Google Maps Platform Technical Support Services Guidelines

Introduction 

Google will make available technical support services for Customer's Google Maps APIs Products and Services ("Products and Services") as provided in this Technical Support Service Guideline ("TSSG") and Customer's applicable agreement. This TSSG supplements the Google Maps Products and Services terms and conditions as entered into between Google and Customer (the "Agreement").

1. Covered Products and Services 

Except as otherwise provided below, Google will, upon Customer's payment of all applicable fees, provide technical support services for the Products and Services identified in Section 2. Please note that not all technical support services are available for all Products and Services.

2. Technical Support Service Request Submission 

A. Support Levels. Google will provide Customer either Silver Support or Gold Support, as indicated in the applicable ordering document. If the ordering document does not identify a specific Support Level, then Google will provide Silver Support, as described here:

1. Please see Section 5 for details regarding Silver Support.

2. Please see Target Initial Response Times below and contact Google for more information. Gold Support is available for purchase at an additional charge. Please see Section 6 for details regarding Gold Support.

B. Customer Efforts to Fix Issues. Prior to making a Request, Customer will use reasonable efforts to resolve any error, bug, malfunction or network connectivity defect without escalation to Google. Thereafter, a Customer Contact may submit a written request for technical support services through the GWS Site or, if authorized, make a request by phone.

C. Characterization of Requests. Customers determine issue Priority upon Request submission. Upon receiving a Request from a Customer Contact, Google will confirm whether the Request is a "Service Unusable," "Standard Request" or a "Feature Request". 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. Customer may appeal any such reclassification to Google's technical support service personnel as provided in the GWS Site.

D. Procedures for Acknowledgement and Request Resolution. When making a Request, Customer will provide requested diagnostic information including, but not limited to:

Customer's product domain name or names, or other Google product identifiers such as API keys and Client ID strings;

Customer's software version, serial, and/or order numbers, when available;

Customer's machine, network, and/or hardware specifications and configuration, when relevant;

Description of the issue, including any error messages and

Description of Customer's efforts to resolve the issue (see Section B above) prior to contacting Google.

Customer Contact commits to further communication via email or telephone to answer questions and assist Google support personnel as needed. If Customer does not provide timely communication the Request will be considered resolved.

E. Feature Requests. If Google deems a Request to be a Feature Request, Google will log such Request for consideration and will consider the Request resolved. Google is under no obligation to respond to or enact any Feature Request or to include any such Feature Request in any future update or release.

F. Custom Implementations and Errors in Data. Google reserves the sole right to determine whether to respond to Requests regarding: (i) general or custom implementations that do not adhere to the documented and supported Product and Service configurations; (ii) underlying errors in data; and (iii) cases where user account data or address locations are incorrect or missing.

G. Request Acknowledgement. Google may respond to a Request by acknowledging the Request's receipt. Customer agrees that Google may be unable to provide answers to, or resolve, all Requests.

H. Supported Product Version. Unless otherwise specified in writing by Google, (i) Google will support the current and one immediately previous official version of the Products and Services, and (ii) Google will only support the most recent official version of these products for Android and other mobile software. Where applicable, Customer's hardware must meet all system requirements for the Product and Services as documented.

3. Accessing Technical Support Services 

A. Support Site. Customer must contact Google via the GWS Site, or via the phone contact information published in the GWS Site, to receive Silver Support or Gold Support. Requests submitted via personal email, posts to forums, "Send Feedback" forms, product-specific Help Centers, or other channels may not be responded to and are not covered by this TSSG. For more information on contacting Support, visit https://developers.google.com/maps/support/contact-support.

B. Phone. For products which offer phone support, Customer must be able to access the GWS Site to retrieve phone contact information and, where applicable, Customer PINs.

C. Designated Customer Contacts. Customer Contacts will provide first-level support to internal Customer end users. Google will provide second-level technical support services to Customer Contacts only. Customer may edit the Customer Contact information in the GWS Site, where possible. If Customer is not able to use the GWS Site for this purpose, Customer will notify Google of changes via a Request. All Customer Contact changes must be made at least five Business Days before the change becomes effective.

D. Support Hours. Google will process Requests during the Hours of Operation, unless otherwise indicated here. Any Requests received outside of the Hours of Operation will be logged and processed at the beginning of the next Business Day.

E. Target Initial Response Times. Google will make commercially reasonable efforts to respond to Requests as determined by Service Level:

3. Requests submitted via phone will be dispatched by our call centers and responded via email or an outbound phone call.

Notes: Response times shown in Business Hours/Days, which fall within the Hours of Operation.

4. General Provisions 

A. Violation of Acceptable Use Policy (AUP). Technical support services are not provided to Customers that violate the AUP. Unless otherwise indicated by Google in writing, the AUP governing Product and Services use and support is located at https://cloud.google.com/maps-platform/terms/other/universal-aup/.

B. TSSG Updates. Google may update this TSSG from time to time upon notice to Customer.

C. Maintenance. If Google expects planned Maintenance to negatively affect Product and Services availability or functionality, Google will use commercially reasonable efforts to provide advanced 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 technical support services availability or functionality, Google will use commercially reasonable efforts to provide advance notice of such Maintenance. Maintenance notices will be provided via the GWS Site. In addition, Customers who subscribe may also be able to receive email and/or RSS Feed notifications of Maintenance.

D. Language. The parties agree that all technical support services provided by Google to Customer pursuant to this TSSG will be provided in the English language.

E. Term of Support. Google will only provide the technical support services described in this TSSG during the term of the Agreement and will have no obligation to provide any technical support services to Customer after the Agreement's expiration or termination.

5. Silver Support 

All Customers that pay for technical support services will receive Silver Support, which includes the following:

Access to technical support services through the GWS Site and Google Help Centers.

Silver Support Response Times indicated in Section 2 above.

Maintenance updates of the Products and Services.

6. Gold Support (Fees apply) 

Gold Support includes all of the items set forth in Section 5 above as well as the following:

24 hour by 7 days per week (24x7) pager response to Service Unusable Requests that affect a live, production application serving results to Customer end users.

Gold Support Response Times indicated in Section 3(E) above.

7. Defined Terms 

For the purpose of this TSSG, the capitalized terms below will have the following meanings:

"Business Day" means any day other than Saturday, Sunday or regional holidays as documented in the GWS Site.

"Business Hour" means a time period of one hour within the Hours of Operation.

"Customer Contacts" means one or two administrators or technical employees designated by Customer in writing who are allowed to contact Google for technical support services.

"Feature Request" means a Request to incorporate a new feature or enhance an existing feature of the Products and Services that is currently not available.

"GWS Site" means the Google Cloud Support site, currently located at https://www.google.com/work/portal (or such other URL that may be provided by Google).

"Gold Support" is defined above in Section 6.

"Hours of Operation" means either:

a. for Customers located in Europe, Middle East and Africa, 9:00 - 17:00 GMT (Greenwich Mean Time) on Business Days;

b. for Customers located in Japan, Australia, New Zealand, and Southern/Eastern Asia, 9:00 to 17:00 JST (Japan Standard Time) on Business Days; or

c. for Customers located in all other countries or regions, 9:00 to 17:00 Pacific Time on Business Days.

Hours of Operation are subject to change as provided in this TSSG.

"Maintenance" means maintenance work that is performed on hardware, software or other technical infrastructure delivering the Products and Services.

"Priority" means the level of impact a Request is having on Customer's operations and is used to establish target response times. Priority level definitions are documented here: https://support.google.com/googlecloud/answer/184028.

"Request" means a request from a Customer Contact to Google technical support service personnel for technical support services to address a question or problem regarding the Products and Services.

"Service Unusable" is any situation where Customer, adhering to published technical guidelines for and documented correct usage of the Products and Services, is unable to access or use the Products and Services for the majority of its end users for a period of time greater than fifteen (15) minutes. Customer must identify a Request as Service Unusable as provided in the Priority chart.

"Standard Request" means a Request made by Customer to Google that is not a Service Unusable Request or Feature Request.

"Silver Support" is defined above in Section 5.

"Support Level" is a set of characteristics regarding the technical support service that will be provided to Customer (i.e. available contact methods for Requests; target initial response times).