Google is a tech company who have built a ballooning business out of brilliant algorithms and self-serviced web applications. With Nexus One's release, it's becoming apparent the company wasn't prepared to handle the dirty side of tech: customer support. Early adopters are now paying the price, both literally and figuratively.
When you buy a phone from a carrier and you encounter problems, a simple call to the company's hotline will get you a human voice on the other end. Sure, that human voice may be sitting in an office somewhere in India or the Philippines, but there's always a certain comfort in knowing that your issues are being heard and, possibly, even being addressed right now.
Google's support, on the other hand, is strictly email, with an accompanying advisory to wait up to two days to get a response. Seriously. Forty-eight hours to get an answer for a product that has received more press than anything else during the last week and a half. It's even worse - some customers are reporting a waiting period of three days or more to get a response.
The company has already received a storm of criticism for the steep price they are charging for early returns of phones covered by the trial period (which sees dissatisfied customers charged $200 by T-Mobile and $350 by Google). This early, critics are already calling the failure to address customer issues as a huge setback not only for Nexus One, but for Android as a whole.
Knowing Google, though, they'll probably learn from this and wisen up. Well, they better, lest they destroy any of the momentum they managed to build up with Android's growing popularity. The next month will likely be a critical one for both the company and the platform as they work to establish a more stable environment for consumers.
[via NYTimes]
