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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

#31

Post by keeperofdakeys »

Raphael wrote: post #29
fungi wrote: post #23

I have a theory :) Nexus 4 was built with a "defective" qualcomm LTE chip that LG was able to pick up for a bargain. hence the great nexus 4 rock bottom price. Now LG have exhausted their "defective" chip supply, they need to negotiate a new deal with qualcomm/google. This is based on a random comment i read fsck knows where explaining how high spec, short run, chinese phones come in to being.

Perhaps the LTE radio was defective, but the rest was fine.

From a hardware perspective, the Nexus 4 uses the same SoC as the LG Optimus G, it just lacks amplifiers and antennas designed for LTE frequencies (one LTE frequency is in the UTMS band, so it can function in most phones unofficially). So you could be right, although I'm not sure if LG puts together the final SoC.

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

#32

Post by sahaskatta »

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…

If you sign up for a UPS MyChoice account. You can pay a one-time $5 fee to have the package redirected to a new address of your choice.

That definitely won't solve the complains you have with Google, but its a solution if you still want the phone.

Also, my experience has actually been fairly good so far. I had purchased a Nexus 7 and about 3-4 months later the screen began separating on the side. I called the support line. They picked up in less than a minute. They sent out a brand new unit and let me continue using mine until the replacement arrives.

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

#34

Post by pja »

taligent wrote: post #24
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…

The small value transaction is called a pre-auth and yes it is designed to test whether the card works. It's not a big deal in most countries since it just disappears automatically. But IIRC in the UK it doesn't. Google probably figures they can use the same rules in every country. Pretty dumb move. The reason stores do it this way is because of legal reasons. They can't bill your credit card until it is shipped but…

They're still issuing a pre-auth for the whole amount even after the small-value one, so what's the point? They could just pre-auth the full value in the first place!

They can't legally take payment until they actually ship regardless so they're going to have to put the transaction through the card at a later date whatever they do initially.

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

#35

Post by pja »

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…

Go here: http://support.google.com/googleplay/bin/request.py?hl=en-US...

and paste in the order number from your Google Wallet transaction history, which you'll find here:

https://wallet.google.com/manage/#transactions:

Why they don't put a link to cancel the order in the transaction history I've no idea. The one hour thing is to do with the timelag between Google Wallet taking your order and that order being transferred to Google Commerce. This second cancellation method lets you send an order cancellation directly to Google Commerce. Yes, it's ridiculously obtuse.

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

#36

Post by pja »

brandall10 wrote: post #25
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…

I know on the xda dev forums plenty of people have complained about it through normal customer service channels (ie. where a person is involved, email/phone). It seems some have found success by logging in to their Google Wallet and canceling that way. Apologies if you've already tried this as it may seem obvious - but there are users claim success in canceling orders locked in a limbo state for weeks and re-ordering…

I don't know why they have that part of the process covered but not the initial procurement.

Because the cost to Google if they don't is huge: credit card chargebacks are very expensive for the vendor. Then there's the PR cost of having hacked off customers complaining all over the net about receiving broken goods and being given the run around by Google.

Far better not to ship anything at all than to ship something broken and then refuse (by inaction) to do anything about it.

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

#37

Post by pja »

fungi wrote: post #23

I have a theory :) Nexus 4 was built with a "defective" qualcomm LTE chip that LG was able to pick up for a bargain. hence the great nexus 4 rock bottom price. Now LG have exhausted their "defective" chip supply, they need to negotiate a new deal with qualcomm/google. This is based on a random comment i read fsck knows where explaining how high spec, short run, chinese phones come in to being.

ArsTechnica (IIRC) had LTE working on their Nexus 4 in Canada. The chipset is fine, the phone simply doesn't have the power amplifiers required for all the LTE bands.

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

#38

Post by ludwigvan »

pja wrote: post #35
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…

Go here: http://support.google.com/googleplay/bin/request.py?hl=en-US... and paste in the order number from your Google Wallet transaction history, which you'll find here: https://wallet.google.com/manage/#transactions : Why they don't put a link to cancel the order in the transaction history I've no idea. The one hour thing is to do with the timelag between Google Wallet taking your order and that order being transf…

Thank you, that's what I have been doing, but it doesn't work unfortunately. I get an automated response each time I try that, and when I called them, they said there is nothing they could do, even though the unit has not shipped yet.

"Thanks for contacting Google Play regarding cancellation of your order. All orders are processed directly after your purchase is complete. As a result, this means that there is a very short window of time to cancel an order prior to shipping.

Although we attempted to honor your request, we were unable to cancel your order in this window. "

Whatever that "window" is, it seems longer than 10 days!

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

#39

Post by pja »

ludwigvan wrote: post #38
pja wrote: post #35

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Go here: http://support.google.com/googleplay/bin/request.py?hl=en-US... and paste in the order number from your Google Wallet transaction history, which you'll find here: https://wallet.google.com/manage/#transactions : Why they don't put a link to cancel the order in the transaction history I've no idea. The one hour thing is to do with the timelag between Google Wallet taking your order and that order being transf…

Thank you, that's what I have been doing, but it doesn't work unfortunately. I get an automated response each time I try that, and when I called them, they said there is nothing they could do, even though the unit has not shipped yet. "Thanks for contacting Google Play regarding cancellation of your order. All orders are processed directly after your purchase is complete. As a result, this means that there is a very…

Well, that sucks. :( If the order hasn't shipped, why on earth can't they cancel it?

Google's incompetence when it comes to shipping physical product demonstrates that they have a lot of learning to do, because right now they're really not very good at it are they?

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

#40

Post by alvarosm »

pja wrote: post #17
alvarosm wrote: post #13

Earlier quoted context omitted.

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. H…

In the cases I was talking about, it was Google. They don't even attempt to charge the cards until a certain period of time (1 hour or so? more than the 15-minute refund period anyway) has passed, so the cancellations happen before any attempt to charge the card, so it's Google, not the banks.
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