Help!!! I've spent hours trying to recover my Google account and apparently have, but fail on inputting my old password.

[elocs]

5. I have a 3 year old Lenovo Chromebook, use it for web surfing, online ordering, email.

I had just changed my password (nothing complex or long) and had written it down so I was confident I had it when I restarted my computer and was given the notice it was the wrong password, tried different variations (lowercase, upper case letters), still wrong.
Finally I was able to create a new password and recover my Google account. Then to get on again I was also asked for my old password which the reason I needed a new one is because I had the old one wrong.
This should not, not, not be this hard. I have 3 methods for Google to verify that it is my account, so why are they not good enough?