Jeremy Wright is on a tear lately, obviously disgusted by the completely unequal and undeserved amount of coverage that Google is receiving over its newest beta project: Google Spreadsheets.

Unlike too many others, I’m not going to comment on that service until I actually use and measure if it’s worthwhile for our businesses and my life. Doubtful that it will be, but I’m still keeping an open mind. I signed up for a beta invite but haven’t been deemed worthy yet (Update 6/8/2006 6:51am PST: I received the invite and am checking it out). Generally speaking, I agree with Jeremy on the Google overhype stuff. They are overhyped (Disclaimer: I own GOOG stock), which I covered in stop the premature eGooglation.

Google just trying to get a stock bump?
Before getting to the Office expense issues, Jeremy ponders that Google might be running out web services that compete with Office:

… to see if Wall Street reacts positively (they didn’t, and they won’t, because it doesn’t matter to the bottom line… I mean, if Gmail doesn’t matter to the bottom line, does anyone think Google WhateverSheet will?)

Wrong, Jeremy, they did and do react. Check out Google stock reaction to their admittedly limited test spreadsheets program yesterday which was +15.5%. I’d say this strategy, if that’s what it is, works at least in the short term. See yesterday and today stock graphs below:

6/6/2006

6/7/2006

With the Google stuff aside, Jeremey loses my agreement with his rant titled Office is *NOT* too expensive. Before doing the knee jerk agree/disagree thing, read Jeremy’s post and his reasoning for coming to this conclusion.

In addition, the support you get on Microsoft products (from Microsoft (did you know you get 1-3 free support calls for each version of Office you buy, free of charge?) and via their online support forums and via their team blogs and via MSDN and via the many free help sites) is way, way better than any support you’ll get from Google in the next 10 years. Hell, I can’t even find a decent amount of info on one of Google’s core API’s: GData.

Firstly, no, I didn’t know that you could get 1-3 free support calls. Why is it 1-3 support calls? Is it based on time used or what? I contemplated calling them over my issue with Outlook 2003 crashing onload after searching for the rather elusive and yet simple fix.

Secondly, how can we compare support for a free developer API from Google to support for a commercial program? Apples and oranges. Would be more sensible to compare the support for Google Earth Pro to say the support for Microsoft Streets & Trips 2006.

Steps to call Microsoft for telephone support
Lastly, and perhaps most disturbing: I didn’t see this free support option anywhere, which seems more than a bit deceptive and counter-intuitive to me, nor did Scoble who works for M$ mention this free support option (although he did quite generously offer me a free support voucher if I needed it). Follow along with Joe Customer as he attempts to take advantage of these 1-3 free support calls.

STEP 1. Visit the Office homepage
http://office.microsoft.com/en-us/default.aspx

STEP 2. Choose “Product Support” in small text in the lower left sidebar.
http://support.microsoft.com/default.aspx?LN=EN-US

STEP 3. Now Joe is presented with several different options. but came from the Office site, why is it asking me about support for the Xbox 360? Why isn’t Microsoft smart enough to offer a page full of text with product relevant support for Office rather than send Joe to a generic help page? Whomever thought this design was helpful needs to be sent back to school.

Joe wants to call them and get support! Check out this option under “Microsoft Services”:

“Customer Service provides assistance on non-technical issues such as product purchases, subscriptions, and more.”

The answer is under Need More Help and includes another hyperlink — that’s #3.

STEP 4. Select product for assistance:
http://support.microsoft.com/gp/assistsupport

Joe chooses Microsoft Office 2003. Why was this not step #2?

STEP 5. Select product — detailed:
http://support.microsoft.com/oas/default.aspx?Gprid=2488

STEP 6. Alas! The support screen pictured at the top of this post with Joe’s different support options.
http://support.microsoft.com/oas/default.aspx?ln=en-us&prid=6680&gprid=36071

Notice the (emphasis mine) “$35.00 US per request (during business hours) or use an existing contract” but there is no explanation for the existing contract part. No hyperlink. There are also no hours listed for phone support. That requires another click.

This is a customer service maze and Joe is the mouse and yet where is this free support offer explained? So the customer throws up their hands at one of these stages and breaks out their credit card. And if they need emergency business support? Get ready to pay $490 USD. This of course comes after already paying the $500+ for Office.

I’m not sure what Jeremy considers expensive, but he’s currently selling text links at bargain prices for his blog (emphasis mine): “Normally I sell them for 50$/month, but I’m pretty tight for cash this month, so I’m selling them for $250/year.”

He better sell at least two text links for the whole year just to pay for one emergency Office support issue. Is that inexpensive? Not to me.

Office is literally cheaper [than Google alternatives]. Office is cheaper in value terms. Office is cheaper in user support.

Outlook cheaper than using Gmail? No. Outlook more versatile than Gmail? Yes. Cheaper in value terms? Depends on what services are used and what problems are experienced. Word vs. Writely? (Writely is definitely cheaper than Word, but I’ll take and gladly pay for Word). Cheaper in user support? For geeks, maybe, but for Joe Consumer? No. Joe Business Owner? No.

Office is too expensive, especially when you factor in time for customers lost due to bugs and problems. Word, Excel and Powerpoint (to a lesser degree) are almost indispensible tools for businesses, just like I said about PDF a few days ago and buying them separately starts to make buying the whole Office package sensible, so most Office users probably do the math and buy the package knowing that they won’t use them all, but not because they think it’s a great deal.

If Microsoft would revamp/improve the support options — heck, make telephone support free for the first five issues for each Office product — and clean up the online/web support so it’s more customer-friendly, then maybe, maybe, maybe we can talk about Office being not *TOO* expensive.

Do you think Office is too expensive? I think Jeremy might have a hard time finding overwhelming support on this one, but we’ll see what others have to say. His comments area seems somewhat upbeat so far. In the sense that Office is a tool for business there are certainly more expensive tools, but that’s all I’m giving Microsoft on this one. What about you?

Did this post make you go hmm?

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