6 ms·

Got my order in a solid 4 hours after the actual release so I'm not that surprised. You'd think a company like Google would have a better system for 1. Preorde

Got my order in a solid 4 hours after the actual release so I'm not that surprised. You'd think a company like Google would have a better system for 1. Preordering and 2. Giving a better estimate for when you'll actually receive your product.

alanctgardner2 14y ago
The funny thing is, I ordered 5 minutes after it opened. Then they closed it. Then they reopened it. I guess Canadians are getting the short end of the stick on this launch. edit: I mean, they said 'Sold Out', then after a few hours apparently they allowed more people to buy. I wonder if anyone is getting a phone within the original time span, or if they're buying time at this point.
- MikeLindner 14y ago
  I think a key mistake is assuming that when the web site said sold out that they actually were. You could refresh 10 times and it would flip-flop between available and not. While I didn't buy a Nexus 4 I did buy a Nexus 10 and it was plagued with the same ordering issues. I spent over 40 minutes refreshing the page to try to get my order in. Much of the time it just reverted to the "Coming Soon"; even when I got it added to the cart it kept failing over and over when trying to confirm the transaction. Yet my tablet was shipped today. I think it's telling that now wallet.google.com is talking about "building a smarter wallet." I think they've realized they really screwed up. It would be nice though for them to just come out and say it and apologize for the really horrible buying experience. Especially for those Nexus 4 buyers that now have to wait after already being charged. Something that ought to stop is folks blaming the buyers without realizing that having to refresh the page 20-50 times was the only way to get an order through for many if not most people.
wmf 14y ago
You'd think a company like Google would have a better system... I would think the opposite, since Google is not used to selling physical products and they've managed to botch every previous Nexus launch in some way.
- rhizome 14y ago
  Except that they have spent over a decade culling the world for the smartest and most accomplished employees.
  - OriginalSyn 14y ago
    Just because you're a genius with search algorithms doesn't mean you know how to run a successful, physical, product launch
    - emmapersky 14y ago
      This. But, not everyone at Google is a search engineer. Many many engineers at Google work on one of our other products. We should, and probably do, have experts on online retail scale-ability somewhere (disclaimer: i am a search engineer at Google)
      - georgemcbay 14y ago
        It isn't just a scale-ability issue, though. Well, it kinda-sorta is, but not in the strictly technical sense. Every interaction I've had with buying physical goods from Play was far more painful than my average online buying experience, even when buying items that are readily available. Once you place a Play order for hardware it basically goes into a black hole where you're never quite sure if the order was actually processed or not and you usually get no indication from Google of the actual status until after the device arrives at your doorstop. Attempts to get information about the order results in robo-emails that manage to appear even stupider than your average "reading from a script" custom service drone. If you keep replying to these robo-emails, sometimes a real person will email you like 2 days later, but not always. Using the phone is nearly as bad, the whole system is clearly designed to stop your from ever talking to a real human, and while I understand the cost reasons for doing this, as a customer it totally sucks, especially compared to companies like Amazon and Newegg who totally nail this stuff (IME). Play customer service is just busted from top to bottom and woe unto anyone for whom the default process doesn't operate as expected the first time. I love Google for many things but I hate buying hardware from them.

alanctgardner2 14y ago

The funny thing is, I ordered 5 minutes after it opened. Then they closed it. Then they reopened it. I guess Canadians are getting the short end of the stick on this launch. edit: I mean, they said 'Sold Out', then after a few hours apparently they allowed more people to buy. I wonder if anyone is getting a phone within the original time span, or if they're buying time at this point.

MikeLindner 14y ago
I think a key mistake is assuming that when the web site said sold out that they actually were. You could refresh 10 times and it would flip-flop between available and not. While I didn't buy a Nexus 4 I did buy a Nexus 10 and it was plagued with the same ordering issues. I spent over 40 minutes refreshing the page to try to get my order in. Much of the time it just reverted to the "Coming Soon"; even when I got it added to the cart it kept failing over and over when trying to confirm the transaction. Yet my tablet was shipped today. I think it's telling that now wallet.google.com is talking about "building a smarter wallet." I think they've realized they really screwed up. It would be nice though for them to just come out and say it and apologize for the really horrible buying experience. Especially for those Nexus 4 buyers that now have to wait after already being charged. Something that ought to stop is folks blaming the buyers without realizing that having to refresh the page 20-50 times was the only way to get an order through for many if not most people.

wmf 14y ago

You'd think a company like Google would have a better system... I would think the opposite, since Google is not used to selling physical products and they've managed to botch every previous Nexus launch in some way.

rhizome 14y ago
Except that they have spent over a decade culling the world for the smartest and most accomplished employees.
- OriginalSyn 14y ago
  Just because you're a genius with search algorithms doesn't mean you know how to run a successful, physical, product launch
  - emmapersky 14y ago
    This. But, not everyone at Google is a search engineer. Many many engineers at Google work on one of our other products. We should, and probably do, have experts on online retail scale-ability somewhere (disclaimer: i am a search engineer at Google)
    - georgemcbay 14y ago
      It isn't just a scale-ability issue, though. Well, it kinda-sorta is, but not in the strictly technical sense. Every interaction I've had with buying physical goods from Play was far more painful than my average online buying experience, even when buying items that are readily available. Once you place a Play order for hardware it basically goes into a black hole where you're never quite sure if the order was actually processed or not and you usually get no indication from Google of the actual status until after the device arrives at your doorstop. Attempts to get information about the order results in robo-emails that manage to appear even stupider than your average "reading from a script" custom service drone. If you keep replying to these robo-emails, sometimes a real person will email you like 2 days later, but not always. Using the phone is nearly as bad, the whole system is clearly designed to stop your from ever talking to a real human, and while I understand the cost reasons for doing this, as a customer it totally sucks, especially compared to companies like Amazon and Newegg who totally nail this stuff (IME). Play customer service is just busted from top to bottom and woe unto anyone for whom the default process doesn't operate as expected the first time. I love Google for many things but I hate buying hardware from them.