“Google is selling the phone directly to end-users. That means many users are turning to it first, and the search giant doesn’t have the kind of customer support that mobile-phone users are accustomed to.,” Gohring reports. “Google appears to be only accepting e-mail customer queries, to which it pledges to reply in one to two days — far too long, say most people who are complaining online.”
Gohring reports, “Many people are also turning to T-Mobile and HTC, but getting little help there. T-Mobile is often referring people back to either Google or HTC for answers to questions. HTC is often referring people back to T-Mobile, according to complaints online… One customer going by the name Roland78 said he was transferred between T-Mobile and HTC four times, spending a total of one-and-a-half hours on the phone with customer service.”
“Several people on one thread regarding poor 3G performance on the phone report being told by HTC customer service people that the Nexus One doesn’t support 3G, although the phone does. Another got an e-mail response in five hours from Google suggesting that the user try restarting the phone to see if that solves the problem,” Gohring reports.
Full article here.
MacDailyNews Take: We all know that you wanted a real iPhone, but you settled for a fake one. And now you pay.
[UPDATE: 5:16pm ET: Changed “hit with” to “unprepared for” in headline as per feedback by “Javbw” below.]
Feel free to replace “iPhone” with “Mac,” that works just as well, too.
[Thanks to MacDailyNews Reader “Mike in Helsinki” for the heads up.]
Classic text direct from Google’s Nexus One Support Page:
Support options:
Our goal is to help you get the fastest answer to your question. Here’s how you can find what you’re looking for:
Online troubleshooting guide: Find an answer to your problem using our online troubleshooter.
Please email us for the following problems. In most cases you won’t receive a personal response, but rest assured that we review each report that we receive.
“
Our goal is to help you get the fastest answer to your question. Here’s how you can find what you’re looking for:
Online troubleshooting guide: Find an answer to your problem using our online troubleshooter.”
Really? They actually do that?
I HATE IT when they do that!
” width=”19″ height=”19″ alt=”wink” style=”border:0;” />
Are you all seeing what I’m seeing?
http://www.google.com/nexusone
“We’re unable to serve your request at this time. Please try again in a few minutes”….. haha.
Fail.
Don’t forget that the iPhone comes with an army of fanboys, blogs, magazines and fixit web sites where people help each other. Google has no community to support it.
Everyone overlooks the importance of face to face help available at all the Apple Stores. most people in the US live reasonably close to one, all the metro areas at least. it’s not really “free” of course – you pay for it as part of Apple retail prices. but it usually solves your problem, if it is solvable, and that is HUGE. and warranty failure replacements are done instantly on the spot – which is pretty amazing.
where you gonna take your Nexus?
When you buy your phone from a search engine company, you should anticipate searching for support.
Apple support is just phenomenal. They fix or replace things on-the-spot or with overnight shipping. You get an English-speaking, friendly person within a minute from the time your call is answered. Call me a fanboy if you must, but 20 years’ experience with Apple has more than made me a loyal fan.
You can’t call OR visit Google even if you wanted to.
Apple is a hardware company with years of experience and infrastructure for customer support. And Apple is a software company with years of experience releasing commercial software products and providing support. And Apple operated the world’s largest electronic media reseller businesses, in the form of the iTunes Store, for many years before launching the App Store; the App store is now just part of the overall iTunes Store.
These Apple copy-cats launch hardware products and open online app stores, with seemingly utter lack of internal expertise and capability to support actual customers and provide a good experience. They are just doing it because it happens to be the “hot” thing at the moment. This will only serve to drive more customers to Apple, where user experience is the #1 consideration.
Dear Google,
Retail is hard.
I used to have this nightmare where a guy from Microsoft,a guy from Packard Bell, and a guy from SoundBlaster were were all sitting in an office with three phones. I wod call one with an audio problem and he would tell me it was one of the other’s fault, hang up, and they would all laugh and wait for me to call one of the others….. And it would go on until I threw myself off a cliff just to wake up from the adrenaline…
Google is neither a hardware company nor a software company. It’s really a technology company, which hardly qualifies it to go into the consumer hardware business. I wish them luck and, boy, are they going to need it!
“Another got an e-mail response in five hours from Google suggesting that the user try restarting the phone to see if that solves the problem,”
GOOD GAWD. You know tech support is dire when they tell you to do something so obvious that you might as well be talking to a 5 year old.
This Android thingy has Version 1.0 Syndrome deluxe. Have fun Google! Let’s see what version it takes for you to get it right. It takes Microsoft 3 (THREE) versions to put out something usable. How about you?
The next syndrome to typically hit a software company is Version 2.0 where they drop in the kitchen sink, aka massive bloat. Will we get to see that with Google Android gadgets as well?
*rolling eyes*
Tech help at Apple:
Step 1. Go to Apple.com and make Genius appointment.
Step 2. Go to Apple store and get free face-to-face tech help.
Step 3. There is no step 3.
i just visited the nexus one home page. it has a flash application. click on an icon to see a demo. well, i click on the icons but the demo doesn’t work. so my question is: is this truth in advertising?
one more question: who the hell came up with the name “nexus one”? it’s like some bad 70’s sci fi film. i couldn’t believe it when i heard it.
honestly, every time i’ve used (or tried to use) google as a paying customer, the experience has been very poor indeed.