Whenever Google’s services don’t quite work the way they’re supposed to, we typically accept it as the downside of getting so many great services for free, right?
Well, what about the Google services we actually pay for? Shouldn’t we hold Google to a higher standard for such services?
The answer is a resounding “yes” judging by the number of complaints Google has received regarding Google Calendar’s performance issues over the past week or two.
I expressed my dismay on Twitter last week–Google Cal just simply would not load, instead showing a “try again later” message–and, according to Computerworld, I’m not alone in this experience.
Most of the users trying to access their calendars said they get an error message that reads, “One or more of your selected calendars could not be loaded at this time. You can try to re-select the hidden calendars in a few moments.”
“I am really sick of this,” one user said today. “When are they going to fix this piece of garbage? I rely on this all the time and now I cannot even sync my Blackberry to my calendars. What’s going on? When are they going to fix this problem?”
Another user who received this error message, “Oops, we couldn’t load details for your calendar, please try again,” said, “I’m also angry … Anyone know what the deal is?”
I may only pay $50 a year for Google Apps Premier, but if I were a company of 1,000 employees–paying $50,000 a year–I’d be even more peeved at Google Calendar’s continual performance issues.
Maybe Google shouldn’t be in the paid subscription business. Maybe it should stick to offering free services only. I don’t know about you, but when I pay for a business service–one that I can get from chief rival Microsoft–I kind of expect it to work…flawlessly.
Oh well, maybe someone at Google will hear my cry and send me some aspirin to ease my pain. 
