G Suite Technical Support Services Guidelines

The following technical support services guidelines ("Guidelines") apply to support services for your use of "G Suite Services", except for the services and editions noted below that are excluded from coverage. Capitalized terms not defined herein have the meaning set forth in the agreement that governs your use of G Suite Services ("Agreement"). For clarity, Google will have no obligation under the Agreement (or these Guidelines) to provide support for any of the services set forth at the following URL: https://www.google.com/support/a/bin/answer.py?hl=en&answer=181865

Chrome Sync Services in G Suite for Education are not covered by the Guidelines.

  1. Support Request Submission

    1. General. Customer may submit Requests online, or through the Google Help Center or support portal.
    2. Customer Efforts to Fix Errors. Prior to making a Request to Google, Customer will use reasonable efforts to resolve issues, to fix any error, bug, malfunction or network connectivity defect without escalation to Google. Thereafter, a Customer Contact may submit a written request for technical support through the Google Help Center or support portal, or online.
    3. Characterization of Requests. Customers designate priority upon submission of Requests. Upon receiving a request from a Customer Contact, Google will determine whether the request is a "Service Unusable," "Standard Request" or a "Feature Request" (as defined in Section 7). Any such determination made by Google is final and binding on Customer. Google reserves the right to change Customer's Priority designation if Google believes that Customer's designation is incorrect and will inform Customer of any such change in its response to the support Request. Customer may appeal any such reclassification to Google's Support management for review through any available support channel.
    4. Procedures for Acknowledgement and Resolution of Requests. When making a Request, Customer will provide requested diagnostic information including but not limited to: (i) describing the problem, the configuration, and Customer's network; (ii) providing relevant data; and (iii) communicating further online to answer questions and assist Google Support Personnel as appropriate.
    5. Request Acknowledgement. Google may respond to a Request by acknowledging receipt of the Request. Customer acknowledges and understands that Google may be unable to provide answers to, or resolve all, Requests.
    6. Feature Requests. If Google deems a Request as a Feature Request, Google will log such Request for consideration to add to a future update or release of the Services and will consider the matter closed. Google is under no obligation to respond to or resolve any Feature Request or to include any such Feature Request in any future update or release.

  2. Accessing Support

    1. Google Help Center. Customer's End Users of the G Suite Services are provided support solely through the Google Help Center, which is accessible at https://support.google.com/a/ or such URL as Google may provide. Customer is responsible for responding to any questions and complaints by End Users or other third parties relating to Customer's or its End Users' use of the Services, with such support services to be provided at Customer's own expense.
    2. Support Hours and Target Initial Response Times. Google will provide access to Google Help Center support for customers on a 24 x 7 basis. Online submitted P1 Priority support Requests are responded to with a target initial response time of one hour and are responded to 24 x 7. Online submitted P2, P3, and P4 Priority support Requests are responded to with an initial target response time of 1 business day or less. All Priority support Requests received online will be responded to directly by Google Support Personnel as further stated at: https://support.google.com/a/table/3247295. Google Support Personnel will be available to provide support online.
    3. Customer PIN may be Required to Access Support. Customer is required to provide a current Customer PIN when making a Request. Customer will obtain such Customer PIN in the Admin Console in order to access and receive support for the Services from Google. If Customer is unable to provide the current Customer PIN when prompted, Customer will only be able to access the Google Help Center and post a question to its online help forum, until such time as the Customer PIN is restored. The Customer PIN may be updated periodically and is only available in the Admin Console.

  3. Chrome Support

    1. Availability of Support. In addition to Requests related to the G Suite Services, Google will also respond to Requests related to Chrome as set forth in these Guidelines. Such Requests will be responded to in English language only.
    2. Supported Issue Types. Requests related to Chrome installation, Chrome Core Functionality, Chrome’s security, administrative policies, and Chrome’s interoperability with G Suite Services on Supported Platforms are responded to by Google Support Personnel as set forth in these Guidelines. Google may choose not to respond to Requests for other Chrome related technical issues, such as but not limited to, rendering problems for specific web pages, technical issues related to the underlying operating system, device driver or printer problems. If Google makes a code change to resolve a technical issue, the code change is released in an upcoming release and will not be ported back to an earlier version of Chrome.

  4. Standard Support

    All Customers will receive Standard Support which includes the following:

    • Automatic product upgrades of the Services
    • Maintenance updates of the Services
    • Online self help and training for End Users and Administrators designed to assist Customers with implementation and use of the Services
    • Access to support online, or via Google Help Center or support portal.
    • Status Dashboard and support portal providing real-time publicly available status information for the Services

  5. Premium Support

    Customers may purchase Premium Support by executing an Order Form. Premium Support includes all the offerings under Standard Support. In addition:

    1. Premium Support includes unlimited Customer Contacts.
    2. The following support case response Times apply to Premium Support:
      • Google will respond to P1 Requests with a target initial response time of fifteen minutes 24 x 7
      • Google will respond to P2 Requests with a target initial response time of 2 hours 24 x 7
      • Google will respond to P3 Requests with an initial target response time of 4 hours 24 x 7
      • Google will respond to P4 Requests with an initial target response time of 8 hours during the Hours of Operation.
    3. Google may, at its discretion and upon approval from Customer, send Google Support Personnel on-site in response to an issue that cannot be resolved remotely. Google Support Personnel performing support at Customer's facilities will comply with Customer's reasonable onsite policies and procedures made known to Google in writing in advance.
    4. Notwithstanding section 6.2 below, Premium Support will be provided in English language (24x7) and Japanese language (8x5) during Business Hours.
    5. Premium Support requires a minimum 1- year Fee commitment. When Customer enrolls in Premium Support, any applicable Fees will be pro-rated in that month and then continue to apply during each month in the 1-year commitment period.
    6. As part of the Premium Support offering, Customer will receive access to a named Technical Account Manager for 1 day per week to: (a) assist with Customer in developing a strategy with respect to the Services, (b) provide best practice advice regarding implementation and use of the Services, and (c) manage technical support escalations and coordinate with Google subject matter experts to address technical inquiries related to the Services. Additional access to Technical Account Management may be purchased, subject to additional fees and terms. Please contact your account team for pricing details.

  6. General Provisions

    1. Maintenance. To ensure optimal performance of the Services, Google performs periodic Maintenance. In most cases, Maintenance will have limited or no negative impact on the availability and functionality of the Services. If Google expects planned Maintenance to negatively affect the availability or functionality of the Services, Google will use commercially reasonable efforts to provide at least seven days advance notice of the Maintenance. In addition, Google may perform emergency unscheduled Maintenance at any time. If Google expects such emergency unscheduled Maintenance to negatively affect the availability or functionality of the Services, Google will use commercially reasonable efforts to provide advance notice of such Maintenance. Maintenance notices noted above will be provided via the G Suite Dashboard, Admin Console and/or support portal. In addition, Customers who subscribe may also be able to receive email and/or RSS Feed notifications of Maintenance.
    2. Language. All support provided by Google Support Personnel pursuant to these Guidelines will be provided in English language, or in one of the many additional languages during listed hours documented in these Guidelines or at https://support.google.com/a/table/3247295 or such other URL as Google may provide. Target Initial Response Times for language support other than English are applicable during the hours listed here: https://support.google.com/a/table/3247295. Support outside of these hours can be obtained via English support channels.
    3. Term of Support. Google will only provide the support services described in these Guidelines during the term of the Agreement and will have no obligation to provide any support services to Customer after the expiration or termination of such Agreement.
    4. Support Data Processing Activities. Google collects and processes Support Data for the purpose of providing the support services described in these Guidelines and maintaining the Services.

  7. Glossary of Definitions

    For the purpose of these Guidelines, the capitalized terms below will have the following meanings:

    1. "Business Hours" Business Hours in Japan means 09:00 to 17:00 on Monday to Friday Japan Standard Time.
    2. "Chrome" means the Chrome web browser as released by Google for Supported Platforms and available for download at the URL http://www.google.com/chrome/ or the MSI installer provided at the URL https://www.google.com/chrome/business/ or at another URL that Google may provide.
    3. "Chrome Core Functionality" means the features and functionality in the latest released Chrome browser version, excluding Google Chrome extensions, Google Play, and Google Cloud Print.
    4. "Customer Contacts" means Administrators designated in the Admin Console.
    5. "Feature Request" means a Request by a Customer Contact to incorporate a new feature or enhance an existing feature of the Services that is currently not available as part of the existing Services.
    6. "Google Support Personnel" means the Google representatives responsible for handling technical support requests.
    7. "Hours of Operation" means 17:00 on Sunday to 17:00 on Friday Pacific Time Zone, except for holidays in local time for each region documented in the Admin Console.
    8. "Maintenance" means maintenance work that is performed on hardware or software delivering the Services.
    9. "Priority" means the level of impact a Request is having on Customer's operations and is used to establish target response times. Definitions of available priority levels can be found on our help center: https://support.google.com/a/answer/1047213
    10. "Request" means a request from Customer to Google Support Personnel for technical support to resolve a question or problem report regarding the Services.
    11. "Service Unusable" means a production issue that prevents more than one of the Customer’s End Users from access to, or use of, the Services, or where Customer's network is not receiving any inbound email (and/or outbound email) from the Services. Customer must identify a Request as Service Unusable by designating it as a P1 Priority support Request.
    12. "Standard Request" means a Request made by Customer to Google that is not a Service Unusable Request or Feature Request.
    13. "Support Data" means account details and the information that Customer provides to Google for the purpose of obtaining the support services described in these Guidelines, including requests for support and the details provided to Google about the specific support issue.
    14. "Supported Platform" as listed at https://support.google.com/a/bin/answer.py?answer=2763059 means an operating system and version for which i) Chrome is released by Google and ii) support under these Guidelines is provided. Google may choose not to respond to issues with preview versions of Chrome (also known as beta, dev, and canary) or preview features. Chrome OS is not a Supported Platform under these Guidelines; dedicated Google technical support and hardware service for Chrome OS is available under a separate agreement. For clarity, Chrome Frame is a separate product not covered under these Guidelines.