Long-time users of Google’s G Suite legacy free edition, which includes email and apps like Docs and Calendar, will have to start paying a monthly fee of approximately $6 for each business email account, according to Google.
Businesses that do not convert to a paid service voluntarily by June 27 will be compelled to do so. Their accounts will be suspended if they do not pay by August 1.
Richard Dalton, a longstanding customer who runs a scholastic test-prep company in Vancouver, British Columbia, felt betrayed when Google told some small businesses in January that they would no longer be allowed to use a customized email service and other workplace apps for free.
Dalton, who originally set up a Google work email for his company, Your Score Booster, in 2008, said, “they’re basically strong-arming us to switch to something paid after they got us hooked on this free service.”
An earlier May 1 deadline was postponed after a number of veteran users expressed dissatisfaction with the move to a paid service. Google also stated that users who are still utilizing previous accounts for personal rather than corporate purposes can do so freely.
Patrick Gant, owner of Think It Creative, an Ottawa-based marketing firm, said, “It struck me as needlessly petty, It’s hard to feel sorry for someone who received something for free for a long time and now are being told that they need to pay for it. But there was a promise that was made. That’s what compelled me to make the decision to go with Google versus other alternatives.”
However, other business owners claimed that getting in touch with customer support was difficult as they considered whether to pay Google or cancel its services. Six small-business owners who talked to The New York Times as the deadline approached slammed what they called “confusing and at times vacillating communications” about the service shift.
Samad Sajanlal, owner of Supreme Equipment Co. in McKinney, Texas, which provides software consulting and other computer services said, “I don’t mind you kicking us off, but don’t give us an unrealistic deadline to go and find an alternative while you’re still deciding if you really want to kick us off in the first place.”
