Google Faces Deluge of Nexus One Complaints 329
wkurzius writes "It seems Google is going through some growing pains as far as customer service is concerned. Since their new phone, the Nexus One, can be bought unlocked, many people are turning to Google themselves for help, but not getting what they're used to from traditional mobile carriers. T-Mobile and HTC are also getting hammered, with many customers being bounced back and forth between the two companies' service lines."
It seems they're also taking flak from Android developers who are unhappy that no SDK has yet been released for Android 2.1, which runs on the Nexus One.
Re:duh (Score:3, Interesting)
Android releases are sort of a mess, which may or may not be deliberate. A new OS version will typically first appear on a new handset, and the SDK will pop up at roughly the same time. Weeks later, they push out a single blob of changes to their public Git repository. Months later, it's available on other handsets.
And so the whole Android ecosystem is far more of a mess than it should or could be, with plenty of devices at 1.5 or 1.6, two (Droid/Milestone) at 2.0, and the Nexus One at 2.1. For simpler apps, it's usually not problematic to target 1.5 and have your app run on anything. But when you try to do more interesting things...ugh. Hopefully once Android is a bit more feature-complete, things will stabilize, but Android adoption is growing fast, and they need to get things under control soon. And I haven't even mentioned some utterly moronic decisions, like barring all SIM-unlocked phones from downloading copy-protected apps, just because there's a loophole in the dev phones (which are also SIM-unlocked).
Re:new to customer service (Score:5, Interesting)
correcto.
Google is many things, but a customer-service-oriented company they are not.
Ask anyone with adwords campaign sitting in "under review" for 3 weeks.
Besides, HTC actually makes the device.
Re:new to customer service (Score:3, Interesting)
Shouldn't HTC be providing support?
From what I understand, Google is aiming to be a reseller, and will eventually be selling all Android-based devices from their website. The Nexus one is simply the first to be offered through the program.
I quite like Google's concerted attempts to divorce hardware devices from mobile carriers. It should spur considerable innovation in the industry. Of course, some things such as the burden of technical support still need to be sorted out -- turning to the European model should work just fine (subsidized contract phones are supported by the carrier, while 'unlocked' phones are supported by the manufacturer, with the carrier stepping in to provide help with SIM issues).
Re:Market Research using Google... (Score:4, Interesting)
Because people don't gripe about sprint, they just drop them and move onto a carrier that supports modern phones. I love t-mobile by the way. Everytime I call (0 wait, either!) the tmobile rep usually says "we can add/adjust this feature for free!". When I called about how to use google voice as a voicemail transcription service [nearlydeaf.com], the guy not only gave me the code to key in, but also offered to set it up on my end, put me on hold and then call my cell and test the transcription service to confirm it worked. Compared to sprint, where I usually got in screaming matches with the CS reps there over some new $4 charge per month they needed to charge me to make/recieve international calls or some other BS. Fuck sprint. I'll never go back. I love tmobile.
Love:Hate ratios in "I love/hate [telco]" searches (Score:5, Interesting)
T-Mobile:
49,800:145,000 (1:2.9)
25.6% love
74.4% hate
Verizon:
259,000:469,000 (1:1.8)
35.6% love
64.4% hate
AT&T:
103,000:447,000 (1:4.3)
18.7% love
81.3% hate
Sprint:
45,500:287,000 (1:6.3)
13.7% love
86.3% hate
Most Loved: Verizon
Most Hated: Sprint
Re:new to customer service (Score:5, Interesting)
Umm, no. Google offers quite a few services through acquisitions and business/pay services. Postini for example, however, that service has some of the worst support ever. Gmail... oh, wait, that has terrible support too. Adsense... yep, constant fiascos and problems. Basically this company has NO track record of good service but everyone simply gives them a pass.
I do use some of their services, personally and in my company, but I know their service is trash. When I can replace them with another product/company I do. Gmail for Zimbra as an example.
Re:Market Research using Google... (Score:4, Interesting)
I just wanted to say I love T-Mobile as well. When I moved back to the US, I had T-Mobile for a couple yrs, moved to Verizon for 2 yrs to take advantage of the Unlimited-In, couldn't wait for my Verizon contract to be over before switching back to T-Mobile (in fact, I had T-Mobile data service like 4 months before my Verizon contract was over, and T-Mobile voice service like a month before my Verizon contract was over to give them plenty of time in case of any possible issues w/ switching my number over).
T-Mobile I was able to get a new contract 21 months into my existing contract to take advantage of the full upgrade option.
Up until recently all options/add-ons were prorated to the day the add-on was added or removed.
T-Mobile's written policy flat out says they don't support tethering. When I told that to one of the Blackberry reps, he started laughing.
In my experience T-Mobile not only supports tethering, but when I was having issues w/ a Vista laptop (At the time, I couldn't even get full use of the audio, much less the wireless w/o using Vista drivers) and getting tethering to work on my Blackberry, after spending a while on the the phone w/ T-Mobile support-They offered to open a support ticket w/ RIM for me.
Another thing I like about T-Mobile data services, most other US cell phone companies have a written policy of unlimited data services for smartphones (to include devices like Blackberries and iPhones), I've talked to reps for a couple retailers and cell phone companies (Such as AT&T) who said "It is unlimited within reason" and generally reasonable usage is around 5 gigs and then you get hit w/ overage charges or data services are cut off.
T-Mobile has admitted a 10 gig limit for 3G (Unlimited for EDGE) and by their policy if you hit the 10 gig limit, you are reduced to EDGE until the next billing cycle (So lose of streaming video, but everything else continues to work) and at the time, they rep I spoke to said they were having issues w/ the cap system and people were able to exceed 10 gigs before getting reduced to EDGE.
T-Mobile has a smaller 3G area then most other providers, but their EDGE service is almost everyplace I've been and I've had a lot few dropped calls then most other people I know.
A note for Google Voice (and other voicemail service) users, T-Mobile has in addition to your normal bucket of minutes, an additional 500 min bucket that is used if you set your voice to forward another voicemail provider.
And let me add, I could get a 20% discount w/ AT&T by getting my phone under someone else's name (whose offered) and I still won't touch them.
Just remember, cell phone carriers are like sexual positions, everyone has a favorite (=
-ITG
Re:Market Research using Google... (Score:2, Interesting)
Wait a minute. Does anybody have more information about this? You mean I can double my monthly minutes by using a different voicemail provider? Is there documentation of this feature?
Re:My complaint: Carrier data plan still required! (Score:3, Interesting)
I used my G1 for an entire year without a data plan. It worked wonderfully whenever wifi was available, and I would get upsell messages in my browser whenever wifi was not available. I could send & receive text messages too, but I had to pay 10 cents for each one.
Read those support forum posts with a grain of salt. There's a lot of mis-information in there. During initial phone setup, you need to skip the google registration process (it won't be able to contact google servers due to the lack of a data connection). Then you configure your wifi connection, and finally attempt to access gmail to continue the registration process. So it's not very obvious how to do it, but it can be done.
Re:Real Problem (Score:4, Interesting)
I have yet to experience a stable 3G on any phone or provider in Norway. Edge works fine, but 3G is buggy.
Tried different phones and providers, they all show the same.
Re:new to customer service (Score:4, Interesting)
I've used this trick many times, and it goes like this: the customer has some ridiculous, often imaginary problem, or a problem that simply cannot be supported because it has nothing to do with us, or it is a real problem but it's going to take time to fix and that's just the way it is. At this point the conversation goes:
And that's it. Letting customers push you around is a sucker's game and calling their bluff is a highly effective tactic to get them to stop wasting your time. In my experience, 90% or better of these customers never call back about that problem and never cancel. You just have to make it totally clear that their one "bargaining chip" is useless, at which point they have no further ammo. Remain polite but firm.
Thankfully I don't have to deal with customers anymore, but for a while there, I was the "escalations guy", meaning any ticket that went through the normal tier two guys and wasn't fixed would get bumped to me, and only me, where my job was to put an end to the situation once and for all, either by fixing it or by telling the customer why it's not going to get fixed. I found this strategy to be the best.