I work at GoDaddy and recently our CEO read an email from a customer who had been encouraged by a son to use Google services for his small business, but when he couldn't figure out some issue with support ("they talked way over my head"), he called GoDaddy and found someone that worked to get his account setup.
Google probably, appropriately, calculates the cost of providing good customer support to hundreds of millions of people as way too high. But by doing so, they do leave open the door to smaller companies to compete, not on the product, but on the service and support.
Google could, at the very least, make sure that it provides sufficient support for all billing related issues. If a customer is paying for a product and there's a problem with their billing, they should be able to get a person on the phone or web chat to resolve it if the online tools are insufficient.
I've had some good experiences with GoDaddy support recently, including one case where a client's site had a custom php-mailer whose messages seemed to be disappearing into a black hole somewhere, and the front line support tech (not even tier 2) read the PHP code in question, determined it was fine, checked the mail queue, and verified there was a problem on their end.
"Surprised" doesn't quite capture my response to that.
I'm still not a fan of GoDaddy the company, GoDaddy the infrastructure, or GoDaddy the horrifyingly bad control panel "interface", but GoDaddy support could teach Google a lot.
Keeping aside Godaddy's ethical issues, their support is actually pretty good, definitely above industry average. The times I had to contact them in the past, they did go the extra mile to resolve the issue and even waived any invloved fees. Don't know why I feel this way but now a days getting phone support (especially 24/7) seems like a miracle. So apart from my moral compass going wonky, I have no real complaints about them.
Other services I tried:
Namecheap: Decent prices, great support, beware of domains with certain keywords (would require approval).
Gandi: Decent prices (Free Whois guard), poor support, beware of moral clause in TOS.
I've been using GoDaddy for twelve years, and have always had excellent results with their Tech. Support. They are knowledgeable and helpful. (Yes, their control panel feels like running through a gauntlet).
Google probably, appropriately, calculates the cost of providing good customer support to hundreds of millions of people as way too high. But by doing so, they do leave open the door to smaller companies to compete, not on the product, but on the service and support.
Google could, at the very least, make sure that it provides sufficient support for all billing related issues. If a customer is paying for a product and there's a problem with their billing, they should be able to get a person on the phone or web chat to resolve it if the online tools are insufficient.