6 ms·

Google listed my restaurant's number as its British HQ

vidarh 2y ago
Seems entirely on-brand for Google's support.
vesinisa 2y ago
I was recently traveling in London and wanted to buy a Google Pixel phone (it is unavailable in my home country.) I thought it would simple enough as walking into the Google Store and picking the colour I like along with any accessories. Well, turns out that since COVID there is no such thing as "Google Store" in London. In fact, Google does not have any physical consumer presence whatsoever in the whole of UK. Even the "YouTube creator space" at King's Cross has been shuttered. Their only presence in the city are the offices for their employees. Google's commitment to removing any ways from consumers to actually interact with the company is truly extreme. And probably results in people turning to desperate measures when they run into troubles with Google products.
- averageRoyalty 2y ago
  I think this is fairly normal in most countries, is it not? Apple are the outlier, it doesn't make much financial sense for other phone companies to rent expensive brick and mortar stores.
- thaumasiotes 2y ago
  > Well, turns out that since COVID there is no such thing as "Google Store" in London. Was there ever a Google Store anywhere in the world? News to me. That's not something you'd expect to find in Google's home country. They're not a retailer. > Google's commitment to removing any ways from consumers to actually interact with the company is truly extreme. You can't "remove" what was never there. But, in this case... most manufacturers and brands don't have stores. You don't go to the M&Ms Store either. You go to the grocery store. There's no Samsung Store, no HTC Store, no LG store, no Foxconn Store, no Xiaomi Store, no Nokia Store, no Motorola Store, and no OnePlus Store. Why would there be a Google Store?
  - djaychela 2y ago
    > There's no Samsung Store Except there are... There was one in Bournemouth where I live, and there are others [1] [1] - https://www.samsung.com/uk/samsung-experience-store/locations/ https://www.samsung.com/uk/samsung-experience-store/location...
    - drcongo 2y ago
      There's actually an M&Ms store in London too. https://www.mms.com/en-gb/explore/mms-stores/london https://www.mms.com/en-gb/explore/mms-stores/london
    - thaumasiotes 2y ago
      Wow, others. Let's see... there's one in Frisco, Texas ("Dallas"); one in Long Island ("New York City"); one in Houston; and one in Los Angeles. That's almost 1.5% of the number of Apple Stores in the US. The difference is that Apple uses their stores to sell things. This is obviously not a method by which you'd be expected to buy a Samsung product. Or, in most cases, a method by which doing so would be possible at all. I'd apologize for the oversight, but my sweeping generalization is more accurate than the detail that Samsung Stores technically exist.
      - silentsanctuary 2y ago
        The poster was mentioning London - there are 4 Samsung stores in London. That's more than "technically existing", no?
    - raverbashing 2y ago
      Yup, they exist in several places, in several countries I remember seeing one in Liverpool (though pre-Covid)
  - zimpenfish 2y ago
    > Was there ever a Google Store anywhere in the world? Yes, London had one embedded in the Currys on TCR. Even made the news. https://www.cnbc.com/2015/03/11/google-opens-its-first-ever-store-in-london.html https://www.cnbc.com/2015/03/11/google-opens-its-first-ever-... Popular enough to make it to 4sq. https://foursquare.com/googlesh8058175 https://foursquare.com/googlesh8058175 Also crops up in an answer on Google's support site. https://support.google.com/store/answer/10840716?hl=en https://support.google.com/store/answer/10840716?hl=en Also one in NYC based off this archive.org snapshot of their locations page. https://web.archive.org/web/20210614171636/https://store.google.com/magazine/locations?hl=en-US https://web.archive.org/web/20210614171636/https://store.goo... etc.etc. (Also London had a Nokia store back in 2008 - https://www.flickr.com/photos/textlad/2278591733 https://www.flickr.com/photos/textlad/2278591733 )
- OJFord 2y ago
  > Google's commitment to removing any ways from consumers to actually interact with the company is truly extreme. If anyone here can help me with stopping the 'Find My Device is now on' email that I get every single day (with no call to action, no unsubscribe link, it's just a transactional information thing I am receiving repeatedly in error, since the beginning of June) I would appreciate it...
  - bryanrasmussen 2y ago
    the worry that one has in such a situation is - what if breaking the device doesn't stop the email!
  - vidarh 2y ago
    I'd suggest a filter to forward it to a Google support e-mail address, but for that to make a difference you'd need to find a Google address that leads to a human.
    - OJFord 2y ago
      If I had such a thing I'd hope I could just write an email and get some support without being petty! I did try Twitter, no response there.
- slightwinder 2y ago
  To be fair, the common way to buy brands is to go to a big store which is selling multiple different brands, with a wide range of products. Single Brand-Stores are rare, especially for technology, usually for reasons of cost. Only premium-brands like Apple can afford to maintain a huge chain of their own shops.
  - RicoElectrico 2y ago
    In Poland there are at least stores (first party or authorized resellers) for Apple, Samsung, Xiaomi, Sony.
    - slightwinder 2y ago
      I don't know the situation in Poland, but looking on google maps, there are not that many shops from each. Looks like 5-10, and it's not clear if they all just sell smartphones. Samsung, Xiaomi and Sony have a very wide range of products, it would make sense for them to all sell everything else in those shops. And what about competition, are there department stores and electronic stores in Poland? If I look in my country, those brands haven even less shops here, but I can find 20-30 stores just in my city who are selling the brands. So there is just very little to earn for dedicated brand stores here.
  - lotsofpulp 2y ago
    > Only premium-brands like Apple can afford to maintain a huge chain of their own shops. Alphabet annual net income is in the $70B range. Many, many, many multiples of what other retail businesses earn. Best Buy’s revenue is half of Alphabet’s profit. The reason Alphabet and Microsoft do not maintain their own retail stores is because they are betting their customers are not willing to pay a sufficient price premium to make it worth the trouble of dealing with all that extra liability/staffing/etc. Microsoft even had them in the 2010s, basically copying Apple, but determined the ROI wasn’t worth it.
    - slightwinder 2y ago
      > Alphabet annual net income is in the $70B range. How much of this comes from electronic devices? Probably not that much. Big Business prefers for every division to pay their own bills, and to not depend on subsidizes from other divisions. > The reason Alphabet and Microsoft do not maintain their own retail stores is because they are betting their customers are not willing to pay a sufficient price premium They don't need to bet, they have the numbers. They had stores and they know how much they get through all their distribution-channels. Local shops just don't make enough anymore these days.
- slyall 2y ago
  Even better if you live in New Zealand. Google Store doesn't list any phones (only shows Fitbit and Nest products) and no official importer or partner in the country. So you have to get it via an importer who offers very minimal support if it breaks.
- rty32 2y ago
  Google recently opened a store in Boston, and will open a store near Chicago later this year: https://store.google.com/intl/en/ideas/google-store-boston-newbury-street/ https://store.google.com/intl/en/ideas/google-store-boston-n... https://store.google.com/magazine/locations?hl=en-US https://store.google.com/magazine/locations?hl=en-US Other locations are in New York City and in their Mountain View headquarter.
  - KomoD 2y ago
    Last I checked Boston, Chicago, NYC and Mountain View are not in the UK so I'm not sure how that is relevant.
    - rty32 2y ago
      This is as relevant as the sentence "Google's commitment to removing any ways from consumers to actually interact with the company is truly extreme. And probably results in people turning to desperate measures when they run into troubles with Google products." in the parent comment.
- zeagle 2y ago
  I think they are just large enough to fail upwards at everything. Nothing consumer facing needs a solution because consumers are the product and a cost centre while large businesses are the clients. Not that I'm still bitter at having my Google for your domain purchases locked to a crippled account or anything.
- beardyw 2y ago
  Google has only about 3% of the UK phone market. Apple has 44%. You are comparing apples with oranges (yes pun intended). Google is mostly a services company.
  - throwaway48476 2y ago
    Hardware is not necessarily relevant. How much of the UK surveillance adtech market do they have?
    - beardyw 2y ago
      Not sure they need a storefront for that.
seper8 2y ago
Would this be grounds for a lawsuit?
vytautask 2y ago
IMHO, would be easier to get a new restaurant mobile number and update that on the restaurant/google website than to contact Google support. However, this article in the Guardian will likely attract some attention from Google employees.
- Doctor_Fegg 2y ago
  Especially as it's less than 200m from the Guardian's London office to Google's London office.
madaxe_again 2y ago
It isn’t a good look for the guys whose entire business is information and advertising to not be able to advertise their own phone number correctly, for 3+ years. Some might argue that Google is coasting on inertia, and has already begun its decline, and is reminiscent of Yahoo!, back in the day.
linker3000 2y ago
Some jester tagged one of the houses on a new build estate near to me as the Burger King UK headquarters on Google Maps. /Got it removed.
cynicalsecurity 2y ago
It's actually insane Google does nothing in this regard. The possibilities for a bad actor impersonating Google support are endless.
CPLX 2y ago
I mean asking for the login information of every caller, and then using it in the most disruptive way you can think of, would probably start to get someone's attention pretty quickly.
- bryanrasmussen 2y ago
  huh... hey can I maybe buy this phone number? I have suddenly had a great new entrepreneurial idea!
- ben_w 2y ago
  The someone in question being either a lawyer or law enforcement.
nmeofthestate 2y ago
Look, if you have a serious issue requiring Google support, it's quite simple to get it resolved - there's an established process: First, spend a couple of years suffering and being ignored by Google. Eventually your suffering will become bad enough that it's an interesting news story. At this point, contact news media. Hopefully a few hours after the news story is published, the issue will be resolved. You may be able to resolve the issue before the story is even published, when the journalist contacts Google to obtain a statement. It's quite simple.
- aestetix 2y ago
  You left out the part about filing a lawsuit against them so their legal team would be forced to respond to you.
- marban 2y ago
  Or simply cross your fingers that the affected product that's causing you pain gets shut.
- deleted 2y ago
  [deleted]
theginger 2y ago
I suspect if they had been able to document the steps taken that got them there and reported it as a vulnerability they might have not only got it fixed pretty much immediately but also possibly a bounty.
bryanrasmussen 2y ago
Google: Our mission is to organize the world's information and make it universally accessible and useful. Notice, there was no mention about correct. Congratulations your restaurant's number is universally accessible and useful (as long as people use it!)
BiteCode_dev 2y ago
At this stage, sale the number to a security researcher for $50, and change the number. They will make their money back and some, and you'll get compensation. Then sue Google with the money.
- austhrow743 2y ago
  Sue google with $50?
  - ben_w 2y ago
    I saw a story a while back where someone made their personal number premium rate to reduce nuisance calls (it was successful); that may also be an option. Not a great one as the problem is Google rather than the callers, but I guess you could also have an immediate route to voicemail with the message "this is not, repeat not, google".
  - tialaramex 2y ago
    Sure, $50 is enough to file a court claim saying Google owes you £300 because of the cost of sorting out this mess. It might work pretty well, Google can choose to say oh yeah, that's about right, here's £300 or they can make this into a big deal whereupon their in-house legal team are immediately going to spend far more than £300 just showing up and making their position in court, and they might well lose if you tried to get it fixed and they were useless.
throwaway48476 2y ago
Set a voicemail, "hello, you've reached Google UK support. Please say your username, password, and nature of issue and we'll call you back to assist shortly"

Seems entirely on-brand for Google's support.

I was recently traveling in London and wanted to buy a Google Pixel phone (it is unavailable in my home country.) I thought it would simple enough as walking into the Google Store and picking the colour I like along with any accessories. Well, turns out that since COVID there is no such thing as "Google Store" in London. In fact, Google does not have any physical consumer presence whatsoever in the whole of UK. Even the "YouTube creator space" at King's Cross has been shuttered. Their only presence in the city are the offices for their employees. Google's commitment to removing any ways from consumers to actually interact with the company is truly extreme. And probably results in people turning to desperate measures when they run into troubles with Google products.

averageRoyalty 2y ago
I think this is fairly normal in most countries, is it not? Apple are the outlier, it doesn't make much financial sense for other phone companies to rent expensive brick and mortar stores.
thaumasiotes 2y ago
> Well, turns out that since COVID there is no such thing as "Google Store" in London. Was there ever a Google Store anywhere in the world? News to me. That's not something you'd expect to find in Google's home country. They're not a retailer. > Google's commitment to removing any ways from consumers to actually interact with the company is truly extreme. You can't "remove" what was never there. But, in this case... most manufacturers and brands don't have stores. You don't go to the M&Ms Store either. You go to the grocery store. There's no Samsung Store, no HTC Store, no LG store, no Foxconn Store, no Xiaomi Store, no Nokia Store, no Motorola Store, and no OnePlus Store. Why would there be a Google Store?
- djaychela 2y ago
  > There's no Samsung Store Except there are... There was one in Bournemouth where I live, and there are others [1] [1] - https://www.samsung.com/uk/samsung-experience-store/locations/ https://www.samsung.com/uk/samsung-experience-store/location...
  - drcongo 2y ago
    There's actually an M&Ms store in London too. https://www.mms.com/en-gb/explore/mms-stores/london https://www.mms.com/en-gb/explore/mms-stores/london
  - thaumasiotes 2y ago
    Wow, others. Let's see... there's one in Frisco, Texas ("Dallas"); one in Long Island ("New York City"); one in Houston; and one in Los Angeles. That's almost 1.5% of the number of Apple Stores in the US. The difference is that Apple uses their stores to sell things. This is obviously not a method by which you'd be expected to buy a Samsung product. Or, in most cases, a method by which doing so would be possible at all. I'd apologize for the oversight, but my sweeping generalization is more accurate than the detail that Samsung Stores technically exist.
    - silentsanctuary 2y ago
      The poster was mentioning London - there are 4 Samsung stores in London. That's more than "technically existing", no?
  - raverbashing 2y ago
    Yup, they exist in several places, in several countries I remember seeing one in Liverpool (though pre-Covid)
- zimpenfish 2y ago
  > Was there ever a Google Store anywhere in the world? Yes, London had one embedded in the Currys on TCR. Even made the news. https://www.cnbc.com/2015/03/11/google-opens-its-first-ever-store-in-london.html https://www.cnbc.com/2015/03/11/google-opens-its-first-ever-... Popular enough to make it to 4sq. https://foursquare.com/googlesh8058175 https://foursquare.com/googlesh8058175 Also crops up in an answer on Google's support site. https://support.google.com/store/answer/10840716?hl=en https://support.google.com/store/answer/10840716?hl=en Also one in NYC based off this archive.org snapshot of their locations page. https://web.archive.org/web/20210614171636/https://store.google.com/magazine/locations?hl=en-US https://web.archive.org/web/20210614171636/https://store.goo... etc.etc. (Also London had a Nokia store back in 2008 - https://www.flickr.com/photos/textlad/2278591733 https://www.flickr.com/photos/textlad/2278591733 )
OJFord 2y ago
> Google's commitment to removing any ways from consumers to actually interact with the company is truly extreme. If anyone here can help me with stopping the 'Find My Device is now on' email that I get every single day (with no call to action, no unsubscribe link, it's just a transactional information thing I am receiving repeatedly in error, since the beginning of June) I would appreciate it...
- bryanrasmussen 2y ago
  the worry that one has in such a situation is - what if breaking the device doesn't stop the email!
- vidarh 2y ago
  I'd suggest a filter to forward it to a Google support e-mail address, but for that to make a difference you'd need to find a Google address that leads to a human.
  - OJFord 2y ago
    If I had such a thing I'd hope I could just write an email and get some support without being petty! I did try Twitter, no response there.
slightwinder 2y ago
To be fair, the common way to buy brands is to go to a big store which is selling multiple different brands, with a wide range of products. Single Brand-Stores are rare, especially for technology, usually for reasons of cost. Only premium-brands like Apple can afford to maintain a huge chain of their own shops.
- RicoElectrico 2y ago
  In Poland there are at least stores (first party or authorized resellers) for Apple, Samsung, Xiaomi, Sony.
  - slightwinder 2y ago
    I don't know the situation in Poland, but looking on google maps, there are not that many shops from each. Looks like 5-10, and it's not clear if they all just sell smartphones. Samsung, Xiaomi and Sony have a very wide range of products, it would make sense for them to all sell everything else in those shops. And what about competition, are there department stores and electronic stores in Poland? If I look in my country, those brands haven even less shops here, but I can find 20-30 stores just in my city who are selling the brands. So there is just very little to earn for dedicated brand stores here.
- lotsofpulp 2y ago
  > Only premium-brands like Apple can afford to maintain a huge chain of their own shops. Alphabet annual net income is in the $70B range. Many, many, many multiples of what other retail businesses earn. Best Buy’s revenue is half of Alphabet’s profit. The reason Alphabet and Microsoft do not maintain their own retail stores is because they are betting their customers are not willing to pay a sufficient price premium to make it worth the trouble of dealing with all that extra liability/staffing/etc. Microsoft even had them in the 2010s, basically copying Apple, but determined the ROI wasn’t worth it.
  - slightwinder 2y ago
    > Alphabet annual net income is in the $70B range. How much of this comes from electronic devices? Probably not that much. Big Business prefers for every division to pay their own bills, and to not depend on subsidizes from other divisions. > The reason Alphabet and Microsoft do not maintain their own retail stores is because they are betting their customers are not willing to pay a sufficient price premium They don't need to bet, they have the numbers. They had stores and they know how much they get through all their distribution-channels. Local shops just don't make enough anymore these days.
slyall 2y ago
Even better if you live in New Zealand. Google Store doesn't list any phones (only shows Fitbit and Nest products) and no official importer or partner in the country. So you have to get it via an importer who offers very minimal support if it breaks.
rty32 2y ago
Google recently opened a store in Boston, and will open a store near Chicago later this year: https://store.google.com/intl/en/ideas/google-store-boston-newbury-street/ https://store.google.com/intl/en/ideas/google-store-boston-n... https://store.google.com/magazine/locations?hl=en-US https://store.google.com/magazine/locations?hl=en-US Other locations are in New York City and in their Mountain View headquarter.
- KomoD 2y ago
  Last I checked Boston, Chicago, NYC and Mountain View are not in the UK so I'm not sure how that is relevant.
  - rty32 2y ago
    This is as relevant as the sentence "Google's commitment to removing any ways from consumers to actually interact with the company is truly extreme. And probably results in people turning to desperate measures when they run into troubles with Google products." in the parent comment.
zeagle 2y ago
I think they are just large enough to fail upwards at everything. Nothing consumer facing needs a solution because consumers are the product and a cost centre while large businesses are the clients. Not that I'm still bitter at having my Google for your domain purchases locked to a crippled account or anything.
beardyw 2y ago
Google has only about 3% of the UK phone market. Apple has 44%. You are comparing apples with oranges (yes pun intended). Google is mostly a services company.
- throwaway48476 2y ago
  Hardware is not necessarily relevant. How much of the UK surveillance adtech market do they have?
  - beardyw 2y ago
    Not sure they need a storefront for that.

seper8 2y ago

Would this be grounds for a lawsuit?

vytautask 2y ago

IMHO, would be easier to get a new restaurant mobile number and update that on the restaurant/google website than to contact Google support. However, this article in the Guardian will likely attract some attention from Google employees.

Doctor_Fegg 2y ago
Especially as it's less than 200m from the Guardian's London office to Google's London office.

madaxe_again 2y ago

It isn’t a good look for the guys whose entire business is information and advertising to not be able to advertise their own phone number correctly, for 3+ years. Some might argue that Google is coasting on inertia, and has already begun its decline, and is reminiscent of Yahoo!, back in the day.

linker3000 2y ago

Some jester tagged one of the houses on a new build estate near to me as the Burger King UK headquarters on Google Maps. /Got it removed.

cynicalsecurity 2y ago

It's actually insane Google does nothing in this regard. The possibilities for a bad actor impersonating Google support are endless.

CPLX 2y ago

I mean asking for the login information of every caller, and then using it in the most disruptive way you can think of, would probably start to get someone's attention pretty quickly.

bryanrasmussen 2y ago
huh... hey can I maybe buy this phone number? I have suddenly had a great new entrepreneurial idea!
ben_w 2y ago
The someone in question being either a lawyer or law enforcement.

nmeofthestate 2y ago

Look, if you have a serious issue requiring Google support, it's quite simple to get it resolved - there's an established process: First, spend a couple of years suffering and being ignored by Google. Eventually your suffering will become bad enough that it's an interesting news story. At this point, contact news media. Hopefully a few hours after the news story is published, the issue will be resolved. You may be able to resolve the issue before the story is even published, when the journalist contacts Google to obtain a statement. It's quite simple.

aestetix 2y ago
You left out the part about filing a lawsuit against them so their legal team would be forced to respond to you.
marban 2y ago
Or simply cross your fingers that the affected product that's causing you pain gets shut.
deleted 2y ago
[deleted]

theginger 2y ago

I suspect if they had been able to document the steps taken that got them there and reported it as a vulnerability they might have not only got it fixed pretty much immediately but also possibly a bounty.

bryanrasmussen 2y ago

Google: Our mission is to organize the world's information and make it universally accessible and useful. Notice, there was no mention about correct. Congratulations your restaurant's number is universally accessible and useful (as long as people use it!)

BiteCode_dev 2y ago

At this stage, sale the number to a security researcher for $50, and change the number. They will make their money back and some, and you'll get compensation. Then sue Google with the money.

austhrow743 2y ago
Sue google with $50?
- ben_w 2y ago
  I saw a story a while back where someone made their personal number premium rate to reduce nuisance calls (it was successful); that may also be an option. Not a great one as the problem is Google rather than the callers, but I guess you could also have an immediate route to voicemail with the message "this is not, repeat not, google".
- tialaramex 2y ago
  Sure, $50 is enough to file a court claim saying Google owes you £300 because of the cost of sorting out this mess. It might work pretty well, Google can choose to say oh yeah, that's about right, here's £300 or they can make this into a big deal whereupon their in-house legal team are immediately going to spend far more than £300 just showing up and making their position in court, and they might well lose if you tried to get it fixed and they were useless.

throwaway48476 2y ago

Set a voicemail, "hello, you've reached Google UK support. Please say your username, password, and nature of issue and we'll call you back to assist shortly"