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>What kind of company can get away with a critical product, such as advertising platform, email services, etc and provide ZERO SUPPORT. Literally they have no c

>What kind of company can get away with a critical product, such as advertising platform, email services, etc and provide ZERO SUPPORT. Literally they have no customer support that you can contact. This is the behavior of a monopoly. They're giving away a product to you literally for free, and you're complaining about a lack of support? Do you expect any company to offer you support for free? People have other choices; there are plenty of paid email services, but people pick GMail anyway because it's free. Clearly these people would rather have a free unsupported service than pay for a supported one, who are you to take that choice away from them? If somebody leaves an old piece of furniture out on the curb for anybody to pick up, do you think the person who takes that furniture home is owed support by the original owner? Free is free; what kind of a sense of entitlement does it take for somebody to expect support for something they're not paying for? They do actually offer support for their paid services.

robbrown451 6y ago
"They're giving away a product to you literally for free, and you're complaining about a lack of support?" I think he/she is saying that isn't how they should do business. Maybe they should charge. From an antitrust perspective, giving away something for free isn't generally seen as benevolent, it is often seen as predatory. Microsoft got in a lot of trouble for giving away IE "for free." They did it to kill Netscape's business model. Are you suggesting Google is doing it out of the kindness of their heart? A healthy market isn't one company giving things away for free, making their money indirectly, and squashing all competitors.
- logicchains 6y ago
  >From an antitrust perspective, giving away something for free isn't generally seen as benevolent, it is often seen as predatory. Microsoft got in a lot of trouble for giving away IE "for free." They did it to kill Netscape's business model. It's predatory (dumping) if they lower prices to kill off competitors and then raise prices later. I don't see them doing that, at least with GMail; can't imagine them charging for it. >A healthy market isn't one company giving things away for free, making their money indirectly, and squashing all competitors. A healthy market is one that generates the most value for consumers. I don't see how consumers win if the government kills off all free email providers and forces people to pay for what they were previous getting for free.

robbrown451 6y ago

"They're giving away a product to you literally for free, and you're complaining about a lack of support?" I think he/she is saying that isn't how they should do business. Maybe they should charge. From an antitrust perspective, giving away something for free isn't generally seen as benevolent, it is often seen as predatory. Microsoft got in a lot of trouble for giving away IE "for free." They did it to kill Netscape's business model. Are you suggesting Google is doing it out of the kindness of their heart? A healthy market isn't one company giving things away for free, making their money indirectly, and squashing all competitors.

logicchains 6y ago
>From an antitrust perspective, giving away something for free isn't generally seen as benevolent, it is often seen as predatory. Microsoft got in a lot of trouble for giving away IE "for free." They did it to kill Netscape's business model. It's predatory (dumping) if they lower prices to kill off competitors and then raise prices later. I don't see them doing that, at least with GMail; can't imagine them charging for it. >A healthy market isn't one company giving things away for free, making their money indirectly, and squashing all competitors. A healthy market is one that generates the most value for consumers. I don't see how consumers win if the government kills off all free email providers and forces people to pay for what they were previous getting for free.