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Genuine question: for Google to offer free services, economic constraints dictate they can't offer human support. If we just assume for a moment this is valid,

Genuine question: for Google to offer free services, economic constraints dictate they can't offer human support. If we just assume for a moment this is valid, there is a possible solution: You can pre-pay $50/hour (in 30 minute increments) for live human access that can fix your problem. The fee is paid no matter whose fault it is -- it's basically a "competent, in-your-country, rep fair wage fee". How much take up would there be? Would that fix the complaints with these free services not offering support?

izzydata 4y ago
Maybe Google is too big then eh?
ipaddr 4y ago
Wouldn't that be a lawsuit in the making? Create problem, charge for support, profit?
- tehwebguy 4y ago
  They would still outsource the human part to people with no knowledge or power like all YouTube appeals
- bityard 4y ago
  No... charging for support is the most popular software business model, and in the enterprise sector, FAR more lucrative than selling the software itself. The goal of the company charging for support (directly or indirectly through purchases) is to collect the support payment WITHOUT having to turn around and spend it on paying someone to solve problems. It's very much in the company's financial best interest to not have problems.
colinmhayes 4y ago
Except I don’t assume that is valid. Google has plenty of money, they can easily afford support personnel, they’re just more interested in making money.
- metacritic12 4y ago
  Well they can certainly offer free support for one-user, but for all users? There are a lot of 100-view, $1/year revenue accounts out there, and good quality customer services (based in-developed-country, good benefits, smart, can solve problems) probably is in reality excess of $100/hour of fully burdened cost. On the steelmaning your argument side, there is definitely an argument for "common carrier" status for a lot of web technologies. This would guarantee universal access, fixed prices (either dollars or amount of data collected), and due process for disconnects. Governments could also mandate real ids with each account (therefore drastically reducing fraud and abuse in the first case).
- lokar 4y ago
  I don't think you have done the math on revenue per account vs support cost
  - colinmhayes 4y ago
    They can hire 20,000 support staff for a 2.5% profit hit. I don’t think you’ve done the math.
    - metacritic12 4y ago
      20,000 is an arbitrary number without knowing the denominator. How many accounts do they have, how often would they need to support these accounts per year?
      - colinmhayes 4y ago
        Well luckily 2.5% is an arbitrary number too. They’d have no problem scaling up to as many customer support people as they need. But yes, they would need to figure out how many staff members per account they need.
        jonas21 4y ago
        If you scale it up over 100%, you won't be in business for very long.
m-p-3 4y ago
IMO the fee should be waived if the issue is deemed to be an error made by Google's algorithm at least.
- throwbacktictac 4y ago
  Totally. If that became a revenue driver for Google I could see their Algorithm optimizing for the case in some contrived form :).
jonas21 4y ago
$50/hour? How about $2/month? This gets you support from real humans [1]. Given this already exists, I guess the answer to your question is "no". [1] https://one.google.com/about https://one.google.com/about
- michaelt 4y ago
  Do you think $2/month gets you access to people who can actually fix DMCA problems?
  - deleted 4y ago
    [deleted]
- mdrzn 4y ago
  $2/month gives you access to first-level support via email/chat, from guys with barely any experience in solving actual issues. I dare you to try and contact them when you have an issue with your Google account.
icehawk 4y ago
But for YouTube creators it's NOT a free service, they're uploading videos for YouTube to monetize so both YouTube and the content produces get revenue.
pid-1 4y ago
I've used Googles support for paid services in the past (GCP, YouTube Premium, Workspaces) and it's the same almost non existent garbage.
mchusma 4y ago
I would have 100% paid this on multiple occasions.

izzydata 4y ago

Maybe Google is too big then eh?

ipaddr 4y ago

Wouldn't that be a lawsuit in the making? Create problem, charge for support, profit?

tehwebguy 4y ago
They would still outsource the human part to people with no knowledge or power like all YouTube appeals
bityard 4y ago
No... charging for support is the most popular software business model, and in the enterprise sector, FAR more lucrative than selling the software itself. The goal of the company charging for support (directly or indirectly through purchases) is to collect the support payment WITHOUT having to turn around and spend it on paying someone to solve problems. It's very much in the company's financial best interest to not have problems.

colinmhayes 4y ago

Except I don’t assume that is valid. Google has plenty of money, they can easily afford support personnel, they’re just more interested in making money.

metacritic12 4y ago
Well they can certainly offer free support for one-user, but for all users? There are a lot of 100-view, $1/year revenue accounts out there, and good quality customer services (based in-developed-country, good benefits, smart, can solve problems) probably is in reality excess of $100/hour of fully burdened cost. On the steelmaning your argument side, there is definitely an argument for "common carrier" status for a lot of web technologies. This would guarantee universal access, fixed prices (either dollars or amount of data collected), and due process for disconnects. Governments could also mandate real ids with each account (therefore drastically reducing fraud and abuse in the first case).
lokar 4y ago
I don't think you have done the math on revenue per account vs support cost
- colinmhayes 4y ago
  They can hire 20,000 support staff for a 2.5% profit hit. I don’t think you’ve done the math.
  - metacritic12 4y ago
    20,000 is an arbitrary number without knowing the denominator. How many accounts do they have, how often would they need to support these accounts per year?
    - colinmhayes 4y ago
      Well luckily 2.5% is an arbitrary number too. They’d have no problem scaling up to as many customer support people as they need. But yes, they would need to figure out how many staff members per account they need.
      - jonas21 4y ago
        If you scale it up over 100%, you won't be in business for very long.

m-p-3 4y ago

IMO the fee should be waived if the issue is deemed to be an error made by Google's algorithm at least.

throwbacktictac 4y ago
Totally. If that became a revenue driver for Google I could see their Algorithm optimizing for the case in some contrived form :).

jonas21 4y ago

$50/hour? How about $2/month? This gets you support from real humans [1]. Given this already exists, I guess the answer to your question is "no". [1] https://one.google.com/about https://one.google.com/about

michaelt 4y ago
Do you think $2/month gets you access to people who can actually fix DMCA problems?
- deleted 4y ago
  [deleted]
mdrzn 4y ago
$2/month gives you access to first-level support via email/chat, from guys with barely any experience in solving actual issues. I dare you to try and contact them when you have an issue with your Google account.

icehawk 4y ago

But for YouTube creators it's NOT a free service, they're uploading videos for YouTube to monetize so both YouTube and the content produces get revenue.

pid-1 4y ago

I've used Googles support for paid services in the past (GCP, YouTube Premium, Workspaces) and it's the same almost non existent garbage.

mchusma 4y ago

I would have 100% paid this on multiple occasions.