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”No one at Google is Returning Our Calls”

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Re: ”No one at Google is Returning Our Calls”

#61

Post by hrkristian »

RexRollman wrote: post #14
pavlov wrote: post #10

Android is more and more like the mobile equivalent of desktop Windows. Now they have the huge pirate market in China too. When this happened to Microsoft, certain strategy-oriented parts of the company were happy to see Windows spread everywhere as quickly as possible and deal with piracy later, whereas others were more concerned with the bottom line and how to extract revenue immediately. Google will have to deal w…

Its worst than that. A least with Windows on PC clones, you have control over the hardware and can update to your hearts content. Android makers often change the interface and can interfere with you from getting updates.

Then again, Android comes in different flavors while Windows does not. There is a trade-off there, and you'll usually get the same or better upgrade frequency from an Android OEM than from Microsoft.

For those interested in having the latest version (most consumers aren't even aware their device is outdated, or don't care) there's CM and similar options. Driver issues exist with some hardware (Samsung Exynos for instance, prime example), and that's a shame, but it's not much different from going to GNU/Linux on x86, which I find is comparable (more up to date, generally better performance and UX, non-proprietary, but some hardware incompatibility)

Re: ”No one at Google is Returning Our Calls”

#62

Post by aestra »

qwerta wrote: post #11
apunic wrote: post #2

Slighlty OT: Anybody knows why installing an OS on mobile hardware cannot be just like installing Windows in the old days? First installing the base system and then drivers for 'non-standard' hardware components. Why do need hardware manufacturers and OS vendors to talk? Getting the G-Suite seems to be a problem now but there are already some alternatives for each of the G-Suite's apps and I'd welcome any newcomer to…

It is possible. For example Ubuntu is installable on some phones. It is like Linux 15 years ago, there are a few good drivers and one has to check compatibility charts. Other problem is hardware detection. OS on PC can detect what hardware is installed. On mobile you need hardware map. There is no way to have universal installer for all mobile phones.

Can you make a phonecall from Ubuntu?

Re: ”No one at Google is Returning Our Calls”

#63

Post by nilsbunger »

PaulHoule wrote: post #40
adventured wrote: post #36

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Microsoft - Bill Gates - from day one believed they were in the business of selling a product to a customer, providing support to that customer, and they wanted that customer to stay with them forever. For the first 15+ years of Microsoft's existence, they had no monopoly position, and had to always be hustling for customers. Google being a search engine, from day one never had to nor intended to provide support to a…

Nobody at Google returns any calls from anybody, it's a core part of their DNA.

My experience is that where they directly make money, they're very responsive -- their adwords team has been very responsive to us, a small startup. And I bet they're very responsive with the big OEMs.

They don't have much financial reason to put energy into small Chinese OEMs. Google wants to control advertising, and as long as they have relationships with the folks selling the premium handsets in china, they have most of the advertising $$.

Re: ”No one at Google is Returning Our Calls”

#64

Post by guelo »

richardwhiuk wrote: post #31
Zigurd wrote: post #29

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Nobody, not even Oppo with their CyanogenMod-based Android, is selling an Android product in developed-world markets without Google Play and the rest of Google's app suite. The real alternative is expensive: Build your own ecosystem, as Amazon has.

You seem to have come up with the refutation to your claim, but then ignored it anyway. The Kindle Fire [1] does run Android and does not have the Play Store - it has the Amazon app store instead. 1: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Kindle_Fire

He said "The real alternative is expensive: Build your own ecosystem, as Amazon has."

Re: ”No one at Google is Returning Our Calls”

#65

Post by guelo »

justincormack wrote: post #6

Can anyone explain how I can just install the G-suite on Cyanogenmod then? Is it blessed by Google? Or does it recognise that my phone is appropriately blessed via the bootloader?

The idea is that you can backup the Google binary blobs from your stock OS, install CyanogenMod, and then restore your own binary blobs. In practice most people just download GApps from illegal sites because Titanium Backup has such an awful UI. But if Google ever went after the download sites you'd still be able to use the backup method. Which is probably why Google doesn't bother with the download sites.

Re: ”No one at Google is Returning Our Calls”

#66

Post by michaelt »

jmpe wrote: post #41
at-fates-hands wrote: post #35

Earlier quoted context omitted.

This was my reaction to the article as well. I'm still baffled why they don't take some of those billions and invest in a top notch customer service team. I'm pretty sure it would increase their bottom line about ten fold in less than three years.

Google loves things that scale, and customer support doesn't scale that well I guess. Alternatively, couldn't they start a pay-per-minute service? I recently had an issue with GMail where I was receiving someone else's mail. After about a week I had enough data to source his phone number and contact him to rectify it. But I never had the chance to report the issue. Wouldn't have minded paying a few dollars to have th…

Google has about $1,000,000 of revenue per employee [1].

Assuming their support employees worked a typical number of hours and billed every hour they worked to a customer, to keep the revenue per employee at the same level they'd need to charge $480 to $550 per hour for support. And fixing complex bugs in complex software can take a lot of hours.

How many hours of developer time would you want spent on your issue?

[1] https://www.google.com/search?q=google+revenue+per+employee

Re: ”No one at Google is Returning Our Calls”

#67

Post by zavi »

Author didn't say specifically what kind of requests Google didn't respond to. It could easily be the case that given EOM's device isn't good enough to pass Compatibility Test, and instead of fixing the issue EOM would contact Google saying "our phone doesnt really need this feature that your test requires, but you still give us keys to GSuite." Of course Google won't respond to such inquiry.

Re: ”No one at Google is Returning Our Calls”

#68

Post by jmpe »

michaelt wrote: post #66
jmpe wrote: post #41

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Google loves things that scale, and customer support doesn't scale that well I guess. Alternatively, couldn't they start a pay-per-minute service? I recently had an issue with GMail where I was receiving someone else's mail. After about a week I had enough data to source his phone number and contact him to rectify it. But I never had the chance to report the issue. Wouldn't have minded paying a few dollars to have th…

Google has about $1,000,000 of revenue per employee [1]. Assuming their support employees worked a typical number of hours and billed every hour they worked to a customer, to keep the revenue per employee at the same level they'd need to charge $480 to $550 per hour for support. And fixing complex bugs in complex software can take a lot of hours. How many hours of developer time would you want spent on your issue? [1…

yeah, that line of reasoning totally makes sense. And ~500$ per hour for software ticketing is a reasonable number.

Re: ”No one at Google is Returning Our Calls”

#69

Post by sentenza »

dasil003 wrote: post #49
snowbunny wrote: post #21

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Another option is to post a ranting and crying video to Youtube to get special treatment. http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Ccxiwu4MaJs (Warning: Strong language)

Wait... did that work?

Since the name of the channel she is talking about in the video is different from the channel the video is on, probably not.

Re: ”No one at Google is Returning Our Calls”

#70

Post by kreilly »

nilsbunger wrote: post #63
PaulHoule wrote: post #40

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Nobody at Google returns any calls from anybody, it's a core part of their DNA.

My experience is that where they directly make money, they're very responsive -- their adwords team has been very responsive to us, a small startup. And I bet they're very responsive with the big OEMs. They don't have much financial reason to put energy into small Chinese OEMs. Google wants to control advertising, and as long as they have relationships with the folks selling the premium handsets in china, they have m…

I'd agree. On the ad exchange side, their customer support is the best in the industry. But then a lot of that DNA comes from DoubleClick where they have always needed to provide sales and support services to a wide variety of customers and partners.
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