I tried the gmail password retrieval system repeatedly, but could not get it to recognize me even though I had an archive of much of my email, so I thought I could be confident in answering questions about who I emailed and such.
So, I switched to a new email account. Luckily, I had a tablet that (to this day) is still logged into my lost gmail account, so I can tell that nobody I care about is still sending to the old address.
All in all, the consequences weren't that bad, although among them were the loss of my ability to have my straightforward [email protected] address...unfortunately using just my first initial and last name is not unique.
The concept of being able to reach a human being at Google is tantalizing but the fact is, I have such resentment and bile built up for the way things were designed that I'm not sure I want to reach out. And it doesn't matter a great deal anyway. I suspect in the long run it's lucky I learned not to trust them too much.
According to the cable company, the account does not exist. Somehow between the multiple mergers, it keeps getting migrated but is orphaned from their identity system.
(Although note that if you do this via Gmail it will leak your sending email address in the headers.)
Also, I think you might be able to retrieve the rest of your emails too. You might not have IMAP access, but at worst, you can write Google Scripts and have then upload your emails to another account. It will be rather slow but you should be able to copy all your emails this way. I don't think it should prompt you for a password when giving permission but I'm not sure; again, test this on your new account before trying. Make sure to wait like half an hour to make sure any internal password prompt timers expire.
At work I can almost every day hear someone yelling at his health insurance company because something has been f...ed up. Once they start hiding even more behind automation how can you resolve anything?
Turns out he uses the spam button in his email client as a temporary deletion / archive for emails he wants to read later...
TLDR; Many users create their own issues by just not giving af. It reminds me of antibacterial hand wash.
Senders who bought, stole, or brute-forced your email address are a different story. For them it's just a numbers game. They are, by definition, spammers and should be treated as such.
There is a final group of senders who you did once interact with but who show these behaviors:
1. They are too incompetent to keep the unsubscribe server running;
2. They broke the the mail template so it doesn't point to a valid URL;
3. They fail to control subscription preferences within their own company so that the marketing department keeps using the same old list even though months of unsubscription requests have accrued since then;
4. (My pet peeve) They take you to a blank form that asks for personally identifying information in order to unsubscribe, rather than embedding an identifying token in the email's unsubscribe link. Out of principle, I will not enter PII into any form on the other side of an email link, even if it comes from someone in my family. It's too easy to fall victim to phishing, and I resent any sender that puts me in that situation. If a business asks for any PII to unsubscribe, I close the tab and mark the email as spam.
Any of those get marked as spam. Their intent was not to spam me, but I can't do business with incompetent senders.
In general I try to hit unsubscribe if I know I've had business with the company. But if they are clearly just trying to sell more, it goes to spam.
And no I don't have any "techbro" friends who work for Google.
Lessons:
Do not use Google unless you are OK with losing your account if they one day decide to hold your identity and data hostage.
Even if you PAY Google ("Google Apps" or whatever the fuck they are calling it these days), you are still at risk.
Set up mail forwarding in Gmail and migrate to a service not run by an advertising monopolist.
And save the backup codes! Multiple physical copies.
If you use TOR you should be taking your operational security serious. Passwords are useless.
The same is happening with Amazon right now; sellers getting kicked out by default and there is no way to get hold of a real person, just talking to some machine learning bot. Real people simple don't matter anymore.
Like me...
Luckily I'm still logged into gmail on the iPhone so there's a (slim) chance I might be able to get back in on the laptop.
--edit--
Maybe last time was a fluke but I managed to get signed in, weird.
Sorry to doubt you google.
Use them. They are lovely. 1-800-BUILD-A-BEAR lovely.
They also happen to love to smash into faces of smug dumb entities. Like Google. Or Apple. Most often because they have their own horse to ride. But who cares. Just. Use. Them.
Sadly in all these stories that end successfully there is an inside help from someone that has contacts in Google. I don't even want to think about what would happen to people that don't know anyone inside Google.