I'm never buying another Google device after the customer support horror I went through for my Pixel C tablet.
I guess the customer support horror I went through when they canceled my phone number out of the blue in Google Fi is also factored into that decision (took two months to get my phone number back), but to be fair, that wasn't an issue with their hardware.
My wife had issues with her Pixel 6 Pro almost immediately after delivery. It was stuttering randomly doing anything. My rough diagnosis after watching it/replicating it was hardware issue there was no doubt in my mind.
Google's help though? Basically wanted us to engage them in some sort of circus over a device 3 days old. We just straight up returned it and ordered a new one which has worked great. Google wouldn't even issue a straight replacement through their tech support and we did a Return + Purchase to get around their hoops they were trying to get us to jump through.
As all things with Google: they need to actually fix their user support. Even as paying customers of theirs they passed our concerns off and treated us like idiots. I've been using Google's phones since their Nexus line but that experience has made it so I'll be looking elsewhere when replacing my 6 in a year or two.
I was limping along on a fading Nexus 5X (goes to sleep for a night, then revives) and refusing to pay the outrageous prices for the Pixels. Huawei has a phone I was eyeing, and I would have dumped Google Fi. But the Pixel 3a came out at exactly the right time, so I am still in the Google fold for this product cycle. But this story cured me of ever buying a phone directly from Google. Just like one shouldn't buy web hosting and domain registration from the same entity, the lesson here is never buy a device directly from Google. The risk is just too great.
To be fair, I've had the opposite experience with Google Play Store support for my Nexus 5. I'm on my 4th Nexus 5 chassis, the previous 3 were taken back by Google (one broken glass, one sticky power button, and one water intrusion taken back due to a one time courtesy replacement policy). I don't feel great nor terrible about the phone, but clearly Google has spent substantial resources supporting my purchase. My phone calls with them were always very fast and to the point. (Their new hardware division in charge of Pixel may be doing things differently though.)
Not related to Stadia, but I had some issue with my Pixel 3a yesterday that it just stopped charging and had to get in touch with Google's support to try initiate a repair (turned out to be a software bug, thankfully). My learning is :NEVER , EVER, EVER fucking trust Google with your hard-earned money, ever FUCKING again. Even their customer support person did not know what is the link that you have click/form you have to fill to actually initiate a repair request and told me basically the process is not worth it.
+1. I'll never buy Google hardware again. 6 weeks ago, my Pixel C tablet bricked itself playing Minecraft: Pocket Edition (my guess is that the heat corrupted some of the flash memory). Google agreed to replace it under warranty, but they didn't manage to address the package correctly (they forgot to include some details, like the street, city, zipcode, and state (according to FedEx)).
What followed was 4 weeks of calls to Google support. Each time they promised they would reach out to the "shipping partner" and get it sorted. I was also receiving emails threatening to charge me the full cost of the replacement device because I hadn't sent in the broken tablet yet.
Eventually the package got delivered... back to the Google warehouse. Google wasn't aware of this until I called them up - their system assumed it had been delivered to my house. Another promise to fix the situation - and this time they managed to actually get a package to my house. Only it was a Pixel C Keyboard, not a tablet.
Another call, another promise. It's been over a week now and the latest package has not yet been shipped, it's stuck in the order confirmed state.
So, 6 weeks later, still no replacement. Luckily the tablet is mostly for entertainment, I personally plan to never rely on Google for anything important like making a living.
I called and talked about a rep about an issue with my Nexus for months and Google did nothing because of a software and/or hardware issue their engineers couldn't figure out. They kept saying they will look into it and sending instructions to do this or that. Month after month... Finally 4-5 months in, the phone stopped working all together and they sent me a replacement. Nevermind their 14-day return policy, any other company would have sent me a replacement. Now they have lost me as a Project Fi customer, and I surely won't take a chance on another Nexus phone.
Google Pixel 3 has serious customer service quality issues.
The problem here isn't the call quality, it is the customer service. This is typical Google. They might have many boffins working for them but they do not put the customer first and they don't appreciate the benefits of a customer first attitude. For a product that costs $$$ they should do it right, if they promptly dealt with customer service problems with real staff instead of outsourced 'ninjas' then they could turn customers with problems into their greatest brand ambassadors. In so doing they could convert a small army of people who prefer Apple but have ended up giving Android a spin into brand converts, spreading by word of mouth 'how much better Google is' and converting die-hard Apple fans into Google fans. But Google just don't get it. It is also cheaper to do customer service correctly than it is to have people left out there exasperated with the service they get.
Right now my sister is having trouble with their landline phone. They are cussing their broadband provider and blaming them. They have a retro 1980's phone that has 'always worked' but, after a house move and with a small child around, with unknown wiring in the new house it has to be the broadband provider that are to blame. Chances are that there is something wrong with the phone or the cabling inside their house. They are not willing to try a different handset (one with neat features like caller ID and no cord), they want to persist with the retro phone because it looks good, like the ones they grey up with. Sweet. They too have gone online and decided that the broadband provider are useless and that their services are off the mark. Yet there are many people with the same provider who have phones that work remarkably well, but, they have decided otherwise. Again, as per the Google problem here, there is a perceptual issue due to the poor quality of customer service.
Getting back to the Pixel 3, I had a phone with some stupid wallet style phone case that made it so I couldn't be heard on the phone. I was able to work out that it was the case and not the phone (or an app) but I too was grumbling about the quality of the phone before I realised that the problem was quite simple and had everything to do with the case and not the phone.
I wouldn't be surprised if the Pixel 3 problems were due to obvious but not so obvious problems in the majority of the cases and not some fundamental quality problem with the device. However, Google don't pick up the phone and talk to customers, they leave them to gang together on forums and make all their problems Google's fault, which it is. When will Google learn that in hardware the customer comes first and that customer service has to be done properly? It is such a shame as Google do put the customer first with their search and other software services, plus their design principles do a good job of embodying that.
Good luck getting support when your Pixel 2 XL has issues. Google replaced my Nexus 6P with a faulty refurbished device under warranty, and then cold-shouldered me when the refurbished device bricked itself a few weeks later due to an issue that Google Support knew about when they sent me the replacement. I have a friend who had the exact same experience with his own Google device.
Personally, I would rather rip out my own entrails than buy another Google hardware device and expose myself to their garbage customer service.
I also had google refuse to repair a Pixel 3 under warranty, claiming it must be drop damage. I had every pixel before and, while the hardware was full of issues, google was always willing to fix them. It was this instance of them refusing to honor their warranty that finally pushed me from buying any more Pixel phones. While I’ve had no fewer hardware issues on apple devices (my 2017 mbp has had nearly everything but the case replaced for defects), at least apple honored their warranty.
I can’t believe that after 5 google phones/tablets they were willing to lose a customer over a minor hardware problem.
I mentioned this in another thread here before, but I've had 3 Pixel 5a devices completely die on me. Dealing with Google support was such a pain I gave up. My first one died nicely within warranty, and they sent me to a "local" authorised store. Who confirmed it was dead, complete motherboard failure, and then told me that google was refusing to ship them the parts they needed for a repairs. Google sorted out returns after a little badgering, and then the device just sat there collected but not being processed at all, no indications of progress or whatnot until suddenly a new device arrived.
Then my wife's one died a few days before the end of her warranty. They sent us to the local store, who again confirmed same issue. Motherboard dead. Google told them they'd follow up with us, and then after a few days I reached out to them but because that was now out of warranty they refused to replace the device. I completely gave up at that point. It wasn't worth it to get a replacement device that would likely die just like our previous two had, so we bought a non-Google replacement. That argument with google over warrant was so ridiculous and so frustrating, for an amount of money that they'd blink and not miss, we just swore off buying google hardware ever again.
Then just a month ago, my warranty replacement died in exactly the same way. Technically speaking I could get a replacement, as I understand it. No way I'm going to go through all that hassle again.
Same here; had a Pixel 5a with Google Fi. The 1 year old Pixel randomly died one day, totally bricked. Google phone support requires them calling you (after you request it online), and the browser-based “Fi phone” was unable to receive calls from Google phone support. No other callers had this issue. When I finally got in touch with them via my wife’s phone, they wanted me to drive 1.5 hours outside of SF for a phone diagnostic. I said no thanks and switched to iPhone with AT&T.
I witnessed my girlfriend's Nexus 6p support experience with Google and it was not pretty. I would never buy a Google phone after that. The phone, just barely out of warranty, goes into a bootloop and becomes a paperweight. Google helpfully shrugs the problem off on Huawei, and Huawei will of course not support the product since it's out of warranty. There is no repair option.
I tried Android early on, had similarly unacceptable support experiences, and whenever I'm tempted to dip my toes back in the water I'm reminded of how bad things are with cases like this. In the case of the Nexus 6p it's Google's flagship product and it's a worthless paperweight 13 months after purchase.
Google are not much better. They supported my Pixel C for 2 years after I bought it (2017-19); and it was more expensive than a Samsung. I basically got scammed. Never again. I've given up on disposable tablets.
I had a Google Pixel phone. Less than a year old old. Treated with kid gloves. Always kept in a case. Pristine condition.
An approved Google software update bricked it. This was, by all accounts, a known issue.
The phone was under warranty. I sent it back.
They shipped me a scratched up refurbished phone. It ran fine for a week then bricked itself due to the same software update. I sent that back.
They sent me another, even worse scratched up refurbished phone. That too bricked after a week due to the software update.
I've got $3,000 worth of hold charges on my CC whilst Google are playing footsie with my phones. I sent that phone back.
They "lost" it and claimed I sent back a different phone. Then that became that I sent back a phone with a different serial number. Then a different model of phone. I pressed for details but they could never tell me any details about the phone I had allegedly sent back.
They wanted me to pay for all the phones, then eventually just the one phone that was missing. Finally Google admitted "we lost the phone but that's your problem."
After a month I said "fine, you fix this shit or I am doing a charge back." They didn't fix it. I did a credit card charge back for the thousands of dollars currently on hold on my card.
Google decided to disable my Google payments account so I couldn't use the Playstore. Or buy groceries using Google Pay. Or process any subscription items attached to the Google payments account. Or access my store rewards cards stored in my Google Pay wallet.
Google still owed me for the cost of the original phone that was a brick that I no longer possessed after it was sent to Google.
I took Google to small claims, and won.
Google decided that wasn't to their liking and disabled the Google account attached to the phone.
Fuck Google.
P.S. Please stop up-voting. This is not a vote-worthy post. It is simply a "this is what happened." Save your attention for something that is worthy. Save your anger for things that matter.
Be careful about those chargebacks. I bought two new pixel phones directly from Google and only one arrived. Google support was of course awful and Fedex did absolutely nothing outside of asking me what color the phone was. lol
I ended up reversing charges for the missing phone and Google immediately wrecked me - I was using Fi at the time so they killed my cell service and killed my ability to use Google Pay for anything - including the Play Store. Probably some other stuff I don't even remember.
Between my personal account and my business accounts I realized at that moment that Google could completely wreck my life. Be careful about retaliation for a chargeback, if you live within one company's ecosystem it can be a brutal retaliation you're not ready for.
You really need to fix your shit when it comes to selling hardware.
Despite being a huge Android/ChromeOS/etc fan, every interaction I've ever had that involved buying hardware (or in some cases, trying to buy hardware and failing) from the Play store was some level of painful ranging from minor annoyance to full-blown disaster.
I get that the Nexus 4 is supply constrained, I really do. In no way do I feel entitled to purchase one at any specific time. Being out of stock is no big deal and I'm normally a very patient person, but your inability to address the issue with any sort of useful public information and your lack of useful human customer support is inexcusable. Apple, Amazon... hell, even Microsoft... all make you look like a bunch of bumbling idiots when it comes to this stuff.
I'm basically done trying until you address the huge problems you have in this area.
Google bricked by LG v35. They had absolutely no remorse and support told me there was nothing they would do. (Notice I used the word would, because they absolutely could do something but that would interfere with $).
Google mobile hardware has a long history of shoddiness. It absolutely shines in the components useful to marketing and completely falls down in the ones which aren't. The Nexus 4 had screen tint issues and a defective speaker that emitted a high pitched buzzing noise. The Nexus 5 overheated often and sometimes the camera just stopped connecting. The Nexus 5X had boot loop issues so bad there was a class action lawsuit. The Nexus 6P had the same boot loop issues as well as faulty battery sensors and poorly-designed frame that bent and snapped in the middle. Pixel 1 had faulty microphones that Google knew about and still sold, resulting in another class action lawsuit. The Pixel 2 emitted weird clicking and scratching noises from its speaker at all times. The Pixel 2 XL had a godawful POLED display with colors so uneven it looked like someone stomped on the panels before installing them. Oh and both their USB-C ports would spontaneously break and prevent charging the phone. Pixel 3XL included two wildly disparate speakers with no way to balance them, so the audio always feels like it's coming from one side.
Trust me, some wild-ass Pixel 6 hardware fault will emerge in the next twelve months.
I guess the customer support horror I went through when they canceled my phone number out of the blue in Google Fi is also factored into that decision (took two months to get my phone number back), but to be fair, that wasn't an issue with their hardware.
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