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Google Faces Deluge of Nexus One Complaints
wkurzius writes "It seems Google is going through some growing pains as far as customer service is concerned. Since their new phone, the Nexus One, can be bought unlocked, many people are turning to Google themselves for help, but not getting what they're used to from traditional mobile carriers. T-Mobile and HTC are also getting hammered, with many customers being bounced back and forth between the two companies' service lines."
It seems they're also taking flak from Android developers who are unhappy that no SDK has yet been released for Android 2.1, which runs on the Nexus One.
it's little wonder this is biting them in the arse.
If you mod me down, I will become more powerful than you can imagine....
That *is* what you get for being an early adopter...
They haven't even worked out how to work out problems yet, it seems like.
How does PC World have any idea of the volume of traffic Google is getting from disgruntled N1 customers? By stories from random people? Yeah, thought so. A
A good idea is to avoid version 1.0 of any commercial offering. It's not a bad idea to avoid .0 versions in general.
If you have to get one, wait a month. They don't call it the Bleeding Edge of technology for nothing. I prefer it to be someone else's blood...
I'll see your Constitution and raise you a Queen.
Notice a pattern about her Android articles?
http://labs.daylife.com/journalist/nancy_gohring
One guess, which type of phone does Nancy own? i...
Give 'em a break... the phone's still in beta!
Disclaimer: I work for the biggest mobile provider in a nordic country. This is completely normal behaviour for a mobile provider. We are the bit/call/sms delivery pipe. We don't really care at all what device you use on our network as long as its approved by the relevant authorities to be used on the appropriate radio frequencies. If your problem is directly relevant to our network (for example, bad coverage that is consistent across multiple phone models) or our actual services (ringbacktone, mms delivery, answering machine, push email, etc), you call us. If your problem is phonemodel-specific, we can't help, you call the phone manufacturer, even if you happened to purchase the phone at our store. There are literally thousands of phone models out there. To be expecting your operator to help you with with your random phone model and it's specific issues is naive at best.
144,000 for "i hate t-mobile"
468,000 for "i hate verizon"
444,000 for "i hate at&t"
286,000 for "i hate sprint"
Searching 'I hate t-mobile' on google (no quotes) comes up with results that include "i", "hate", "t", and "mobile" separately. Your research method is highly flawed.
If their customer support is anything like Google Apps, good luck with that one. My experience is that Google isn't geared toward customer service and it seems like they could care less. They seem to be coming from the position that everyone should be able to just figure out their products without any help.
My prediction for the year is that we see Google's stock price starting to decline as more and more people realize that beyond search, Google doesn't do anything very well. They have a lot of neat ideas, but their execution blows.
Love:Hate
T-Mobile:
49,800:145,000 (1:2.9)
25.6% love
74.4% hate
Verizon:
259,000:469,000 (1:1.8)
35.6% love
64.4% hate
AT&T:
103,000:447,000 (1:4.3)
18.7% love
81.3% hate
Sprint:
45,500:287,000 (1:6.3)
13.7% love
86.3% hate
Most Loved: Verizon
Most Hated: Sprint
Why can't Google offer a cell phone that provides browsing, etc via WiFi, WITHOUT REQUIRING ME TO HAVE A CARRIER DATA PLAN?
I filed a complaint with the FCC (and I encourage you to do the same) that Verizon had no such phones offered. Verizon reps then called me and confirmed this, saying that this is a decision of the phone manufacturers as to how they design their phone devices (they also confirmed that some older smartphones they used to sell and you can still get on ebay don't have this "feature").
I of course doubt this is purely a disinterested phone manufacturer decision.
The Nexus One boards do seem to confirm this is one of the drawbacks of the NexusOne device for those of us who spend 90% of their time in WiFi enabled spots but don't want to pony up another $25/month.
http://www.google.com/support/forum/p/Google%20Mobile/thread?tid=5a6199119e618525&hl=en#all
http://www.google.com/support/forum/p/Google+Mobile/thread?tid=2a191af88d779975&hl=en#all
http://www.google.com/support/forum/p/Google+Mobile/thread?tid=4bc273c38698835c&hl=en
http://www.google.com/support/forum/p/Google+Mobile/thread?tid=7a0b65cae4aa6b88&hl=en
http://www.google.com/support/forum/p/Google+Mobile/thread?tid=3d253758857e6f67&hl=en
http://www.google.com/support/forum/p/Google+Mobile/thread?tid=07bbaac95aef0a15&hl=en
Why does the design of these devices force me to activate a carrier data plan to access the internet when the hardware has WiFi?
Can this "feature" (of Android?) be modified in software since this is open source, and since WiFi hardware is so clearly present?
Inquiring minds want to know!
I just wanted to say I love T-Mobile as well. When I moved back to the US, I had T-Mobile for a couple yrs, moved to Verizon for 2 yrs to take advantage of the Unlimited-In, couldn't wait for my Verizon contract to be over before switching back to T-Mobile (in fact, I had T-Mobile data service like 4 months before my Verizon contract was over, and T-Mobile voice service like a month before my Verizon contract was over to give them plenty of time in case of any possible issues w/ switching my number over).
T-Mobile I was able to get a new contract 21 months into my existing contract to take advantage of the full upgrade option.
Up until recently all options/add-ons were prorated to the day the add-on was added or removed.
T-Mobile's written policy flat out says they don't support tethering. When I told that to one of the Blackberry reps, he started laughing.
In my experience T-Mobile not only supports tethering, but when I was having issues w/ a Vista laptop (At the time, I couldn't even get full use of the audio, much less the wireless w/o using Vista drivers) and getting tethering to work on my Blackberry, after spending a while on the the phone w/ T-Mobile support-They offered to open a support ticket w/ RIM for me.
Another thing I like about T-Mobile data services, most other US cell phone companies have a written policy of unlimited data services for smartphones (to include devices like Blackberries and iPhones), I've talked to reps for a couple retailers and cell phone companies (Such as AT&T) who said "It is unlimited within reason" and generally reasonable usage is around 5 gigs and then you get hit w/ overage charges or data services are cut off.
T-Mobile has admitted a 10 gig limit for 3G (Unlimited for EDGE) and by their policy if you hit the 10 gig limit, you are reduced to EDGE until the next billing cycle (So lose of streaming video, but everything else continues to work) and at the time, they rep I spoke to said they were having issues w/ the cap system and people were able to exceed 10 gigs before getting reduced to EDGE.
T-Mobile has a smaller 3G area then most other providers, but their EDGE service is almost everyplace I've been and I've had a lot few dropped calls then most other people I know.
A note for Google Voice (and other voicemail service) users, T-Mobile has in addition to your normal bucket of minutes, an additional 500 min bucket that is used if you set your voice to forward another voicemail provider.
And let me add, I could get a 20% discount w/ AT&T by getting my phone under someone else's name (whose offered) and I still won't touch them.
Just remember, cell phone carriers are like sexual positions, everyone has a favorite (=
-ITG
Anybody else get the feeling that this story was cooked up in the marketing department of one or more telco or well-known manufacturer of fashionable consumer electronics?
I mean, if people can start buying cool unlocked smartphones, that's going to cut into a big profit center for them. People might actually start looking for the best calling and data plan instead of "whatever plan the company that carries the phone I want insists that I sign up for before I can get my hands on the phone".
I mean, didn't they just announce the Nexus One a few days ago? I'm surprised many buyers had a chance to even charge up their batteries and sign up for service by now, much less have had enough contact with Google customer service to make a complaint.
I'm not saying there mightn't be problems, but the speed at which this story arrives is just a little fishy.
You are welcome on my lawn.
This is the google support forum discussion that has earned all this bad press.
http://www.google.com/support/forum/p/Google+Mobile/thread?tid=0bd8ccd4799040c2&hl=en&fid=0bd8ccd4799040c200047c99c44ddfe6
By 6pm today I read most of these posts. There are several squeaky wheels that are posting over and over but there are also dozens of individuals that are all telling the same story. These people are in areas with good 3g reception (as confirmed by the coverage map or by another 3g t-mobile phone in the same place at the same time. They report that their N1 continually switches between edge and g3. Their data download rates are about 1/10th what they should be. Many have reported that the constant switching between networks is draining their battery within a few hours. When they call HTC for support, HTC blames T-mobile's network. T-mobile blames HTC and claims that they have not been given any support documentation on the N1 from Google or HTC. The complainers are in a wide variety of locations throughout the country.
Gizmodo reports on the story and claims that their phones have poor 3g reception as well:
http://gizmodo.com/5443123/does-the-nexus-one-have-3g-problems
The same problem crops up in the comments after this story at tmonews
http://www.tmonews.com/2010/01/nexus-one-incurring-3g-problems/
Lots of people are reporting the same problems here on the androidforums
http://androidforums.com/nexus-one/34321-nexus-one-3g-problems.html
So I really don't think this is due to ignorant customers. There is a real problem with at least some of these phones. It may be there is a batch out there with bad antennas, or there could be a software glitch. If it's software then one would hope a patch is coming from Google asap. Regardless of what the problem is, Google has made a terrible mistake in ignoring this for almost 2 days now. Even if they had replied in their own support forums just once saying "sorry we're on it get back to you soon." They might not look so bad. Personally I think Google's experience with leaving their "products" in beta for years on end has finally bitten them on the ass.
-- QED
I don't care about these problems. They'll work it out.
Google is selling this phone because it advances the technology and their phone partners wouldn't sell it. Expect them to sell an Android + Snapdragon slate for the same reasons. The top 5 OEMs have had that for a year and still no products - ASUS even pulled their Snapdragon netbook in the middle of last year's Computex, some say because Microsoft told them to, and now they "see no future in it":
But the company quickly put the project on the back burner, refusing to discuss it days later at a press event that featured Asustek's chairman alongside executives from microprocessor maker Intel and OS giant Microsoft.
All the major vendors have had this platform for a long time and they wouldn't sell it for strategic reasons. Google isn't submarining them - they declined their first refusal options. Dell had 3" and 5" models ready in September, and didn't launch for the pivotal Christmas season - there's a video of a guy with three thumbs playing with it but I can't find it right now.
Dell, HP, and other top-tier OEMs have announced Snapdragon + Android smartbooks, netbooks, phones and slates, but they will never ever come to market branded by a top tier OEM because of the leverage that Intel and Microsoft are applying to prevent it.
If the incumbents won't give us progress, Google will: even if they have to enter new lines of business to do so. I doubt Google can avoid selling enough units to encourage adoption of modern open technologies in phones, considering they've got the best online ad placement there is.
I doubt Google even wants to sell phones - I think they just want to get the new good technologies adopted so that people can get used to Internet everywhere quicker. This serves their bottom line because when most people use the Internet they use Google services, which Google sells ads on. You can't very well sell Internet ads to be viewed by people who aren't close to a browser. I'm in favor of this because open platforms with internet access everywhere always on let me do things I couldn't do before. I'm also in favor because less power burned is good for CO2 emissions. It also lets me afford to put some high tech shiny stuff under the tree to impress the youngsters.
Intel and Microsoft are scared to death of Snapdragon and Android, and they should be - they don't have offerings like this, and the buzz about cheap, go-everywhere always on low-power application rich platforms that don't use their products is evidence that if they won't innovate in the way that we want, they're done. We want progress, and progress isn't about the widget - it's about the people and what they can do with it. If they try and leverage their market position to kill this progress the truth will out and they will be beset with lawsuits and it will do them no good because there are manufacturers and vendors like HTC and Google who are not afraid of them.
Their best bet: surf the wave. Get their products in line with current demand. Or go away.
Help stamp out iliturcy.