Comment by jkaplowitz

Comment by jkaplowitz 3 days ago

5 replies

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Nope, I still have it, I know it wasn't abolished for existing users. You're right that they initially planned to get rid of it, but they backtracked. They set a deadline by which existing users had to confirm that they were using it for personal use if they wanted to keep it. Anyone who didn't click the confirmation button was indeed converted to a paid plan like you are saying, but those of us who did continue to have the legacy free edition.

kccqzy 3 days ago

Oh dear. Thank you stranger for telling me I missed my chance to milk more free stuff out of Google. I see plenty of other people on Reddit doing that successfully.

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  • ggm 3 days ago

    Look I get your hot take anger, but this is misplaced. The word legacy here is real: if you had one from when they said it was free and obeyed their rules you can keep it. But it was grandfathered in and will die in time, as we do.

    Really, your complaint is "oh dear, another privilege club I can't join because I'm not old enough and the ship has sailed" which is true.

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    • kccqzy 3 days ago

      I had free G Suite until 2022. I don't remember when I signed up for it but given Google discontinued signing up for it back in 2012, it must have been before then. 2022 was the time Google said no more free G Suite. So I upgraded to Business Starter. I didn't know that after I upgraded, Google introduced a free tier Google Workspace. Of course they never bothered to tell me, given that I had already started paying $3/mo as a special discounted price of Business Starter.

      I even found the link posted by Redditors to convert the business starter account to free. That link expired in 2023.

      This is the email Google sent me in 2022:

      > As a valued customer, you can get started now with Google Workspace Business Starter. Billing will not start until at least August 1, 2022, and you’ll also get a discount of at least 50% for 12 months after that date.*

      > Note: If you no longer want to use Gmail with your custom domain or the ability to manage multiple users, you’ll be able to join a waitlist in the Google Workspace Admin Console for a no-cost option in the coming weeks.

      The only option presented to me was to stop using Gmail and enjoy a no-cost option. They must have backtracked later and offered a no-cost option with Gmail included.

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      • ggm 3 days ago

        Ah. I am sorry, At the time having done what you did, I managed to find an email trail which said "if you walk it back now, this way, we will refund and put you back on free" and I did.

        I cannot recall what URLs or I would share. Basically, I think you acted in good faith, missed a mail or message and were lost. There was some class action threat.

        This was within months of the forced cut over.

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