FUD? I don't work for the competition. In fact I am pretty dependent on Google services, and this is a source of anxiety for me. This is real concern for me. You, on the other hand, sound real defensive and like you kinda might work for Google or someone making Chromebooks.

I posted the two links I posted because I couldn't find the really dramatic ones I had seen before, and didn't feel like spending time searching for them. They're out there. But my point stands. If your Google account is blocked, it's YOUR problem. There is nobody to phone, and nobody who cares. You're not a Google customer, just an eyeball. There are account recovery options, which may or may not work. Nobody cares.

You could still use your Chromebook as a web browser, but all the nicely integrated Google services you depend on won't work, or if you use a new account, won't have your data. Your data's missing. Again, nobody is responsible.

And the Chromebook customer support centre will tell you that your Chromebook works fine, and you're welcome to open a new account. Google takes no responsibility for your missing data. Check your TOS.

And you sound like someone who's never had an accidental TOS violation or a false-positive security lockout. I have. It's mildly annoying if it happens with your bank or with Facebook. With Google if you 'live in the cloud', it could be devastating. As that first link shows. Your faith in Google only blocking your account if someone's hacked it is charming but seems overly trusting to me. What if they're wrong? What if they're right but you still need that data?

Google is a wonderful company, and their products are useful and seductive and beautifully interlinked. But they're free to use and you're not the customer. And every day a certain number of people have their Google account blocked, for one reason or another, and find that there's no recourse to Google to fix that. In fact, there's no customer service department at all.

Examples on the internet of this are easy to find:
http://www.searchenginejournal.com/open-letter-to-google-why-have-you-taken-away-my-google-gmail-accounts/7873/
http://classicsynth.hubpages.com/hub/How-to-Get-Disabled-Google-Account-Back

Now imagine that this happens to you, and your laptop has just become a paperweight. And this time, you've paid for it. Hmmm.

I also love how the open letter keeps referring to the company being in the middle of a traumatic transition, whereas the corpo-shareholder-spin reply keeps assuring us that they're at the 'end' of this transition. R-i-i-i-g-h-t.

Author of anonymous letter:
"You have many smart employees, many that have great ideas for the future, but unfortunately the culture at RIM does not allow us to speak openly without having to worry about the career-limiting effects."

Anonymous RIM corporate-speak response:
"It is obviously difficult to address anonymous commentary and it is particularly difficult to believe that a “high level employee” in good standing with the company would choose to anonymously publish a letter on the web rather than engage their fellow executives in a constructive manner"

I'd hate to be a smart productive person at RIM right now with this kind of bullshit attitude going on. Obviously the points the employee makes are dead-on. There's too much deadwood, not enough vision, and a misplaced loyalty culture: people who speak up are in danger of losing their jobs, whereas high-level managers who make crap software just keep on making more of it.

Cheap iPad now has free mobile connectivity wherever I go within cell range.
None of this cost anything.
Phone can stay in my pocket while it's being the Wifi router.
More reliable than most coffeehouse Wifi
1 GB per month is likely more than enough.