71. The $114 Google Cloud refund
📣 Real-user report — shared publicly by a Muse user, not independently verified.
The job: Sid Saladi asked Muse to go through 12 months of Gmail receipts and list every recurring charge he might not be using. It surfaced a small Google Cloud charge — about $9.54 a month for a database he'd created one afternoon and never used — added the receipts up to $114.14, drafted the billing case and showed him the text before filing. Case filed at 2:55 p.m. Google said no at 6:56 p.m.: the database billed whether it was used or not, so the charges were valid, and they asked why he hadn't noticed the monthly statements. At 7:05 p.m. Muse explained the reply in plain words and drafted a follow-up that owned the mix-up, answered the statements question honestly, said the database had zero usage, and asked once for a courtesy refund. Sid said "send it." At 7:44 p.m. Google granted "a one-time courtesy billing adjustment" and approved the refund — 4 hours 49 minutes from filing to approval. His part: two approvals, one password, one six-digit code.
Go through my Gmail receipts for the last 12 months and list every recurring charge I might not be using, with vendor, frequency, and total. For the one I pick, check which exact product is billing before you draft anything, then draft the refund request and show me before you send it. If they say no, draft one polite follow-up asking for a one-time courtesy adjustment, and show me that too before sending. Check every morning for a reply and tell me only when they answer. If any step needs a two-factor code, stop and let me type it.
What Muse will do:
- Ask Muse to scan 12 months of Gmail receipts and list every recurring charge
- Pick the charge you don't use — and confirm which exact product is billing before anything is drafted
- Have it draft the billing case and show you the text before filing
- If the provider says no, have it draft one polite follow-up asking for a courtesy adjustment
- Approve each send yourself, and type any two-factor code yourself
- Delete the thing you're paying for — the refund doesn't stop the next charge
- Check your account to confirm the refund actually lands
Why it works: The money isn't the interesting part — it's the second email. Most refund chases die at the first "no" because writing the follow-up feels like more work than the money is worth. The agent doesn't get tired or embarrassed: it reads the refusal, answers the awkward question honestly, and asks once more, politely. That one extra round is what turned a valid "no" into $114.14 back.
Common failures:
- The $114.14 and the timeline are the author's report, not independently verified — his screenshot shows Google's approval wording, with name and project blurred.
- Muse's first draft named the wrong service (Firebase, not the Cloud SQL database) — verify which product is actually billing before anything is filed.
- Google granted a one-time courtesy adjustment, not a refund you're owed — the charges were valid, and the provider can say no and mean it.
- Muse can't read two-factor codes — its email connector filters them out by design, so you'll type the code yourself.
- The refund doesn't stop the billing — delete the idle database, and check storage and IP charges too, or next month bills again.
Prompt variations:
- Same playbook for a forgotten subscription or a free trial that quietly started billing
- Run it as a monthly check — new recurring charges only, so the list stays short
- After the refund, ask Muse to list the idle resources to delete so nothing keeps billing
Reported by Sid Saladi on Substack · Sep 2026
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