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Leaving Google Fi

jasonatwood.io

121–130 of 296 posts

Re: Leaving Google Fi

#121
post #20

Earlier quoted context omitted.

They'll clear it up by banning your Google account and blacklisting you for all Google services. Just be prepared for that.

I don't think they will actually... A credit card chargeback bans you from Google Pay/Wallet/Android Pay/Google merchant services/google shopping basket/gBilling/whatever it's called now and all services requiring payment. I think you can still use gmail/youtube/whatever.

You would think that the credit card companies would have 'fines' for companies that retaliate against their customers.

Something nice like $10k per violation.

Re: Leaving Google Fi

#123

It’s very likely that the rep you were communicating with was some flunky from Ingram Micro, who handle fulfillment for Fi. Not that it makes you any happier but this is just something Google can’t do in-house.

If Google can't:

A) do this well in house

B) outsource it to someone who can get the job done

then they have no business selling expensive phones tied to critical services which people rely on.

Re: Leaving Google Fi

#124

Earlier quoted context omitted.

That's most definitely is true if it's about one of their free services (gmail, youtube, etc), but I'm not sure why people expect free services to have the same quality of support as Amazon Prime where you're paying monthly fees + more for the products. Become an actual paying Google customer[0] and you'll get a real person. Of course, the issue here is slightly different. The author clearly did get to talk to many r…

It doesn’t matter. I’ve been a paying customer of Google (Apps / Mail / Gsuite) for my company. Good luck finding helpful support if you run into any situation slightly outside of the norm. I’ve had my entire company email domain down and was told by Google support to “wait.” As the other commenter noted, Google does not have a customer-first or even customer-top-10 priority and it shows, again and again.

They’ll call YOU if you’re paying for their ads platform. ‘Just checking in, making sure everything is going alright.’

Re: Leaving Google Fi

#125
post #57
post #48

This is the difference between Google and Amazon. People have lots of criticism of Amazon, some I even agree with, but working here[0] one of my favorite little cultural things is that customers can and do email Jeff when stupid things happen. And Jeff reads them. Every now and then he'll forward one of them to a senior VP with a simple "?" added to it.[1] That question mark indicates two things: that you have 24 hou…

> Google does not have such a customer-obsessed culture Simply because Google has never considered its users "customers" in the first place

Or they're just plain incompetent. That's always an option too.

My story: I bought the first google tablet. One of the incentives for ordering early was a credit in the google store. I used it to buy books. It turns out that when you depleted the credit enough and wanted to buy something that cost more than the remaining credit, you couldn't apply the credit and pay the rest with your card.

In my case, I had like $11 left on the credit, wanted a $14 book, and couldn't pay the final $3 with my card. For reals.

Some product manager looked at this complete fucking dumpster fire and said ship it. If you can't get the simple things right, like fully spending down a credit, you're not gonna get much right at all.

Re: Leaving Google Fi

#126
post #77

Two stories spring to mind. The first is I worked at Google when the whole "real names" saga of Google Plus was going on. The worst part about that was if some algorithm decided your name wasn't real, it could block your entire Google account. You'd lose access to GMail, Drive, everything. I don't know what bright spark PMs, lawyers and executives signed off on that one but it was insanity. As a result I would strong…

> Let me repeat that and make it clear: Google simply cannot compete in a low margin business.

That reminds me of Intel. The addiction to high margin microprocessors and a captive customer base had two effects. a) Intel doesn't know how to play with customers that have a choice. b) Customers with a choice avoid designing in Intel solutions like the plague. Over the long haul Intel is a much smaller company than they would be otherwise.

Here is a good one. In the late 80's Intel fucked over Panasonic badly enough that Panasonic put Intel in their prohibited vendors list. I worked for a group that managed to get Panasonic in as a customer. And then Intel fucked them again. And back on the list they went.

Google has the same mindset that Intel does. They can't process the ramifications of their business practices on future business opportunities.

Re: Leaving Google Fi

#127

Earlier quoted context omitted.

It doesn’t matter. I’ve been a paying customer of Google (Apps / Mail / Gsuite) for my company. Good luck finding helpful support if you run into any situation slightly outside of the norm. I’ve had my entire company email domain down and was told by Google support to “wait.” As the other commenter noted, Google does not have a customer-first or even customer-top-10 priority and it shows, again and again.

They’ll call YOU if you’re paying for their ads platform. ‘Just checking in, making sure everything is going alright.’

I often get these cheerful E-mails from other vendors. When I tell them what's not going alright they set up a series of meetings with clueless people and nothing happens usually. I would expect Google to be the same.

Re: Leaving Google Fi

#128

Earlier quoted context omitted.

It doesn’t matter. I’ve been a paying customer of Google (Apps / Mail / Gsuite) for my company. Good luck finding helpful support if you run into any situation slightly outside of the norm. I’ve had my entire company email domain down and was told by Google support to “wait.” As the other commenter noted, Google does not have a customer-first or even customer-top-10 priority and it shows, again and again.

They’ll call YOU if you’re paying for their ads platform. ‘Just checking in, making sure everything is going alright.’

Thats sales, not support.

Re: Leaving Google Fi

#129
This isn't just the case at Google Fi. Google's support sucks for their developers too. The /r/androiddev sub has countless stories of developers getting account banned and apps removed for vague reasons and then unable to talk to a real human being on Google's support side. They get canned responses from their bots.

I can't wait and hope that one day Amazon takes over Google somehow. SO far, my experiences with Amazon support has been outstanding. If an item doesn't arrive in the "prime" 1 day shipping window, they immediately ship a new item right away and gets delivered the next day and simply ask you to return the item if the first one shows up eventually. They have done this for a knife set which was over $300 in value and the first item never showed up, so they sent me another one the next day. Other times when I have contacted Amazon support, they have been amazing too. If a delivery is late by even a day, they offer me a month of free prime shipping. And this is simply via chat, not even phone support.

Google should take a few lessons from Amazon and at least offer decent support for their paying customers and developers who help flourish their play store considering they take 30% cut of the developer earnings.

Re: Leaving Google Fi

#130
post #48

This is the difference between Google and Amazon. People have lots of criticism of Amazon, some I even agree with, but working here[0] one of my favorite little cultural things is that customers can and do email Jeff when stupid things happen. And Jeff reads them. Every now and then he'll forward one of them to a senior VP with a simple "?" added to it.[1] That question mark indicates two things: that you have 24 hou…

This is true. There was a big change in my org that happened because a random person emailed Jeff!
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