8 ms·

To quote myself, yesterday: ( http://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=2140893 http://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=2140893 ) It's really easy to get customer serv

by earl 16y ago

To quote myself, yesterday: ( http://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=2140893 http://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=2140893 ) It's really easy to get customer service from G. They provide, free, to each customer their famous "fuck off and die while we totally ignore you" brand of customer service that has propelled them to the very bottom of JD Power Customer Service Surveys. Or, you can have a blog with huge reach and bitch on that, whence Matt Cutts will swoop out of the sky to cover up their fuckups. viz slow email and Gabriel Weinberg. So the real question is if you complain on the internet, how many people hear you? Honestly, letting G get their hands on anything that's critical to your life seems an enormous mistake, unless it wouldn't be a big problem for you if your phone stops working. What a perfect example -- Patrick is going for the "have enough readers that G gets embarrassed when you bitch" customer service plan. The only problem is most of us don't have that many readers.

patio11 16y ago
I can't disagree. (As a matter of fact, I think my highest voted comment says much the same... ah, here we go: http://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=790914 http://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=790914) Strategically speaking, if I were a startup totally dependent on the Googles (I mostly am, but hypothetically speaking), and I knew that having a soap box was the only effective method of conflict resolution with Google, then I would make it a high priority to have a soap box. It certainly isn't the only reason to have a soap box. It isn't nearly the best reason to have a soap box. But you should have a soap box. (Incidentally, it isn't as hard as you think. I know, we have it excessively easy in central Japan thanks to the well-known Ogaki tech mafia and the unending fascination of the tech press with elementary school teaching activities, but even without these huge built-in advantages you could proceed to Plan B and write interesting stuff while trying to help people.)
mmaunder 16y ago
Have you considered what Google does with money they save by not employing a team of tens of thousands of customer support personnel? They pass it on to you. In the form of more AdSense earnings, lower cost to advertisers, more money for R&D to improve ad targeting. Of course there's the corporate 767, but that's chump change compared to what they pay publishers each year and how Adwords has enabled small businesses world-wide.
- patio11 16y ago
  Have you considered what Google does with money they save by not employing a team of tens of thousands of customer support personnel? It makes no difference to me whether they use it to improve AdWords, maintain their 35% margins, buy their own airline, employ brilliant PhDs, give free massages and chocolate icecream to everyone, or underwrite non-profitable products like everything Google does which isn't search/AdSense. All I want is for the thing that I pay money for to work. I'm practically begging for them to take my money.
  - mmaunder 16y ago
    And I'm practically begging them to leave your money on the table so I can get paid more Adsense money and get charged less Adwords money.
    - smanek 16y ago
      The obvious answer is for Google to charge for support plans, like AWS. E.g., $100/month for up to 3 hours of support a month with 4 hour response time, $500/month for up to 10 hrs/month with 15 minute response times, etc.
      - scorpion032 16y ago
        They have similar plans in the Enterprise segment. For integrating GMail and Google docs with your website, and for building your own custom apps for the same.
        pasbesoin 16y ago
        I'd like information/opinions anyone has to share on the real availability and quality of that support. And what qualifies as "Enterprise"? If you've 15 Google Apps seats and are paying your $50/year/seat, do you actually get useful responses in a timely manner? (It seems those dollar amounts would be well below anything "Enterprise". But I figure the multiple-thousand-seat clients are getting support from somewhere. Maybe this means the small fish who pay, can actually get some level of response?)

by earl 16y ago

patio11 16y ago

I can't disagree. (As a matter of fact, I think my highest voted comment says much the same... ah, here we go: http://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=790914 http://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=790914) Strategically speaking, if I were a startup totally dependent on the Googles (I mostly am, but hypothetically speaking), and I knew that having a soap box was the only effective method of conflict resolution with Google, then I would make it a high priority to have a soap box. It certainly isn't the only reason to have a soap box. It isn't nearly the best reason to have a soap box. But you should have a soap box. (Incidentally, it isn't as hard as you think. I know, we have it excessively easy in central Japan thanks to the well-known Ogaki tech mafia and the unending fascination of the tech press with elementary school teaching activities, but even without these huge built-in advantages you could proceed to Plan B and write interesting stuff while trying to help people.)

mmaunder 16y ago

Have you considered what Google does with money they save by not employing a team of tens of thousands of customer support personnel? They pass it on to you. In the form of more AdSense earnings, lower cost to advertisers, more money for R&D to improve ad targeting. Of course there's the corporate 767, but that's chump change compared to what they pay publishers each year and how Adwords has enabled small businesses world-wide.

patio11 16y ago
Have you considered what Google does with money they save by not employing a team of tens of thousands of customer support personnel? It makes no difference to me whether they use it to improve AdWords, maintain their 35% margins, buy their own airline, employ brilliant PhDs, give free massages and chocolate icecream to everyone, or underwrite non-profitable products like everything Google does which isn't search/AdSense. All I want is for the thing that I pay money for to work. I'm practically begging for them to take my money.
- mmaunder 16y ago
  And I'm practically begging them to leave your money on the table so I can get paid more Adsense money and get charged less Adwords money.
  - smanek 16y ago
    The obvious answer is for Google to charge for support plans, like AWS. E.g., $100/month for up to 3 hours of support a month with 4 hour response time, $500/month for up to 10 hrs/month with 15 minute response times, etc.
    - scorpion032 16y ago
      They have similar plans in the Enterprise segment. For integrating GMail and Google docs with your website, and for building your own custom apps for the same.
      - pasbesoin 16y ago
        I'd like information/opinions anyone has to share on the real availability and quality of that support. And what qualifies as "Enterprise"? If you've 15 Google Apps seats and are paying your $50/year/seat, do you actually get useful responses in a timely manner? (It seems those dollar amounts would be well below anything "Enterprise". But I figure the multiple-thousand-seat clients are getting support from somewhere. Maybe this means the small fish who pay, can actually get some level of response?)