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Google forced to use humans to support Nexus One

theregister.co.uk

11–17 of 17 posts

Re: Google forced to use humans to support Nexus One

#11
That's a pretty misleading headline: Not that Mountain View will be providing technical support as such, only enquiries into the ordering and shipping process will be dealt with by Google - everything else gets directed to HTC or T-Mobile as appropriate.

For paid services like AdWords you (sometimes) can get sales support. It's the support for actual issues that is a black hole.

Re: Google forced to use humans to support Nexus One

#12
post #10
post #8

Earlier quoted context omitted.

FWIW, most people don't even realize that phone contracts exist to subsidize the handsets. Most of the time, when I explain to someone that contract cancellation fees are basically just the phone company saying, "Well, can you pay us the rest of the money for the phone we gave you," their consumer ire abates somewhat and is replaced with a contemplative, "Oh."

They don't realize it because the rates are the same whether you get a free phone or not. If you buy your phone you'll be paying the same monthly fee as some other person who got his for free.

That's not true of T-Mobile, Google's provider of choice:

The plans that subsidize their phones start from $60 a month for unlimited, and the unlimited plans that don't subsidize phones start from $50 a month.

This may, of course, vary from provider to provider. I'm only familiar with T-Mobile.

http://www.t-mobile.com/Shop/Plans/Cell-Phone-Plans-Overview...

Re: Google forced to use humans to support Nexus One

#13

Probably not a popular opinion but at the end of the day this comes down to google having no idea how to deliver a final product to customers. They have a company and business model based on releasing half baked free software early, calling it beta for a very long time, and iterating over it until it's really shiny. Delivering somone a product they paid for is not one of Google's core competencies. I also don't think…

I think they stand a good chance of learning quite quickly as they have smart people and a corporate culture that favors rapid change. So "delivering a final product to customers" could become a core competency of at least part of Google over time.

Re: Google forced to use humans to support Nexus One

#14

Probably not a popular opinion but at the end of the day this comes down to google having no idea how to deliver a final product to customers. They have a company and business model based on releasing half baked free software early, calling it beta for a very long time, and iterating over it until it's really shiny. Delivering somone a product they paid for is not one of Google's core competencies. I also don't think…

It's not a new issue. Google has terrible customer service.

This is true for all their products and services, both free and paid.

Re: Google forced to use humans to support Nexus One

#17
post #12
post #10

Earlier quoted context omitted.

They don't realize it because the rates are the same whether you get a free phone or not. If you buy your phone you'll be paying the same monthly fee as some other person who got his for free.

That's not true of T-Mobile, Google's provider of choice: The plans that subsidize their phones start from $60 a month for unlimited, and the unlimited plans that don't subsidize phones start from $50 a month. This may, of course, vary from provider to provider. I'm only familiar with T-Mobile. http://www.t-mobile.com/Shop/Plans/Cell-Phone-Plans-Overview...

Isn't that a fairly new development for T-Mobile though?
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