Not All Customers Fit
In 1997, I worked at an ISP in the Bay Area doing technical support. My boss told me "the customer is not always right. That's why they're calling us, after all." Of course that old adage is referring to customers being treated well because they make your business, not their grasp of technical ISP details. But while his logic was flawed, I still do agree with his central point for a sightly different reason: the customer is not always right, because not everyone is a match to every product or service.
For example, a person making $30,000 a year might contact Mercedes and complain bitterly that Mercedes' are too expensive. And they are, for this customer, because he is not a fit with the Mercedes target demographic. This customer should be politely listened to, his comments filed away, and his opinion taken in stride. Maybe Mercedes should get into the budget market. But maybe not. The customer isn't "right", he just has his opinion and it may or may not line up with corporate objectives.
My company recently started charging money for our service. We had announced for about two years that we were in an open beta, and that we would eventually try to make money at this. (while keeping a free option available with fewer features)
On one hand, I was surprised how many people were level-headed about the change. There was a lot of "Damn it! Ok, I'll pay." or "Damn it! I can't afford that but I understand." And that's great.
But there were still the people that demanded that we keep giving them a free ride. And not only are we not for them, I'm happy to see them go. Our service costs money to operate, so I'm happy to see these "free or die" people go and cost our competition money. Money they will never, ever recoup, because these are customers whose primary metric is how free the service is.
If you decide that you are never paying for software, don't be surprised when your options are limited. Or if some businesses are more than happy to see you go. You're not "right", you're "cheap", and that's not a match with every company.
