When is 'Free' good value?

I had a recent experience in a Bangkok shopping centre which opened my eyes a little wider to the 'How do you improve on Free?' question.
We were buying gifts for Christmas and the shop assistant asked if we would like our presents wrapped for us. 'How much is it', I asked. The service was free, but after handing in our presents and being given a number (seemingly random), we waited...and waited...people came and went, cobwebs formed on one particularly narcoleptic shop assistant, and still nothing came back. Eventually I went up to the counter and asked where our presents were. Much confusion ensued and eventually it was discovered, with some assistance from us, that only 1 of our presents had been wrapped so far. No-one was prepared to complete the job immediately (we had 2 things to be wrapped) so we eventually came away feeling short-changed.
But wait a minute, it was free, wasn't it. Actually, they had wasted 20 minutes or more of our time, and still not given a result that we would be happy with. I felt guilty being angry about a free service, but when it comes down to it, no matter how cheap it is, it has to be good enough, otherwise it will create just as much ill feeling as if it was a paid service.

If the free voice services on the internet do not provide adequate quality for the mass consumer, then they will be upset, regardless of how cheap it is.

'Free' is no defence for poor customer service and poor product quality! Take a look at the comments on the Share Skype blog