Google is So Rude

This is the first time that Google has thoroughly embarrassed me. I wanted to invite a cousin to use gmail. Sent him an invitation and got the strangest result; sent another invitation, saying "Here's a shiny new chance to use email" and got this back from him

Thanks for the re-invitation to Gmail. No, I had never before received an
invitation. Unfortunately, this time it met with the same result: "The link
you followed to create a Gmail account has already been used to create an
account. Now, its account creating powers are all gone. To create another
Gmail account, you'll need a shiny new account creation link. We apologize
for the inconvenience." Soooo....let's drop it for the time being.

The link referred to is within the body of the Google-generated email that the cousin receives. Is this happening to more people out there?