Hey Google, customer support needed on line 1, line 2, line 3

Google has been pretty lucky so far but that luck is soon going to run out. They almost brushed with fate when they released Google Apps for the enterprise but even there they get a pass for the most part. For the rest of their software it has always been a case of beta deniability and the attitude that “it’s free so don’t come crying to us if something doesn’t work right“.

This of course is in reference to their customer support or rather the total lack of it, unless of course you are some famous blogger or you know someone in the company. The problem is that while it might have been fine in the web application business it isn’t going to be okay now that Google is in the hardware businesses.

The funny thing is that when people start forking out hundreds of dollars of their hard earned money on something they want it to work. If it doesn’t they you had better make damn sure that there is someone on the other end of that support phone call.

For Google this is something totally new – responsibility to make sure the customer is happy. They have been insulated from the real world of technology because of their normal business model of giving away shit for free and ignoring people when they complain that something doesn’t work.

But as they are finding out when you start selling something like a smartphone customer support isn’t something that you can ignore.

But Google is selling the phone directly to end-users. That means many users are turning to it first, and the search giant doesn’t have the kind of customer support that mobile-phone users are accustomed to.

Google appears to be only accepting e-mail customer queries, to which it pledges to reply in one to two days — far too long, say most people who are complaining online.

Many people are also turning to T-Mobile and HTC, but getting little help there. T-Mobile is often referring people back to either Google or HTC for answers to questions. HTC is often referring people back to T-Mobile, according to complaints online.

One customer going by the name Roland78 said he was transferred between T-Mobile and HTC four times, spending a total of one-and-a-half hours on the phone with customer service. “T-Mobile also said Google hasn’t provided them with any support documents for the phone. Welcome to direct sales Google!” he wrote.

Source:Infoworld

As much as Google might like to think it can be a disruptive force in any business that it sticks its nose into but it is going to discover that law one in the consumer goods businesses is that when you take their money you had better be listening when they say “Fix it”.