9 ms·

Why is it that Google gets a free pass on customer support? We somehow implicitly trust that they're doing good in all other areas, but there is absolutely no

• cowsaysoink 14y ago
  Probably because google doesn't make it's money directly from the majority of people using it's services. And those that do pay do get support http://support.google.com/adwords/answer/1385067?hl=en http://support.google.com/adwords/answer/1385067?hl=en And I believe there is some support for apps for business.
• Kylekramer 14y ago
  Google gets a free pass on customer support? You can't go a day on HN and many other places without people bitching about Google customer support. Unless you want some sort of legally mandated level of support, I don't see what you would like to happen. If customer service is important to you (and Google is clearly betting it isn't that important), then don't use Google services.
  • corresation 14y ago
    I apologize for posting "This.", but I must: Customer support is by far the most commonly criticized facet of Google. It is very widely known to be a debacle, and the truth is that many of us refuse to recommend that less tolerant people do anything with Google that demands customer service (I have never recommended anyone buy devices from the Google Play store after my own debacles with their system).
• ceejayoz 14y ago
  It's hardly just Google. Facebook, Instagram, Twitter all get away with the same sort of thing. Try and find a phone number to call them.
  • AJ007 14y ago
    What about Amazon? I've never talked to anyone on the phone, but I've had them take care of fucked up orders immediately with little question. Dented book? New one is on the way before I even drop the old one off at UPS. American Express? Quick call and fraudulent charges are immediately removed. As such, I spend millions of dollars through American Express and virtually all of my retail shopping through Amazon. I've dumped service providers who don't accept American Express and avoid purchasing countless products not offered for sale through Amazon. My response to inadequate customer service is as follows. In the name of efficiency I'd recommend the following: 1 - Answer about problem being resolved 2 - Problem not resolved (24 hours) 3 - Inadequate answer 4 - I am sorry I will have to issue a charge back for your failure to deliver on services as represented. 5 - Problem solved, either by me or them.
    • ceejayoz 14y ago
      I use Amazon and American Express for the same reason. I'm just saying Google is hardly unique. Amazon and Amex are notable for their good support, not the other way around.
    • blablabla123 14y ago
      I think the point with Amazon is: if something goes wrong, they give you your money back. Once the post man wasn't able to deliver, before I even realized, I had the money I paid back on my bank account. Negative example eBay: when something goes wrong, they take no responsibilty and ask you to take a lawyer if you are not satisfied with that. Even with pure humans this is fast enough.
    • Terretta 14y ago
      American Express is so completely unlike the other providers when it comes to engendering customer loyalty (cardholder since the 80s), it makes me think there has to be room for a Visa/MasterCard provider to distinguish themselves through customer support. And agreed for Amazon as well. Their support is good enough it changes my shopping choice. I'll choose Prime even if the item is a bit more to be sure to ship from their warehouse and have their service.
  • 14y ago
• tlogan 14y ago
  Why is it that Comcast has a free pass? I think there is something to do with monop... some board game. BTW, Comcast brand has been damaged by their bad customer service (and bad service in general). So they just renamed their service to Xfinity.
  • sounds 14y ago
    It's okay, hammer grammie is still around. http://consumerist.com/2007/10/19/legend-of-comcast-office-smashing-grandma-spreads/ http://consumerist.com/2007/10/19/legend-of-comcast-office-s...
  • calinet6 14y ago
    In my experience they've taken a U turn in that area. I won't say they're good yet, but it's obvious they're trying to improve. It's a good market correction, they realized they couldn't just do nothing about their reputation.
• cryptoz 14y ago
  > We somehow implicitly trust that they're doing good in all other areas, but there is absolutely no circumstance in the entire company where a customer can reach a person and receive true support. That's not true. Their customer support will call you so frequently it's almost harassment if you're actually a customer to them; i.e., have an Adwords account. Now they've started selling consumer electronics, they should expand of course and I'm not giving any free passes. But don't pretend that they don't have a very, very large and extremely active and excellent customer support department. They do. They just choose not to use it with 99% of their customers.
  • romain_dardour 14y ago
    The 99% aren't customers. They're the product.
    • jmillikin 14y ago
      "If you're not paying money, you're the product being sold" is one of those cached phrases that looks insightful on first glance, but contains no actual substance. Every human using Google is a customer. For most customers, the product is search results, and their payment is to let part of their screen be occupied by ads. For advertisers, the product is X pixels of advertising text, and the payment is dollars (or euros, or yen, etc). Currently, the exchange rate between pixels and dollars is so extreme that it's not cost-effective to provide support to those customers who are only paying in pixels. Customers who pay in dollars (advertisers are one, but also people who have a paid Gmail account, or have bought more Drive storage, etc) do receive support. --- But that's all beside the point. The original story is about someone who paid hundreds of dollars for a phone, and received terrible support. Even if you hold the position that all free services are inherently exploitive, don't you think that someone who spent that much money should be receiving top-quality support?
      • lisper 14y ago
        On this view, you could argue that a dairy cow is a farmer's customer. The cow gets food and pays for it with milk. Or a fish is a fisherman's customer: the fish gets food, and pays for it with some pain and inconvenience (in the case of catch-and-release) or with its life. It is useful to distinguish transactions that involve money from transactions that don't, and to restrict the word "customer" to apply only to those situations where money is exchanged, if for no other reason than that only in situations where money is exchanged is it clear who is the customer: it's the person who pays. Google's advertisers are its customers. The (attention of the) people doing the searches are the product. Search results are the means by which the product is procured, not unlike the bait on the fisherman's hook.
• aditya 14y ago
  but there is absolutely no circumstance in the entire company where a customer can reach a person and receive true support. Google Apps has great phone support if you're paying for it: http://contact.googleapps.com/?&rd=1 http://contact.googleapps.com/?&rd=1
  • tlogan 14y ago
    No it DOES NOT. For example, delivery to our email is delayed by up to 48 hours and no help from them. The ticket is open for a month and each phone conversation starts from zero (disable filters, clear up cookies, bla bla). There is no follow up, progress, etc.
  • deleted 14y ago
    [deleted]
  • jaytaylor 14y ago
    You couldn't be more wrong. Just ask Paul Graham about how much of his e-mail was lost by google apps.
• OGinparadise 14y ago
  They don't. But when it reaches a tipping point they'll feel sorry for the arrogance they displayed while they were on top.
• mrb 14y ago
  If you read the blog post, at the end he decides to call, and does reach a person, who helps by getting his purchase refunded. It is not clear why he waited so long to call Google Support.
  • jaredmcateer 14y ago
    Not the same problem but my Nexus 4 stopped recognizing SIM cards. I do not have a landline. Only way to make first contact with Google Support is by phone. Therein lies the rub. Once I did get my friend to lend me their phone it was pretty painless but it was still silly that the only means of making contact is by phone and then every other bit of correspondence since there was by Email.
    • jrockway 14y ago
      One other option might have been making the phone call from inside Gmail via your computer. http://www.google.com/chat/voice/ http://www.google.com/chat/voice/ I've personally learned the hard reality that most people currently alive cannot use email correctly and therefore demand that everyone they do business with provide phone support. Because of this, the path of least resistance is to just be like them and get used to calling when you need something resolved. (And the reality is, it's faster for the people at the other end, which is why it persists.)
  • JoshTriplett 14y ago
    Which still wasn't what he actually asked for or wanted. "Please place your order again" was the wrong answer when he already placed an order and the system clearly had that order on file.
    • mrb 14y ago
      You are wrong. The right quote is "Your order will be cancelled and refunded within the next 3-5 business days. If you still want the device, please place a new order", which makes sense. IOW while the first order was being cancelled, the representative informed that if he still wanted the device, he should place a new order.
• wmf 14y ago
  I'm willing to put up with a certain amount of bullshit to save $150 on a phone (that's effectively the discount you get by ordering the Nexus 4 from the totally broken Play store).
• Tichy 14y ago
  Because those products are free. Even the Nexus Phones are probably free, as in Google makes no money with them.
  • wmf 14y ago
    I wouldn't be surprised if some people inside Google think that way, but their margin is not my problem. I assume that anything that costs $300 comes with support. And anyone who accepts credit cards needs to provide enough support to avoid chargebacks from confused customers.
    • dragonwriter 14y ago
      I assume that anything that includes "support" in its product description when I purchase it includes support exactly as described. Assuming more than that is unwarranted, and assuming that free additional services not advertised are included with products because of high price is especially unwarranted.
      • Dylan16807 14y ago
        What are you talking about here? I'm pretty sure 'actually delivering the product' is not a 'free additional service'.
• rdtsc 14y ago
  The only customers Google has are the ones that pay it to place ads. Everyone else is the product. Even Android and all these devices are probably not directly making them that much money, they just want you to use the web more and use Microsoft and Apple products less.
  • greatzebu 14y ago
    There's a sense in which this is true, but it's a really facile argument that doesn't get to the heart of the relationship between Google and the people who use it. "You're the product" implies that they're just using you, man, and that if people were more sophisticated they wouldn't put up with this treatment. In practice I find that the most sophisticated internet users are among the heaviest users of Google products, which implies that the value proposition that Google provides is good even if you understand how their business works. The product doesn't generally extract value from the producer when it's sold to the consumer, but I get an enormous amount of value from using Google.
• allsystemsgo 14y ago
  I'm late to this thread but I do know Google has a very large technical support team for businesses using Google Docs. Not only that but, don't forget Google does get audited annually, which their "customers" [businesses] do see, read, and determine whether or not they feel comfortable continuing to do business with Google. [I'm an IT auditor]
• smrtinsert 14y ago
  Because a lot of their customer base are engineers who consistently get sold by the technology and not support in the larger sense. Technology myopia at its near worst.