Not so long ago my partner wanted to contact someone at Google to ask them how to get incentives like AdWords packages. It was utterly impossible to do so.
When eventually, through a friend nothing to do with Google, she did get through to someone there and asked to be put through to the person whose name she had ferreted out, the reply was, “I am not at liberty to give you their telephone number.”
This is the arrogance of idiots, and it is depressingly commonplace.
We have spent days trying to move a server from Windows to Linux for the benefit of EADIM affiliates, a task that should take little more than pressing a few buttons and the odd key.
Every possible obstacle, no matter how petty, has been painstakingly placed in our path to stop us doing so.
I’ve said it God knows how many times: nothing fails like success.
And nothing in my lifetime has succeeded so fast and so utterly as the internet, or spawned so many inept oafs.
What has happened is that a few smart people got in on the ground floor and made millions or even billions, sometimes deservedly, often not.
Then they lost interest, and employed platoons of underlings – the sort who used to get jobs as counter clerks in post offices, though too often without the ability to read and write – to run things.
Such people are completely unaware that they are supposed to be offering a service – and the people above them are functionaries who have no clue either; they would do just as well in a large insurance firm or bank.
One problem – not just with the Internet, but generally – is that far too many people who succeed don’t realise how much of it was due to luck. Another is that the qualities it takes to build something are often useless when employing or managing large numbers of pretty average people in a big, fat organisation.
It happened with Microsoft. It’s obviously happening with Google. In fact yesterday my partner Al noted that Google are fast becoming as hated as Microsoft. Yahoo clearly lost the plot some years ago. Unless an unusual person with that rare, grounded sense of the real – like Jeff Bezos or Warren Buffet – stays on it always happens.
Mind you, I’m not saying I’d do any better. I’m clueless at pretty much anything beyond deciding where to go to lunch.
P. S. I was just about to stick this up when I saw this piece of emetic tripe from the Firefox welcome page: “Thanks for supporting Mozilla’s mission of encouraging openness, innovation and opportunity on the Web!”
I can tell you, as sure as God made little apples, that a group of time-wasting, navel-gazing “executives” sat in a room debating that little piece of corporate hogwash, word by dreary word.
Lets face it, neither I nor any of your customers gives a flying fuck about your “mission” – which we all know is to make as much money as possible as fast as possible. I just want to get stuff done quickly on the web – a mission you totally failed to assist me in fifteen minutes ago when I wanted to edit this.
This is spot-on Drayton. One of the reasons Apple owns so many of the markets it enters is that it combines top rate products with top rate customer service. When Google went into the phone business earlier this year with the Nexus One they entirely overlooked the fact that people needed support. There was no one you could call to get your questions answered or to resolve a problem. Result: Google has now exited that market with their tail between their legs. Apple meanwhile is selling iPhone 4s and iPads by the millions … and are completely overwhelmed by demand.
Can I take a wild, stab in the dark guess that your hosting company's name begins with F and ends in S? If they're who I think they are, they have an appalling reputation for customer service, and I had such rotten experiences with them that I moved all my most important sites to another hosting company, who provide fantastic support. If you'd like to give them a try, they're Open Mind Hosting (www.openmindhosting.co.uk) – highly recommended.
Great post Drayton – thanks 🙂
Debs x
The last paragraph is a gem. It also applies to all of the individual entrepreneurs who are 'following their passion' instead of figuring out how to help their ideal clients get and achieve what they want.
Me as well. I was on to Google about Adwords info. Thick as two short planks, they are. That's somehow excusable, rudeness isn't.
Thank you Drayton, again, for saying what I've been thinking, and saying so much better than I ever could.
Google BECOMING as hated as Microsoft? Drayton where have you been for the last 3 years, Google have regularly, right royally, fluffed over those web site owners that have been providing Google with free content for years. Just before Christmas is a favourite time to jiggle their algorithm and wipe out a few hundred thousand small businesses. Ever tried to “comply with the guidelines”? I would love to hear your comments after experiencing some of Google's more exotic offerings but do watch your blood pressure.
Sorry just typed that without my reading glasses on but that only excuses the typos and not the spurious apostrophe!
If you're referring to the company I think you are (in Gloucestershire), in my experience they've improved beyond measure over the past 2 years. No problems at all. And great support. That used not to be the case. But the one I really recommend is http://www.bluehost.com
Re Google, my sentiments exactly, Drayton.
A few months ago, my principal email address at GMail was “compromised” (for which read “hacked”) by some grabbing arsehole in Indonesia. Not only did the rogue crack my password, but he also managed to change the secondary emails and even the “security questions” within the account. I mean, what's the point of security questions if they're not bloody well secure?!?!
When I tried to contact Google through their online form (how else?) they had the gall to ask me the exact date I'd created my GMail account.
Does anyone actually remember the exact date they started an email account? I sincerely doubt it.
Needless to say, I've had to abandon the account entirely, together with its address book, so I was right regally stuffed by Goggle (and no, that's not a typo!).
Thanks for “telling it like it is” as they say on the other side of the duckpond.
Drayton
I nearly wet myself when I saw the headline of your article.
The inability to get hold of anyone useful at Google is one of the many reasons I counsel clients against using Gmail for business.
You’re right about needing someone grounded to stay on. When I’m in the USA and shopping in Walmart, standing in a long line waiting to pay (and getting very pissed off), this question and answer goes through my mind:
Q: Why are there only 4 cash registers open?
A: Because Sam Walton is dead.
I can’t tell you the number of times I’ve just abandoned the purchase because of the long lines.
For those of you saying either Fasthosts or Bluehost are good web-hosting companies, I’m sorry but you are obviously not responsible for ensuring that websites don’t go wrong.
These 2 companies are amongst the very worst out there, in my opinion.
If you want reliable hosting for your business, you’re NOT gonna get it for £50 a year. £50 per month is more like it.