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October 17, 2006
Free isn't always free
I've been using Google Calendar for a few months now and for the most part I love it. It's easy to use, available from every computer on the net and free. Over the past few weeks though, it has been taking a turn for the worse. It has been slow to load, creating events has been painful, and today it won't even launch.
Now, yes, a service can't be up 24/7. I understand that. But the problem with Google is there is little accountability. There is no number to call. No website to check on a status. Just a message telling me to "Cross [my] fingers and try again in a few minutes." At least they are "sorry for the inconvenience."
This lack of user support is one reason why users and organizations should be leery of migrating wholesale to third party service providers. Users are used to high availability and will still call the local support folks when something is down. For them, it doesn't matter that only google can fix the problem. It only matters that it isn't working.
Posted by mcneal at October 17, 2006 03:37 PM