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GMail is not a business tool. Period.

5 points by lostbit 15y ago

MenaMena123 15y ago
"The problem is, GMail is absolutely unacceptable for business usage, but the folks who use it don’t see it that way." Its odd you say that above. The people who use it are the ones that matter.? If its used for it, well its works for them for business. End of Story.
burke 15y ago
To play Devil's Advocate: > Problem #1: Over-aggressive spam filtering In five years of using exclusively GMail (and GAfB, which has the same filters), I have never once missed a legitimate message (or, at least, noticed). A quick poll of my friends indicates they have had the same experience. > Problem #2: “… sent on behalf of…” This is already countered by #3. > Problem #3: Fixing “… sent on behalf of …” Just because this is a minor pain in the ass doesn't make it an illegitimate business tool. A few extra minutes to figure it out is certainly worth the productivity gains from all of GMail's other features. > Problem #4: Calendars Author should either cancel his GMail account, or read the email that gets sent to it. Either would solve this problem. This is not a valid complaint. > Problem #5: Customer Service? What’s that? Semi-legitimate. Every time I (and anyone I've even heard of) have had an issue with GMail, it is fixed promptly with no action on my part. Google has monitoring for this and actively works to solve problems, rather than waiting for support requests. How is this not preferable in every sense? Mainly what I take issue with here is that the author is claiming GMail to be completely unacceptable for "Business". Full stop. That's an absurd statement to make. I fully respect his decision that it's not suitable for his business, but how he is putting this across is immensely arrogant.
- Groxx 15y ago
  re #1: I've had a few, and I have relatively low volumes of spam (a dozen a day or less). Strangely enough, most of them have been from major emailers - Borders, a couple tea sites, etc. A couple personal emails, but the last one was over a year ago. The major business-problem I see with Gmail is the 10-connection limit with IMAP (a single client often has multiple connections). Totally screws over people with multiple devices, which seems to me to be more likely w/ business-oriented uses. I could be wrong, but I think it applies to apps-for-business as well as regular Gmail, which is a bit crippling.
sleepyhead 15y ago
Gmail is a free personal email service and this guy complains about lack of customer service? Boohoo. Wish I could downvote links on HN.

5 points by lostbit 15y ago

"The problem is, GMail is absolutely unacceptable for business usage, but the folks who use it don’t see it that way." Its odd you say that above. The people who use it are the ones that matter.? If its used for it, well its works for them for business. End of Story.

burke 15y ago

To play Devil's Advocate: > Problem #1: Over-aggressive spam filtering In five years of using exclusively GMail (and GAfB, which has the same filters), I have never once missed a legitimate message (or, at least, noticed). A quick poll of my friends indicates they have had the same experience. > Problem #2: “… sent on behalf of…” This is already countered by #3. > Problem #3: Fixing “… sent on behalf of …” Just because this is a minor pain in the ass doesn't make it an illegitimate business tool. A few extra minutes to figure it out is certainly worth the productivity gains from all of GMail's other features. > Problem #4: Calendars Author should either cancel his GMail account, or read the email that gets sent to it. Either would solve this problem. This is not a valid complaint. > Problem #5: Customer Service? What’s that? Semi-legitimate. Every time I (and anyone I've even heard of) have had an issue with GMail, it is fixed promptly with no action on my part. Google has monitoring for this and actively works to solve problems, rather than waiting for support requests. How is this not preferable in every sense? Mainly what I take issue with here is that the author is claiming GMail to be completely unacceptable for "Business". Full stop. That's an absurd statement to make. I fully respect his decision that it's not suitable for his business, but how he is putting this across is immensely arrogant.

Groxx 15y ago
re #1: I've had a few, and I have relatively low volumes of spam (a dozen a day or less). Strangely enough, most of them have been from major emailers - Borders, a couple tea sites, etc. A couple personal emails, but the last one was over a year ago. The major business-problem I see with Gmail is the 10-connection limit with IMAP (a single client often has multiple connections). Totally screws over people with multiple devices, which seems to me to be more likely w/ business-oriented uses. I could be wrong, but I think it applies to apps-for-business as well as regular Gmail, which is a bit crippling.

sleepyhead 15y ago

Gmail is a free personal email service and this guy complains about lack of customer service? Boohoo. Wish I could downvote links on HN.