recovery services.

Why is there an unfamiliar Google charge on my card?

Google says charges for its products and services start with "Google" on a card statement, and that Google Play purchases appear as "GOOGLE*App developer name", "GOOGLE*App name" or "GOOGLE*Content type". A charge in any other format did not come from Google Play, so contact your card issuer's fraud department. If the format matches, check whether a family member or friend made the purchase, which may still qualify for a refund; otherwise report it to Google within 120 days of the transaction. After 120 days, go to your card company or PayPal, and for a credit card send a written dispute within 60 days of the statement.

Which company provides Google services to U.S. users?

U.S. users contract with Google LLC, a Delaware company at 1600 Amphitheatre Parkway, Mountain View, California 94043, and a subsidiary of Alphabet Inc. The U.S. Terms of Service, effective July 30, 2026, make California law govern and send disputes to the federal or state courts of Santa Clara County, California.

What do BBB and Trustpilot show for Google?

BBB lists Google, LLC as not accredited, with an A+ rating, 10,056 complaints in the last 3 years (3,416 in the last 12 months) and an average of 1.21 out of 5 from 649 customer reviews. Trustpilot shows a TrustScore of 2.3 from 10,489 reviews on an unclaimed profile. The two sources count differently, and their figures are not combined.

Has the FTC taken action against Google over privacy?

The FTC settled two privacy matters with Google. The 2011 Buzz order, announced March 30, 2011, requires a comprehensive privacy program and independent privacy audits every two years for 20 years. In August 2012 Google agreed to pay a $22.5 million civil penalty for charges that it tracked Safari users with a cookie in violation of that order; a federal court approved the settlement in November 2012. Neither settlement is an admission that the law was violated.

Why do some complaint posts use the Google name for work-at-home offers?

Many posts on this site, mostly from 2007 to 2012, describe home-business kits sold under names that borrow the Google brand, along with escrow offers and prize emails that used it. They are about the sellers behind those offers, not Google's own services, so they are not linked to this profile.

Where is the page for Gemini?

Gemini, Google's AI assistant, has its own profile on this site at /company/google-gemini/, so this page does not cover it.