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Nexus 4 stock shortage down to 'huge demand', LG explains

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Re: Nexus 4 stock shortage down to 'huge demand', LG explains

#11

Post by ig1 »

pja wrote: post #9

My experience ordering a Nexus 4 was a bit of a farce: Google managed to trigger the anti-fraud block on both of my credit cards, each with different UK banks. It looks like they put through a small value transaction (£1) first to test whether the card works & only then put through the full purchase transaction. Why they can't just put the transaction through in the first place & just report back if it fails I've no…

(entirely speculative)

They may be doing it precisely for that purpose.

Risk systems generally working on scoring mechanism, if the £1 transaction was enough to push you over the threshold then your cards may well be on the borderline for "this card might be stolen".

Google might be using it to test if the card is a borderline "stolen card" case because they want to be extra cautious about who they ship phones to.

Re: Nexus 4 stock shortage down to 'huge demand', LG explains

#12

Post by chaz »

bitcartel wrote: post #2

This doesn't cut the mustard and should not excuse LG and Google for the purchasing chaos. People who ordered just a few days ago have already received their phones, while others have been waiting for weeks. Some people are even ordering a second phone just to see if they get a shipping notification, and if they do, cancelling their original order. It's a bit of a farce. http://forum.xda-developers.com/showthread.php…

Agree, but it does debunk the suspicion of artificially constrained supply. Phones are too hot and cycle too quickly to string out sales.

Re: Nexus 4 stock shortage down to 'huge demand', LG explains

#13

Post by alvarosm »

pja wrote: post #9

My experience ordering a Nexus 4 was a bit of a farce: Google managed to trigger the anti-fraud block on both of my credit cards, each with different UK banks. It looks like they put through a small value transaction (£1) first to test whether the card works & only then put through the full purchase transaction. Why they can't just put the transaction through in the first place & just report back if it fails I've no…

That's another of the many virtues of Google Checkout / Wallet... it blocks a ton of transactions based on some dubious anti-fraud checks. I guess regular sellers just move on to a better payment processor but those of us who sell on Google Play are stuck with this joke of a payment processor. Also, Google gets a 30% cut just for exposure at the store and the poor payment processing they do, I mean, support is beyond a joke, it's simply non-existent. Just like when I ordered the Nexus 4 and got in contact to complain about the delays, talking to the "support" staff (when you manage to get an actual human being to reply at all) is like talking to a brick wall with some FAQs stuck to it in post-it notes. I once sent a screenshot to a couple of reporters to show them just how many transactions were automatically cancelled as a side note -we were talking about other Google Play issues- and I guess they didn't even bother to look into the cancelled transactions issues because it looked unreal. I think it got a bit better over time, it's probably 10% cancelled now, but it used to be up to 50% in particularly bad days and maybe 20% average. A total joke.

Re: Nexus 4 stock shortage down to 'huge demand', LG explains

#14

Post by alvarosm »

ig1 wrote: post #11
pja wrote: post #9

My experience ordering a Nexus 4 was a bit of a farce: Google managed to trigger the anti-fraud block on both of my credit cards, each with different UK banks. It looks like they put through a small value transaction (£1) first to test whether the card works & only then put through the full purchase transaction. Why they can't just put the transaction through in the first place & just report back if it fails I've no…

(entirely speculative) They may be doing it precisely for that purpose. Risk systems generally working on scoring mechanism, if the £1 transaction was enough to push you over the threshold then your cards may well be on the borderline for "this card might be stolen". Google might be using it to test if the card is a borderline "stolen card" case because they want to be extra cautious about who they ship phones to.

Read my reply to see how they're also extra-cautious about selling $1 apps...

Re: Nexus 4 stock shortage down to 'huge demand', LG explains

#15

Post by thibauts »

bitcartel wrote: post #2

This doesn't cut the mustard and should not excuse LG and Google for the purchasing chaos. People who ordered just a few days ago have already received their phones, while others have been waiting for weeks. Some people are even ordering a second phone just to see if they get a shipping notification, and if they do, cancelling their original order. It's a bit of a farce. http://forum.xda-developers.com/showthread.php…

> Some people are even ordering a second phone just to see if they get a shipping notification

I got mine before the shipping notification

Re: Nexus 4 stock shortage down to 'huge demand', LG explains

#16

Post by tadfisher »

linhat wrote: post #6

I wonder what part LG actually plays in this shortage. When you are producing a device for somebody else that is strikingly similar (as in sharing the exact same hardware platform) to one of your own devices, which you are selling for way more (with of course small but nonetheless important differences)...well, something just screams conflict of interest to me. I am in no way accusing LG of doing so, I'm sure they ha…

LG isn't selling their device directly to consumers, they are selling them to carriers and retail channels. For your statement to be accurate, you'd need to compare the cost to the reseller to purchase either device.

Re: Nexus 4 stock shortage down to 'huge demand', LG explains

#17

Post by pja »

alvarosm wrote: post #13
pja wrote: post #9

My experience ordering a Nexus 4 was a bit of a farce: Google managed to trigger the anti-fraud block on both of my credit cards, each with different UK banks. It looks like they put through a small value transaction (£1) first to test whether the card works & only then put through the full purchase transaction. Why they can't just put the transaction through in the first place & just report back if it fails I've no…

That's another of the many virtues of Google Checkout / Wallet... it blocks a ton of transactions based on some dubious anti-fraud checks. I guess regular sellers just move on to a better payment processor but those of us who sell on Google Play are stuck with this joke of a payment processor. Also, Google gets a 30% cut just for exposure at the store and the poor payment processing they do, I mean, support is beyond…

Nope, it's not Wallet doing the blocking (at least not in my case): it was the banks which had issued the credit cards in question.

I've had it happen before, but that was when I'd bought a small pile of cheap Android Apps & then gone to buy something expensive elsewhere (not via Google Wallet) and those transactions triggered the fraud checks, not entirely unreasonably even if it was a little annoying at the time.

Having my cards blocked because Google is issuing fake test transactions for no good reason whatsoever that I can see is somewhat more annoying however!

Re: Nexus 4 stock shortage down to 'huge demand', LG explains

#18

Post by pja »

ig1 wrote: post #11
pja wrote: post #9

My experience ordering a Nexus 4 was a bit of a farce: Google managed to trigger the anti-fraud block on both of my credit cards, each with different UK banks. It looks like they put through a small value transaction (£1) first to test whether the card works & only then put through the full purchase transaction. Why they can't just put the transaction through in the first place & just report back if it fails I've no…

(entirely speculative) They may be doing it precisely for that purpose. Risk systems generally working on scoring mechanism, if the £1 transaction was enough to push you over the threshold then your cards may well be on the borderline for "this card might be stolen". Google might be using it to test if the card is a borderline "stolen card" case because they want to be extra cautious about who they ship phones to.

Yeah, that would make a twisted kind of sense.

I never have this kind of trouble with other vendors though.

Re: Nexus 4 stock shortage down to 'huge demand', LG explains

#19

Post by ludwigvan »

Sidenote: Google's customer service is absolutely horrible. I was reading the horror stories, but now that I have experienced it personally, it seems worse than I imagined.

Basically, my unit is about to be shipped on Dec 19, and I have been trying to cancel it since last week; but they refuse to cancel it on the grounds that it is only possible to cancel it within 1 hour of purchase.

I am leaving US on Dec 12, and this means the unit is going to get shipped to an address I no longer have access to, and I will have to ask the landlord to do a delivery refusal when the UPS guy appears at the door. I have emailed and called them about 10 times to cancel the order, or change the shipping date or address; and they won't bother to do any of that.

If you have been reading about Google not treating its customers properly on the net, rest assured that the situation is not exaggerated at all; they are very unprofessional.

Anyone have any advice for canceling the order, is it possible at all?

Re: Nexus 4 stock shortage down to 'huge demand', LG explains

#20

Post by mynameishere »

ludwigvan wrote: post #19

Sidenote: Google's customer service is absolutely horrible. I was reading the horror stories, but now that I have experienced it personally, it seems worse than I imagined. Basically, my unit is about to be shipped on Dec 19, and I have been trying to cancel it since last week; but they refuse to cancel it on the grounds that it is only possible to cancel it within 1 hour of purchase. I am leaving US on Dec 12, and t…

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Chargeback

Just call the number on the back of your credit card.

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