[throwamay1241]

This isn't even a service request, it's a bug report.

Are you able to name a reputable email provider which isn't >$60/year or self-managed? My 65 year old mother probably wouldn't be interested in either of those two, but would be willing to pay for per-use support lines for the one time in 13 years which rendered her account inaccessible.

And lets not forget my father, who couldn't access his _paid_ Telstra/O365 standard-user work email. When I called the Telstra support line they gave me administrative access to the entire instance, no proof of ID necessary (I literally said I'm not associated with the company and calling on behalf of my father).

To be honest, I'm not sure which is worse now that I think about it.

[_-___________-_]

$60/year doesn't seem terrible for your absolute most critical asset.

[LilBytes]

It isn't, but $60 per year for a service you've been getting for years is perfectly fine, until it isn't. And then you realise the value of the dollars spent, but not before.

[_-___________-_]

But yeah, I mostly agree with you. Paid single-use support would be an absolutely transformational addition to the likes of the free Google services, I think. Why doesn't it exist?

[janekm]

Most likely because the cost of a single complicated support call (of the sort that can't be answered from a knowledge base) that may need to be escalated to 2nd level support or beyond would appear exorbitant ($100 perhaps, or more?).

[lonelappde]

Paying per incident is a terrible moral hazard.

[justinclift]

Dotster was similar for DNS hosting, several years ago.

Called them to get access to our account after a problem, and they gave me admin with no verification at all. Just provided the account name, was asked for new password. Like... WTF?

Tried telling their security people, who then denied it happened, let alone it being a problem.

Our DNS hosting was moved away from Dotster shortly afterwards.

[lonelappde]

My dog license costs $35/yr and the only benefit is the county might help me recover my dog if I lose her, which happened once in 13 years.

My laptop has a warranty that costs $60 year and I get nothing, nothing!, unless I break it. And don't even get me started on my car insurance!

[JoeAltmaier]

Wasn't it Mark Twain who said insurance is "Betting the other man that your house will burn down, and hoping he wins"

[MrMorden]

Fastmail.