Google needs to realize that their services (such as Gmail) are critical to a lot of people. I understand why they don't want to offer free support for a free product, they would get flooded with useless support requests. However, they need to offer a paid support option. Something like $25 per support request call. This would reduce the calls to only truly urgent and necessary issues.
It's possible to get something similar using Google Apps and a custom domain. But they need to start offering paid support for the free services (@gmail.com) as well.
If you're a paid Gmail user, and by that I mean you're using "GSuite" or whatever it's called at the moment, the thing with a custom domain, it includes 24/7 phone support.
I don't think there's a way to start paying for your normal Gmail account (and have ads go away, get phone support, probably some other bonuses?), but there really should be.
Are you saying Google loses money on gmail? I can't see that being possible. It displays ads. It harvests incredible amounts of information, on "users" as a whole and individual users. It's a treasure trove of data on how people engage with each other, businesses, etc. It's a stepping stone into the large Google ecosystem where you can and do pay for things.
Gmail is just as valuable to Google as it is to any individual user. I'm not sure why people's gmail accounts would ever be banned. If people do something illegal, prosecute them. Even if they're found guilty, it's not like the court is going to delete their email address or take away where they live.
It wasn't illegal, per se: just against their terms of use.
Probably much harder to litigate than criminal activity, so I can vaguely understand the use of banhammers, even if they were clearly unwarranted in this case.
> It's possible to get something similar using Google Apps and a custom domain.
Not necessarily. I tried to integrate Google's services with a custom domain once before and the previous owner of the domain had done the same thing and I could not figure out how to dissociate the two. There was no way for me to contact customer support about it, and I eventually gave up trying so that I wouldn't run into exactly this kind of fucked up crap from Google.
But I also feel like Google treats people's accounts without a lot of respect. They've successfully integrated into every part of people's lives, and people have a Google Account at the core of their digital identity.
It would be better if Google killed services offered one by one instead of killing the entire account. It would be inconvenient not being able to pay via Credit Card with my Google Account, but it is nothing compared to losing all of my email/purchases/cloud stored files/etc.
I don't think you can suggest a company treats people's accounts with a lot of respect when they allow automated processes to bulk ban them by the hundreds, and offer no appeal process other than making a PR nightmare for them on blog sites.
The problem now also is that you can't upgrade your free account to paid one. Then you could have two addresses to one account - your initial free one and one on custom domain.
Currently when you get Google for Work (or however it is called now) you remain with two separate accounts. You can sync data if you work on it, but whatever you buy via one account stays with that one account.
It's possible to get something similar using Google Apps and a custom domain. But they need to start offering paid support for the free services (@gmail.com) as well.