Google Checkout/Wallet Migration Nightmare

Some time ago Google began this forced migration process of regular Google Accounts into Google Apps accounts – for those that had overlap. For these users data from multiple services had to be migrated or merged. We wrote about it twice: accounts transition and blogger migration. The migration for Checkout has been terrible!

Checkout Migration Issues

Even after months of being told that migration would soon be possible it still has not become so. Our checkout data is now scattered across three accounts. It’s a terrible inconvenience to the business. The resolution is drop the other two, of course but for us that is kind of an issue.

Our merchant id and the codes used for integrating our infrastructure into Google Checkout/Seller/Wallet/Whatever-next was in production across multiple servers and multiple applications, some more tied into the management systems than others. Basically, we have to ack/grep a bundle of code/configs for the two IDs that were created in the interim to try and solve the migration/transition issue – and re-test all of it.

We had these three accounts, accountA, B and C; A was the original Google Account that became conflicted with a Google Apps Account (C); B is the interim account that was a temporary holding while migrating. Each had to be bank verified while migrating and then cleaned-up. Checking code on multiple applications across multiple servers takes time – more than you want to spend and of course interrupts existing work-flow.

  1. Sign-In to AccountA

    • Check Google Dashboard – false positives for subscribed services

        • Confirm Checkout Settings (9 pages – Preferences, Tax and Integration are important!)

          • Archive Orders and Financial Data
          • Search Apps/Servers, Replace IDs
          • Test – Google lets the same account buy from themselves?
          • Wait to Process to re-verify for Badge Status

Questions for Google

  1. Why did you force migration before all services could be migrated?
  2. Why has there been no progress on the Checkout/Seller/Wallet migration since?
  3. Do you know it’s not cool to mess around wildly with financial systems that many businesses depend on?
  4. Why can’t we simply re-assign the Owner role? It’s stuck to the ‘@gtempaccount.com’ still (even after creating the migration account like you directed)!

    Alternative Solution Path

So, that was quite an inconvenience for us and a few of our clients as well – other payment processors haven’t done anything that stupid to date (that I’m aware of). Evaluating a few we’ve decided that stripe is the way forward. Their system is elegant, secure and very easy to integrate. Since they’re dedicated to just one thing it’s less likely they’ll force you into a lot of work when they mis-manage an infrastructure "integration" project.

See Also