“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.]
Amen MDN!!!
Sometimes ‘good enough’ isn’t good at all.
iPhone has issues too
@mary
Yes but there is ONE place to call not three, that is the point. It is analogous to the problem with Microsoft and the hardware supplier.
Wake up please.
@Mary: I’ve had issues with my iPhones, but never ones that I couldn’t get handled at an Apple Store, an AT&T;Store, or on the phone with an AT&T;rep. And while I love email, it is a bitch to get email tech support. I much prefer to be able to follow-up an email with a phone call.
Although Google has been one of my favorite companies of the past decade, one of their biggest weaknesses is support.
Whether you’re a paying customer or not, expect long delays on support issues. They’re just not a support company. They’re an “invent something and turn it loose” company.
It’s sad to watch them try and become something that they’re not. They’re getting sucked into the “gotta be bigger than” mentality that’s been slowly killing Microsoft for years.
When you give most of your stuff away for free, people figure they have to support the stuff themselves and they don’t bother you. But when you sell something, especially for a few hundred dollars, consumers begin to expect a little service for their money.
Welcome to the real world Google.
I think this title is a bit misleading- it really isn’t about the volume of complaints – because every new device with a high sales volume at launch (espcially with first run stock) are
going to have issues. iPhones and MacBooks all had launch issues.
The real issue the title should be focused on is the lack of preparedness by google and it’s partners to deal with the inevitable. Apple took all the support away form AT&T;- so unless it is billing or the sim card, you are going to Apple for support. Google should have planned that out already – now that they are masquarading as a hardware vendor.
HA HA HA!!! All those Nexus SCUM users – all those ‘meee tooo’ fools just trying to get close to what the iPhone is – just buy the REAL THING and avoid all the hassle.
Very few problems overall sweetcheeks.
T-Mobile just has crappy edge AND 3G service. My wife has a G-1 and half the time 3G is pretty much non-existent…and we live in a city of several million.
it’s like a wild goose chase. It’s a really bad game of “who’s fault?”.
Ahh google following the market model of Microsoft. Just provide the software and you’re ok.
iDon’t need to be wasting my minutes calling 3 different companies. oh wait I can’t use my phone. no problem with wasting minutes.
They definitely got apple beat in how many customer services you can call.
Google, the new MSFT!
So the phone has 100,000 fewer apps, not much in the way of support, not great video/music handling — and it only saves you $20?
“Although Google has been one of my favorite companies of the past decade”
“Google, the new MSFT!”
Well, at least MSFT actually sells a product, Windows OS
For the life of me, I have never been able to understand the attraction that people have for Google.
It is nothing more than a company that runs a search engine, for Gods’ sake! Give them some credit for figuring out that you can sell the data, so I guess in that way they do sell something.
But whenever they have to do something difficult, they blow it. They are just search engine kids!
Lindsay Lohan made some good movies early in her career, but she has never taken on Shakespeare!
This is exactly how I envisioned this to turn out.
This is the same monkey-in-the-middle game, consumers have had to endure on the PC platform since Day One.
No one is willing to take responsibility for the problem because there are way too many variables. So not until you have exhausted all the possibilities will any of them stop to listen.
Either way, its nightmare for all, but it’s the consumer who is hurt by this and that translates as a fail in their minds. Unless of course you suffer from Stockholm Syndrome.
@kenh
It’s true, Google has zero experience selling to the consumer.
They couldn’t even have predicted this would go pear-shaped, because they lack historical perspective. After building a successful search engine and monetizing it for business, wire transfers kept their hands clean, because nothing ever changed hands.
Now they have to contend with a physical object. They thought, as in enterprise, they could just sit back and take orders and not have to get their hands dirty.
Google is comprised of, and run by, the best cube rats money can buy. They might be the best and the brightest nerds on the planet but it would appear as though they lack any street cred whatsoever.
You guys all seem pretty hateful towards the Nexus One and Google. Why is that? I’ve been an iPhone user since it released and later got the iPhone 3G but the phone isn’t the end all be all you make it out to be. I haven’t tried the Nexus One and I don’t intended to (even though reviews have been tremendous) because I’m under contract with AT&T;until July but the childish namecalling and derogatory comments really aren’t necessary. Google is a great company and virtually everything they’ve touched or done has been amazing (search, mail, office, browser, apps like earth and now android) so I think people are being unfair here by saying they are just search engine kids (they have some of the smartest employees in the world) and being overly critical while at the same time choosing to ignore issues Apple has had with the iPhone since it launched. I guess I shouldn’t expect different from a Mac blog but still a little less juvenile and petty behavior would be nice.
If AT&T;doesn’t expand their 3G coverage to my area (It’s been promosied for over a year now and the date continues to change) I’ll have to decide if I want a great phone (iPhone) hamstrung by a crappy network or a good (not great yet) phone on a better network. The iPhone 3G itself has a very difficult time switching between EDGE and 3G (often times doing neither) when it reaches a soft spot. When I bought a 3G and got rid of my original iPhone on the promise we would have 3G in my area by December of 2008 it was essentially unable to have 3G enabled at all because it refused to connect to EDGE. They had to send me another phone and the issue persisted until a software update. Apple also licensed the ability for manufacturers to sell magnetic cases as iPhone 3G compatible when the truth is they aren’t and it requires the phone be rebooted. Something only acknowledged by a discreet press release on their official support forums. So, I had to purchase an additional velcro case. Then we have the issue of a lack of legacy support (not updating original iPhone to have picture messaging) and no cross compatibility between features in a 3G, 3GS & original iPhone (not only can you not send picture messages but you cant recieve them on an original iPhone. There was also the 3G software update that caused iPhones to randomply power off and was only later remedied and acknowledged by an update about a month after the fact. Perhaps the biggest bungle was the price drop of the original iPhone that had customers fuming to which Jobs said “thats technology” and “deal with it” until he eventually succomb to pressure of the masses and issued a partial rebate in Apple Store giftcards (I got two such cards) … point is that Apple has messed up quite a bit especially early on and even most recently as well with the 3G and 3GS so lets not hold Google to a different standard with their burgeoning Android platform and Nexus One phone.
Google forgot that real consumer hardware requires real customer support. A phone is a very different beast than a beta version of Google docs.
What’s next for Google, retail stores? Information booths strategically placed in shopping centers?
Imagine Google is Apple and this is 1976 and they introduced their first product.
After buying an Apple |, the two Steve’s would have come personally to your house to solve any issues you have. They were a two-man customer service team!
It would appear, Google doesn’t even have that. Granted, we’ve come a long way from 1976, but the principles of what constitutes good customer service haven’t changed.
As far as I’m concerned, the caliber of technical support and customer service I get from Apple, makes it at least feel like I’m getting Steve’s personal red-carpet treatment.
That is something Google will never experience until they take responsibility for the user experience by providing the whole widget.
@Jayfive
I guess I shouldn’t expect different from a Mac blog but still a little less juvenile and petty behavior would be nice.
You’re focusing on the juvenile and petty behavior so what do you expect? MDN veterans skip those kinds of comments, unless they want to get in a few licks of their own.
Stop cherry picking from, and taking your cues from the juveniles and focus on the good ones. It’s healthier.
Oh, and one last thing, if you’re going to cut & paste, why not take a moment to clean up your paragraphs. What is that? You two big giant thoughts?
Just looking at those two big blocks of text would hurt anyone’s eyes.
I stopped reading at ” … You guys all seem pretty hateful …”
526 words?
con⋅cise [kuhn-sahys]
Use Concise in a Sentence –adjective
Expressing or covering much in few words; brief in form but comprehensive in scope;
Gee, you’d think that from reader responses to David Pogue, he was a super Google hater.
http://pogue.blogs.nytimes.com/2010/01/07/reader-responses-to-review-of-googles-nexus-one/
These Google fans were starting to make me think that Apple might have a fanboy competitor on the horizon.
“You guys all seem pretty hateful towards the Nexus One and Google.”
No, how could I hate someone that I don’t know? Google is not even a someone, it is a group of people who I think may be in way over their head.
“Hate” and “Hateful” are two of the most over-used words in society. Typically, “hate” just means something that you disagree with.
Although I “hated” it when I dropped a 10 lb frozen turkey on my foot. I did not hate the turkey. He was just a food source, so I ate him.
But I never had any emotional reaction to the turkey him or herself.