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Remember this the next time you don't get that job at Google. Somehow the most selective and elite of tech institutions can't bother to do customer service.

AnIdiotOnTheNet 8y ago
Not surprising, all the money is in treating users as cattle, not as customers.
stevehawk 8y ago
It's one of the reasons I'm convinced that Google et al don't hire the best engineers/programmers, but really just the best interviewers.
- blunte 8y ago
  This is not a Google engineer problem - it's a Google management problem. Managers, theoretically from the top down, are deciding how to allocate resources (as in, almost no live customer service people), what automated policies to put in, etc. I think there's a fundamental problem with any company that refuses to provide some human contact for problem resolution (with customers, partners, vendors, etc.)
- gabbygab 8y ago
  Or maybe they hire the best engineers who interview well? Being a great engineer and being a great interviewer aren't necessarily mutually exclusive. You can be both. Also, after 20+ years in business, google engineers are still highly respected and sought after by every company for their tech expertise. If google didn't hire the best, that luster would have faded a long time ago. Google has always been great at tech and poor at customer service. Though that seems to be a industry wide problem, rather than a google specific one.
  - mtnGoat 8y ago
    "sought after by every company" certainly not sought after by my company, and i hate to speak for others, but i can name at least a handful of others where having any of the FANGs will usually get your resume circular filed. :x
    - noir_lord 8y ago
      If I was hiring currently been former FANG wouldn't shift the needle one way or the other. At the scale they operate been one developer amongst tens of thousands on it's own isn't a good metric.
dragonwriter 8y ago
> Somehow the most selective and elite of tech institutions can't bother to do customer service. I'm not at all surprised that an organization that prides itself on elite engineering above all else falls down hard in other areas and doesn't even recognize how much of a problem it is. (Though, to be fair, Google Express, IME, has had superlative customer service, so it's not that Google can't do customer service.)
- jrockway 8y ago
  I think they do recognize how hard of a problem it is. 10,000 people write in complaining that their virus was taken down, 1 person writes in complaining that their legitimate app was taken down. How much money do you spend answering email that's 99.99% spam? $0 seems about right, and there you go. They author of this post didn't take his app and make it Apple exclusive. He removed the feature that was flagged and re-uploaded it. How much money did Google lose on that ("I'm going to buy an iPhone to protest this!")? $0. So again, spending $0 on support seems about right. If it were an app that mattered, I'm sure they'd find someone to reply. But the app doesn't matter, at least at the scale Google cares about.

AnIdiotOnTheNet 8y ago

Not surprising, all the money is in treating users as cattle, not as customers.

stevehawk 8y ago

It's one of the reasons I'm convinced that Google et al don't hire the best engineers/programmers, but really just the best interviewers.

blunte 8y ago
This is not a Google engineer problem - it's a Google management problem. Managers, theoretically from the top down, are deciding how to allocate resources (as in, almost no live customer service people), what automated policies to put in, etc. I think there's a fundamental problem with any company that refuses to provide some human contact for problem resolution (with customers, partners, vendors, etc.)
gabbygab 8y ago
Or maybe they hire the best engineers who interview well? Being a great engineer and being a great interviewer aren't necessarily mutually exclusive. You can be both. Also, after 20+ years in business, google engineers are still highly respected and sought after by every company for their tech expertise. If google didn't hire the best, that luster would have faded a long time ago. Google has always been great at tech and poor at customer service. Though that seems to be a industry wide problem, rather than a google specific one.
- mtnGoat 8y ago
  "sought after by every company" certainly not sought after by my company, and i hate to speak for others, but i can name at least a handful of others where having any of the FANGs will usually get your resume circular filed. :x
  - noir_lord 8y ago
    If I was hiring currently been former FANG wouldn't shift the needle one way or the other. At the scale they operate been one developer amongst tens of thousands on it's own isn't a good metric.

dragonwriter 8y ago

> Somehow the most selective and elite of tech institutions can't bother to do customer service. I'm not at all surprised that an organization that prides itself on elite engineering above all else falls down hard in other areas and doesn't even recognize how much of a problem it is. (Though, to be fair, Google Express, IME, has had superlative customer service, so it's not that Google can't do customer service.)

jrockway 8y ago
I think they do recognize how hard of a problem it is. 10,000 people write in complaining that their virus was taken down, 1 person writes in complaining that their legitimate app was taken down. How much money do you spend answering email that's 99.99% spam? $0 seems about right, and there you go. They author of this post didn't take his app and make it Apple exclusive. He removed the feature that was flagged and re-uploaded it. How much money did Google lose on that ("I'm going to buy an iPhone to protest this!")? $0. So again, spending $0 on support seems about right. If it were an app that mattered, I'm sure they'd find someone to reply. But the app doesn't matter, at least at the scale Google cares about.