26 responses to “Google proves they are the dumbest bunch of geniuses on the planet”

1. 

   Andrew Barr January 16th, 2010 at 10:54

   I hate it when you have a simple question and you spend ten minutes on the phone pressing buttons that get you nowhere. With any company introducing a new product I think it’s important that you can talk to a real person in case you need help. It is cheap insurance and in the long run you would make a lot more money because it would keep some people from returning it.

2. 

   Doug Booth January 16th, 2010 at 13:21

   I find it extremely annoying when you are having difficulty solving a technological issue and you are transferred to someone that speaks broken English and is very hard to clearly understand. Also, you know there is a problem with the support system if you are forced to talk to a supervisor to get anything accomplished in a timely fashion!

3. 

   Brian Corley January 16th, 2010 at 13:36

   Customer support has lately evolved into something that no one has to deal with.It is hard to try to fix usually very technical problems with a computer, someone with a different native language, or someone who generally don’t care. No live customer support at all makes me question Google’s business sense and customer appreciation.

4. 

   Jacob Son January 16th, 2010 at 14:41

   My first impression of this is that of Google trying to fit into the illustrious “smartphone club” with all the other big names like Apple. What causes me to think this is: one, a quick and easy scheme that treats the costumer like a machine in order to obviously cut costs, and two, Google didn’t contribute to the product design (third part Android). Essentially Google is merely writing checks in hopes to quickly introduce this Nexus One device, and “invade” an already established industry.

5. 

   Juliana January 16th, 2010 at 14:56

   It seems that Google missed one of the biggest pieces in business, customer focus. If you can’t keep customers happy, you don’t have a business.

6. 

   Taylor Gelsosomo January 16th, 2010 at 15:39

   Customer service is one of the major parts of a business that is often overlooked. Whether customers are satisfied with the service they receive can make or break a company. Some people may be hesitant to even call customer service because they know it could take a substantial amount of time to resolve a simple question.

7. 

   Justin de la Chi(cago) January 16th, 2010 at 15:56

   For me, there seems to be two very obvious points that are not made here.

   1) There is really no professional service, be it customer service, Geek Squad, Blue Crew, whatever, that really can stand as an expert on such issues of usability and functionality. Forums are never going to cut it in today’s consumer driven society. This is taking the IKEA approach to DIY when the majority of people are tech-moderately-savvy.

   2) For all the tech advances and development of phenomenal new gadgets, there still is the underlying truth that humans need humanity. A computer will never replace the comfort a consumer gets from finding the right voice on the other side of the line helping them solve their concerns. This is an inalienable necessity to being human.

   Google, with all it’s talent has never been a human company. It has always attempted to turn a human into something simpler….a logarithm, or a set of data points. Perhaps we are just that, but I think there is no replacing the human touch.

8. 

   Loïc Mazet January 16th, 2010 at 16:05

   I can’t believe that google, one of the fastest growing companies in the past 10 years made such a big mistake.

9. 

   Tyler January 16th, 2010 at 17:46

   Is Google going to develop a human powered sector to complement this problem–whether it be phone support, instant messaging, or email?

   I think outsourcing to a third party would be one of their viable options. They are a technological company, and they do not have a strong human-to-human infrastructure. They aren’t known for interaction through humans; they present technological services instead. Therefore, I do not find it as strange that they do not have a human customer support. I do find it odd that their current support system is as inadequate as it is.

10. 

    Colby Beacham January 16th, 2010 at 17:52

    I don’t think they made a mistake, maybe a dumb decision but not a mistake. I fully believe google went into this full well knowing they were not going to provide real customer service for their product. Look at it this way by providing customer support goggle has to create and finance a new division and hire people to provide the support. This would mean most likely outsourcing the work to other countries for a minimal pay to help lower the costs. These workers would then only be given basic knowledge of how the phone works so the support would only be lackluster at best. So the only solid support that would be coming out of this are basic fixes. Fixed which can be found in about 5 seconds with a simple.. Google.. search. Today’s online community does a great job providing support for anyone who asks for it. Sites like yahoo have communities who work just to answer peoples questions (answers.yahoo.com). There are also millions of forums each with their own specialty, that can provide people with basic or even advanced support with a product. Given this I believe Google is trying to push people to take initiative and look for themselves online for the the answers and the support they need. By doing so google gets more people online, (which brings in more ad money), as well as cutting the costs of financing a customer support division. However even though I agree with this change, I still agree that google made a dumb decision. Today’s society is still not ready for this change and will revolt against it until they understand its benefits, and until the majority of people become technically affluent enough for this method to work. On a side note though if any company had the resources to push for this is would be Google, the little outrage they are getting from this will not hurt the Nexus One or Android enough to matter to such a large company as Google, the phone is still selling amazingly well and Android is still one of the most prominent players in the cell phone OS market today.

11. 

    Anthony Sikorski January 16th, 2010 at 20:20

    Everytime I try to get on the phone with customer service it seems that I speak with someone with broken English or told I need to wait 10 minutes to just talk to someone. They also always seem to make me try useless and repetitive things. I think that these geniuses at google should try to solve that problem. If they could find a better way for customer service that involved a person who speaks clear English everyone would be even happier. That should be there goal and then they could be the model company in which all others follow.

12. 

    Brett Cohen January 16th, 2010 at 22:39

    That certainly doesn’t sound like a google idea. The base to any system, no matter how high tech, requires people to maintain. When you have a problem, nothing beats a live person guiding you to the solution.

13. 

    Colleen Cahill January 17th, 2010 at 14:48

    The success of google can be attributed to it’s user friendly search engine (ex. no adds on page, suggestions, spell check, easy to use). This is why the lack of usability on this product confuses me. This product’s main competitor (I believe) is the Iphone, a product known for being user friendly. I wonder why google didn’t make usability more of a priority, it seems out of sync with their usual services.

14. 

    Byron Young January 17th, 2010 at 15:19

    People buy feelings. Customers are more likely to be a part of your company if they feel that they matter to the company. In this case Google has missed this point entirely.

    While their idea is quite creative, they need customer support. With so many competitors in the cell phone market, people will leave when they have continual problems that they cannot get solved.

    A lesson I took from this situation is to always show your customers that they matter.

15. 

    Keegan Klauke January 17th, 2010 at 17:49

    I know a lot of people hate the idea of this. I also know the frustration it takes to talk to a machine. I have been on both sides working for AMD and calling HP for a fix for my computer. One thing i learned when working in the processor field, its that human labor is the most expensive part of owning a large corporation. When AMD went through their hardest time during fall of 2008 they had to throw their customer support out the window because it is one of the most expensive parts of a company and has the least amount of return on investment.

16. 

    Craig Hasbargen January 17th, 2010 at 17:49

    Customer service is an integral part of retaining a companies customer base. If customers are not cared for in the right manner they will defect to a company that offers a similar product or service because of the mistreatment.

17. 

    Nwokedi Idika January 17th, 2010 at 19:38

    What most people don’t realize is that most of Google’s projects/products fail. The conventional wisdom says you have to have a lot of bad ideas to have a good one.

18. 

    Maria Del Real January 17th, 2010 at 20:31

    I agree! Customers service is vital to any business’s success. One of my pet peeves as well is when I get transferred at least half a dozen times to someone who “speaks” english, but yet I can’t understand anything! Not only customers get frustrated, but eventually will look elsewhere for better customer service, even if the product or service is slightly less than their previous provider.

    Customer service should not only include phone support, but should also consider the availability of the customer and make themselves available via email or other means.

19. 

    Meiqi January 17th, 2010 at 21:52

    I think successful business must get supports from consumers. Though coming up with new ideas and applying it to the real business are encouaged, business person needs to achieve the goal. If this technology is aim for users to communicate conviniently, consumers will support it to approve its feasibility. If the business person wants to earn profit, they will hope they have more consumers. Therefore, no matter what aim is, the responses of consumers could measure wether the business is successful or not. Business persons needs more consumers’ voices rather than voices from experts or media.

20. 

    Kyle Egbert January 18th, 2010 at 12:30

    I think its an oversight on Google’s part, but they are usually quick to fix things like this. I like the new business model and would love to have a more open and free market where I can match the phone I want and the provider I want and not have to be restrained in my choices. T-Mobile is taking steps towards this with their “Even More Plus” plans (http://www.t-mobile.com/shop/plans/Cell-Phone-Plans-Overview.aspx?WT.ac=0346HOM04). If the industry moves to this model as their primary way of doing business, it may slow growth/progress in the cell phone market because people won’t necessarily run off every 1 or 2 years to upgrade their phones.

21. 

    Courtney M. Cronk January 18th, 2010 at 13:57

    Nowadays a person’s cell phone is like their lifeline. if it isnt working, they themselves cant function. Especially since these days a cell phone is the only phone that a person owns. landlines are practically nonexistant. Case in point, college students. I know its hard for me to do anything with out my cell phone. when it breaks, or chooses not recieve or make calls, or i cant text because one of the buttons isnt working, my life becomes a night mare because i cant use it. So what is the first thing i do? call AT&T. and i skip over the voice recording asking me what my problem categories are, and go straight to customer service.

    My question is, why would google think that forums and delayed emails would be able to provide adequate customer service? the amount of frustrated customers is probably extreme, and i bet ten bucks that a lot of people will consider buying another google product again.

    google.com works for unanswered questions all around the world, but when it comes to a cellular phone, one on one customer service is a must. Howcome the cell phone carriers (Tmobile users especially) arent provided with adequate information to help these customers? I feel like AT&T always helps its customers when they have a problem with an iPhone. Shouldn’t this be the same? note to self: dont get the nexus one.

22. 

    Jeff Olen January 18th, 2010 at 15:31

    Customer support is the most important aspect of a business. With out this you have a bunch of pissed off customers who are not happy with your product. Yea sure they already paid for the product and the company already received their money, but if they can’t have help figuring out problems with it then they will never return as a customer. Every customer should be treated as a god because they are the ones who are paying your bills every day. They are the ones who make this whole world possible. So Google needs to think about how badly they are messing up and get something figured out to help their customers.

23. 

    Mahmood Alrawi January 19th, 2010 at 00:07

    all i got to say about this, is the iphone rocks. i don’t think google should be getting into this business.

24. 

    Shree Frazier January 19th, 2010 at 00:23

    Google has always been “ahead of its time” as the old folks say. We live in such a technologically controlled world that they assumed that handling inquiries through email would be no problem. What they failed to realize is that people want to get into physical contact with the companies they buy their products from. It leaves the customer with a sense of assurance. It is not like buying something off ebay or paying bills online because you know what you’re getting into. The people that run Google are pretty smart so I’m pretty sure that this problem will be solved quickly.

25. 

    Kyle Wheat January 19th, 2010 at 13:35

    This may be news here in the USA, but elsewhere in the world its common to purchase a phone and then buy a SIM card to use with whatever carrier you choose. All to often people forget that the largest cell phone company in the world is Nokia. The US is too entrenched in the idea of carrier subsidized phones so when consumers see a device such as the Nexus One or even an iPhone without a subsidy they get sticker shock. As far as the customer support goes, there is always room to improve. I personally have never had a ‘great’ experience with any support personnel.

26. 

    Sandino Cavallo January 25th, 2010 at 17:46

    Sometimes poor customer service can be part of a business model. One example that I’ve encountered was when I subscribed (and unsubscribed) to Napster about a year ago. Napster made it so easy to register by computer that in about 5 minutes you could be downloading music. However, their limited library of music made me want to cancel my subscription. I quickly found out that subscribers can only cancel by phone. After a 20 minute wait, I found myself arguing with an assistant that was highly trained in keeping me from canceling my account at all costs. After finally canceling the account I realized that Napster’s business plan was to keep as many people paying fees for a service that they may not even like.