MyndJack Radio Blog

I log into my Gmail account this afternoon after taking the last 24 hours off from anything radio related, a much needed break from the events of last week. I find this banner at the top of my email page stating “You are almost out of space for your Gmail account. Once you run out of space, you will not be able to send or receive any emails until you delete some items.” It then provides two links, one suggesting I click here to view their tips on how to manage my account or I can….wait for it….purchase additional storage.

This is the same scam that Photobucket used to run when it would suddenly, out of the digital blue tell me that I have nearly maxed out my memory space; however, I hadn’t uploaded anything new to Photobucket in over a year (Tinypic FTW!). So how could I suddenly be out of memory space if I hadn’t done shit with my account? Well, I could purchase more space if I wanted to, according to photobucket for a nominal fee.

I’ve been in sales for nearly 10 years and I am still sickened by these short-term score scams that continue to plague the commercial world today. One can be an honest salesperson, but greed and pride can corrupt companies that may have started out with the most honest and simple of intentions. Sales has become a close or be closed mentality instead of providing something for someone that they truly need or want at a reasonable price at the expense of long term profit.

Take my time at Enterprise Car Sales for example, when my newly promoted Regional Manager told me to lie to a bank in order to get a credit-risk customer approved for a car loan on a car they couldn’t afford. I refused not only because it was dishonest, but also it was not the right thing for the customer. The customer would have defaulted and we would have had to buy back the $20,000 loan. How wise is it to spend $20,000 to make $3,000? And people wonder why our economy crashed in 2008.

So, back to my Gmail thing. At the bottom of the screen, it says that I am at 7231 MB of my 7598 MB of storage space, which conveniently equates to about 95%. Wow, I’m glad they notified me now in the middle of MyndJack Radio Idol when I am counting on several megs of audio to be sent my way, but it started creating some questions in my mind:
1. How did they come up with 7598 MB as my limit? Kind of a random number if you ask me. Wouldn’t 7500 MB or 8000 MB make better sense? And I don’t recall seeing anything about this when I signed up for Gmail in the first place.
2. I deleted about 20 megs of old emails (some MJR memories are gone forever…sniff) and still had the same warning. That threw up another red flag. How come I had to delete about 100 emails to reduce my storage by only 20 megs and yet today is the day I suddenly reached my memory storage limit? I’m glad they notified me today before things really got out of control!
3. Was this always my storage limit or did they decide this today?
4. Does everyone on Gmail have the same storage limit? Or do some have higher than others? Again, why did they decide on 7598 MB as the limit for me and do others have the same?
5. …and why is it that when I click on the link to learn how to reduce storage space it takes me to the same purchase option screen as the link to actually purchase more memory space?

I contend that the answer to all of these can be summed up in one word. Greed.

I’ve had my Gmail account for almost four years and I’ve never had to reduce my email storage. I’ve taken it upon myself to organize it better and delete a lot of spam, but that was so that I could find the important emails I’d been saving much easier. This is the first time I’ve been notified of any limit on my Gmail account and I find it quite interesting that the red flag at Google went up today when I have apparently been just as close to breaching this limit for the last couple months.

It’s obvious to me that this is simply a way for Google.com to get users like me to pay more money for the storage space they already have. Someone in a boardroom somewhere came up with the idea to suddenly tell users that they are close to their storage limit and scare them into buying more space. It’s like a landlord suddenly saying that you’ve come to the limit of the number of months you are allowed to rent your apartment, but you can conveniently purchase more months for an additional monthly rate or you can GTFO!

The thing is, it is Google’s servers and I have no problem with there being a limit, but be upfront about it. Don’t try to scam people. There is no need to trick people into purchasing more memory when all you need to say is “Hey, we need to start charging for more space so we gotta cap you on your memory storage. We know this is news to you but it’s our servers and if you don’t like it, go play with your Yahoo!”

We are still in a survival of the fittest mentality, only this time the jungle is commerce and the predators are companies like Google, Microsoft, etc. We depend on them, but we are at their mercy when they turn on us because we let them. Like my former Regional Manager at Enterprise, it’s easier to make the quick buck now at the expense of integrity because no one is gonna be around long enough for it to catch up with you.

So I guess what I’m getting at is that there is that don’t try to pull a fast one. Be an honest salesperson and you will always have my business. Greed will do us all in. You can still be successful without compromising your integrity, just be honest about the money you are making. If you can’t be honest about what you are doing, then you obviously know what you are doing is wrong.