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My Pixel has a manufacturing defect

9to5google.com

251–260 of 354 posts

Re: My Pixel has a manufacturing defect

#251
post #10

Earlier quoted context omitted.

That was literally my thought. Apple doesn't have the best customer service ever, but it's pretty decent and people that have warranties seem to leave happy. a) if the author speaks the truth (and I have no reason to believe otherwise) that the was never dropped - Google should fix it. That much is obvious. Now, the b). b) C'mon Google - you know the author is a techie / twitterer / reviewer - of all the people to an…

>Apple doesn't have the best customer service They don't? Who does then? Now if you want to say they're not perfect and they've had their problems, I would agree with that.

> They don't? Who does then?

IME Apple customer service is useless if you try to talk to them over the phone (though less hostile than Comcast), and good but not great if you go into a store. The best customer service comes from small companies selling premium outdoor stuff. For example, Darn Tough honors a lifetime warranty on their socks; OR tends to replace faulty products with no questions; and even REI will replace merchandise for a year. (REI used to do it forever, until assholes took advantage of their policy too often.)

Re: My Pixel has a manufacturing defect

#253
Would love to hear if someone actually has had a positive support experience with Google.

My company has faced a bug in their location dashboard for over a year. We support local businesses and often get asked to update their Google business details. We're unable to delegate location dashboard access inside our Apps domain. My partner can send the invite to any gmail account, but can't send access to me inside the company. I can't even access my own company's panel through my paid Apps account.

We've had calls, emails, sent tweets. Repeatedly asked for supervisors or for the issue to be forwarded to an engineer. The typical response is to get blamed or deal with support confusion in India over what we're trying to achieve.

The end result of 'partner' support? They gave a 2 hour notice over a major rebrand to GSuite. The only way they could do it better is send us a postcard simply saying 'FUCK YOU!', and in smallprint 'but thanks for your money and information'. As said in other threads on this topic, Comcast offers better support. That's telling.

Re: My Pixel has a manufacturing defect

#254

As a counter data point, my Pixel XL's speakers started malfunctioning about 3 weeks after I bought it. I called customer support, waited on hold for about 10 minutes, went through a series of debugging steps with the guy on the phone ("Have you tried restarting the device?"), and then they shipped me a replacement for free. Also important to realize that the denominator matters. Seeing a murder on TV every day doesn…

I've always had similarly positive experiences with Google hardware support. I dropped a Nexus 5 a year (and a few days) after I'd bought it - only time I've ever shattered a screen. They sent me a refurb replacement immediately, no charge.

Re: My Pixel has a manufacturing defect

#255

Sorry for my pessimistic views, but I think big companies always have had the power to screw over anyone they want. This is especially the case in the US, where it seems to be quite accepted for companies to screw you over. Almost all countries lack an easy option for non-billionaires to take action against big companies. If you go to court, they will deliberately make the costs too high to pay for normal people, and…

Fwiw though little guys are just as happy to screw you over. I've had both the best service and worst service from mom and pop stores. Big guys can afford to provide service - sometimes the little guys are petty or vindictive or just can't afford to make things right. There's no solution.

Re: My Pixel has a manufacturing defect

#256
post #164

Earlier quoted context omitted.

We aren't their primary customers, advertisers are. If its free (Google Search, Gmail, Youtube, etc) you are the product.

Parent comment is talking about being a paying customer of AdSense and still not getting support. The problem transcends the 'you are the product' and goes to "no, their support is terrible even for their paying customers."

[deleted]

Re: My Pixel has a manufacturing defect

#257
Anecdotal of course, but my one and only interaction with Google support was a positive experience. This was on the retail hardware side rather than in software/services (IDK if there are different support depts., I would assume so). I bought one of the v2 Chromecasts direct from Google Store when they came out. FedEx delivered it to the wrong address. Called support (which was, to my surprise, easy to find an actual phone number for, and I was speaking to an actual human being. Probably because this was 'retail' related), and after 1 phone conversation and 2 email exchanges he filed a case with FedEx - which required no involvement from me - and i was sent a replacement free of charge. About a week later my across-the-street neighbor knocks on my door and gives me a FedEx package with my name and address on it, it was the Chromecast. Turns out the FedEx delivery driver mistakenly delivered it to his house, which has only a 1-digit difference in Address. Honest mistake, it happens. I e-mail the support guy I talked with before -- to my surprise again, this was a direct e-mail address of his, not a randomly generated 'post only' email, so he actually responded. I explained the situation, and asked where I should ship the replacement one they sent back to. They tell me to just keep it and do whatever I want with it (the guy even specifically said "give it away, sell it on eBay, do whatever"). Granted, it's only a $35 device, and it likely costs Google far less than that, but still - I did appreciate it, and my sister does as well because she got a free Chromecast.

Re: My Pixel has a manufacturing defect

#258
post #22
post #17

If Google won't repair a manufacturing defect, consider a chargeback (assuming you bought it from Google). Services like American Express have purchase protection, but the limits I believe won't be enough to cover the Pixel. If you were sold a lemon and Google won't hash it out, go ahead and let the card company fight that battle for you. If enough people start doing this, you can bet Google will double down on custo…

Initiating a chargeback is tantamount to terminating your Google Account at a random time in the future when they find in your favor.

> Initiating a chargeback is tantamount to terminating your Google Account at a random time in the future when they find in your favor.

Purchase protection isn't the same thing as a chargeback.

Re: My Pixel has a manufacturing defect

#259
post #180
post #166

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> First google is no apple. Don't expect that level of service. They simply don't care. In my experience, Apple support isn't great either, unless you are a paid customer. When I bought the Iphone 3G, it had dead pixels upon arrival, I got a replacement, same thing, then went for another replacement, but at this point they started to argue, talk about "half-dead pixel" (a new concept), etc .. I had to insist heavily…

Interesting. I've always had a very pleasant experience with support for my apple devices. To the degree that I've had two laptops repaired for free that were out of warranty. Getting an iPhone screen officially repaired on the spot is something that still amazes me. In the end, googles lack of support is one of the major factors I'm willing to pay the extra cash for Apple devices. That plus privacy and thought out s…

I think Apple's phone support has been overhauled recently to make it way better. I called about an issue on my new touchbar macbook pro and the person I talked to stayed on the line for about 45 minutes with me, including waiting while I reinstalled macos over the top of itself. After the problem seemed to be resolved he gave me his email address so I could talk to him directly if it happens again. He promised they'd sort it out one way or another.

I believe him - I have no doubt they'll send me out a replacement if the issue keeps showing up.

Its a super expensive laptop so I'm definitely paying for it. But it sure is nice to get a personal, premium experience like that from customer support.

Re: My Pixel has a manufacturing defect

#260
post #113

First google is no apple. Don't expect that level of service. They simply don't care. Second it's not just with their new phone the pixel they support poorly. Try having problems with google fiber. The stories of them taking a year and a half or over two years to deploy fiber 400 feet or to a house next to a house with it or an apartment already wired for it is insane. I don't think they have they really care about s…

> Second it's not just with their new phone the pixel they support poorly. Try having problems with google fiber. The stories of them taking a year and a half or over two years to deploy fiber 400 feet or to a house next to a house with it or an apartment already wired for it is insane.

Deploying fiber where you think it would be easy to deploy fiber is not customer support...

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