[simon_weber]

Haha, this is so ridiculous and completely on-brand for Google at this point. I've run a Google Music extension for a few years now and would have absolutely no migration path since I don't have a backend -- but it doesn't matter since they're shutting down Google Music anyway!

A related fun fact: accounting data exports for extensions have been broken for me (and I think all extension merchants?) since April 2018. I had to get the NY attorney general to write them a letter before they would actually respond to my support requests so that I could properly file my taxes: https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=20588493. I'm sure that will be fun this year!

[defen]

How does one get the attorney general to write a letter like this?

[cosmie]

Depends on the state, but look for verbiage related to lodging a consumer complaint. Here's[1] the one for my state.

The AG office isn't necessarily writing a personalized letter, but rather forwarding your complaint and maintaining visibility into the correspondence until it's resolved.

In this case, a complaint such as "Google operates a marketplace for web browser extensions. I generate revenue through this marketplace, and have been unable to obtain the transaction records for sales made through Google's marketplace that are necessary to comply with my NY State tax obligations. Please see attached for correspondence records of my unsuccessful attempts to resolve this situation to date."

AG's office forwards that to Google's legal team, asks for a response. Technically the AG's office doesn't care how the situation gets resolved, and they're just acting to facilitate the complaint and not as your personal lawyer. But in this situation a resolution/response of "oh yea, no we can't give you those our export button is broke" _would_ be of interest to the AGs office, since it potentially means there are many NY state residents unable to comply with their tax obligations and it becomes an actual issue on their radar to look into. So instead their legal team will track down whoever the hell is responsible/capable of providing those records, hand them over with a smile, get the matter closed with the AG's office, and give you a direct point of contact for the future, so Big Brother AG doesn't have to get involved (or see) future correspondence on the matter.

Actual responses will vary depending on the complaint. But issues that are likely to impact more than just you are likely to be taken the most seriously by the company receiving the complaint, since those are the ones that could be issues the AG decides to look into "on behalf of the State" and can lead to enforcement actions/fines/etc.

[1] https://www.tn.gov/attorneygeneral/working-for-tennessee/fil...

[simon_weber]

On a recommendation from a friend I filed a complaint online at https://ag.ny.gov/internet/online-forms. I wrote up the situation and attached a pdf copy of the support interaction I'd had with Google.

It wasn't quick, but it did seem to work. Here's the timeline:

- May 2018: I contact Google about being unable to export my accounting data from last month

- November 2018: after nothing but "thank you for your patience" emails, I complain to the AG

- early February 2019: I get a letter in the mail from the AG saying they'd forwarded the complaint to Google

- late February 2019: Google finally gives me my data [edit: I'd had April originally, but that was a separate request].