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Not that this is an excuse, but one reason Google's support doesn't drive people away is that it's not like the competition is doing any better: Microsoft and A
by Analemma_ 8y ago
Not that this is an excuse, but one reason Google's support doesn't drive people away is that it's not like the competition is doing any better: Microsoft and Apple also both have infamously useless support forums. Seeing "technet.microsoft.com" in the search results for a Windows problem is practically a guarantee that "you won't find the answer here", and Apple's forums are just full of pages of people pleading for, and not getting, an official response.
- annadane 8y agoBut I'd still prefer no response than an official response which is bullshit. And the lip service they pay to feedback is nauseating. You're not really listening to feedback. So many people despise Youtube layout changes and they insist they're listening to us... which... they're not. At all. That's just one example.
- derefr 8y ago> So many people despise Youtube layout changes IIRC about 20% of users profess their undying hatred for every layout change on every software product ever; and yet this fact does not impact churn at all. Thus, no matter how good the support is in general for a product, people complaining about layout changes will always be ignored. There are only disadvantages to listening to them (such as, if you keep the old layout around, requiring redundant front-end updates for new back-end features) and no advantages.
- annadane 8y agoOK, I suppose that's fair.
- josteink 8y ago> it's not like the competition is doing any better: Microsoft and Apple also both have infamously useless support forums But Microsoft has actual support. People you can call. Product-teams you can reach if your issue is of a technical nature. They’re fantastic. Google has none of those things.
- lithos 8y agoIf you spend enough on cloud services they do.
- existencebox 8y agoI realize your comment was probably tongue in cheek; but to give a deadpan answer/personal plug; My team (Azure Notebooks) utilizes github as a primary issue-reporting mechanism, and we publish our primary help email-list, both of which are triaged by Actual Devs, and the vast majority of our communication is via non-paying users. We're admittedly a smaller fish in this ocean, and large projects will have a harder time getting 1:1 touch (Naturally, and I can't fault them for having to be more proactive about protecting their time, and google may have tried to do a similar "Tradeoff calculation"), but I want to assure that at least from where I stand, we really try as a general statement to make ourselves accessible and accountable to our users. (Typical disclaimer, don't speak for the company, etc, etc)
- derefr 8y agoThey support their paid products. But does paying for GCP or GSuite get you an engineer who can solve your problem with e.g. Google News ranking, or AMP page rendering?
- jstarfish 8y agoMicrosoft is bad, but they're by far the best of the three. There's usually some (MVP? MCP?) trying to make a name for themselves that jumps in and attempts to answer questions. Sometimes they actually work. I've never resolved an issue based on information in a Google or Apple forum. I get the impression they're put out there as tar babies for people to vent their frustrations on until they brick their devices and give up.
- ganeshkrishnan 8y agoMicrosoft actually responded to my tweet asking if one of their service was down in Australia. I got the issue resolved within 30 minutes on twitter.