One of these days, they'll fuck up big time for many customers and get sued. They'll survive, but it'll cost a lot of money.
Especially for Google (and other life-or-death services for many people), the solution seems kind of simple: charge for support. Google terminated your GMail-Account because you logged in from Turkey? Pay $50 to get somebody to listen to your story and work with you on proving your identity. Would you rather change your email on all your accounts or pay $50?
Paying for the product isn't the issue, the company in the DO debacle was happy to pay - support is the issue. I pay Amazon to send me stuff, but I'd honestly be happy to pay them $5 to have my emails to support read & replied to by a person that doesn't have to rely on a low tier auto translate.
I understand that support is expensive, and especially for ad financed or cheap products, having an agent look into something can quickly cost more than you'll ever make off that customer. If the customer pays for support, support becomes a product and the company doesn't have to treat support as a profit-killer (that is, automate it, make it annoying for the customer so he avoids it, and staff it with the cheapest available labor creating a high fluctuation because of bad working conditions).
Best as I can tell they are a early stage startup surviving off startup credits from DO. Also $5 doesn't go far towards support costs. After a minute or two troubleshooting and they are already losing money.
The problem is if google is shutting down access for you how will you use the support provided by google apps. its a support chat you have to be logged in...
Doesn't have to be $50, but a few might make sense to to keep their support from getting clogged with stuff that could be googled. Some sort of "Rescue Me" emergency flare option.
It's billing for solving problems they have caused.
This is completely not Ok. If the idea is paid support for random problems, that's fine, if it's larger prices so it includes support, that's also fine. But if any company caused me a large damage and decided to ask money so they would reevaluate their actions, I'd go to the police.
One of these days, they'll fuck up big time for many customers and get sued. They'll survive, but it'll cost a lot of money.
Especially for Google (and other life-or-death services for many people), the solution seems kind of simple: charge for support. Google terminated your GMail-Account because you logged in from Turkey? Pay $50 to get somebody to listen to your story and work with you on proving your identity. Would you rather change your email on all your accounts or pay $50?