...and I've pretty much been a Google fanboy. But now I feel like I'm being herded towards their fenced pasture, and I don't want to go.
Yes, I know it's all free and they have every right. But Google needs us, you and me and the other free-riders. It sells access to our community to its advertisers. In a sense, we're Google's product. If your product can leave, it's a bad idea to piss it off.
I've switched to Zoho for online office tools and Box for online storage. I'm still evaluating Reader alternatives, and looking for a good migration path off of Google Sites for a literary website I manage. (I've already gone to MailChimp for that site's mailing list management.)
And I've been using StartPage and DuckDuckGo for search for quite some time already./div>
We had (past tense) internet, phone and cable through Time Warner. Had problems with all, but I understand that glitches happen.
We would have stuck with them from sheer inertia, but everything their customer service dept could do to aggravate us further, they did. Promise refunds that never came through? Check. Offer reduced rates, then refuse to honor them? Check. Call us after 11:00 p.m., which is bad enough, but *after* we had chosen the "do no call us for follow-up" option on the Customer Service phone menu? Check.
We're eager to get our Google Fiber connection, but it's Time Warner who turned us into Google customers./div>
Techdirt has not posted any stories submitted by Cthulhu Gnu.
Typical of this neo-commie site...
They've turned me off...
Yes, I know it's all free and they have every right. But Google needs us, you and me and the other free-riders. It sells access to our community to its advertisers. In a sense, we're Google's product. If your product can leave, it's a bad idea to piss it off.
I've switched to Zoho for online office tools and Box for online storage. I'm still evaluating Reader alternatives, and looking for a good migration path off of Google Sites for a literary website I manage. (I've already gone to MailChimp for that site's mailing list management.)
And I've been using StartPage and DuckDuckGo for search for quite some time already./div>
Former Time Warner Customer here (as crcb)
We would have stuck with them from sheer inertia, but everything their customer service dept could do to aggravate us further, they did. Promise refunds that never came through? Check. Offer reduced rates, then refuse to honor them? Check. Call us after 11:00 p.m., which is bad enough, but *after* we had chosen the "do no call us for follow-up" option on the Customer Service phone menu? Check.
We're eager to get our Google Fiber connection, but it's Time Warner who turned us into Google customers./div>
Techdirt has not posted any stories submitted by Cthulhu Gnu.
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