[Nexus 4 General] chronus719:
Letter to Google

Hello all, I've just drafted a letter I am about to send to every publication under the sun. Please review it at your leisure and provide any input via private message. Likewise, if you have screen grabs of bank accounts that have been charged without devices being shipped/received, correspondence with CSRs, etc., anything you think would be a useful addition as a bibliography of sorts for this letter, please send to me via PM. I want to get this out. For all those who are stuck in this mess.

To whom it may concern,

I am writing this letter to implore you to write a story on the ongoing drama that is the Google Play and Nexus 4 ordering fiasco that has been allowed to play out for the last 3 weeks. A thread at www.XDA-Developers.com has exceeded 34,000 posts, largely concerned with the status of individuals’ orders, a lack of communication from Google, and the disservice that this situation has brought to us as consumers. Among the major issues discussed have been:

1)	The initial botching of orders on November 13th, leading to a number of situations:

a.	Successful completion of an order, resulting in a confirmation email, shipping email, and timely delivery.

b.	Completion of an order that resulted in a confirmation email, but no further correspondence from Google (many of these appear to have been shipped, although there is a small number that still have no resolution on their order).

c.	Completion of an order that resulted in a confirmation email and a backorder email (again, many of these appear to have been resolved, but there are a number of people without resolution to their order).

d.	Completion of an order, but no correspondence from Google whatsoever (it is unclear how many of these cases have been resolved).

In each of these cases, individuals have been reliant upon Google’s outsourced Customer Service Representatives, who are not held accountable for the statements they make to customers, which are unhelpful, misinformed, or flat-out LIES. Promises are made to talk to “shipping specialists” or to have cases “escalated” which results in no progress whatsoever.

2)	Failure to send orders in a first-come first-served order.

As I write this letter, people who have ordered their device(s) on the 27th of November continue to receive their device or tracking information before those that ordered on the 13th. Certain members on the XDA-Developers forum have been proactively trying to ensure that their order is correct with the incompetent Customer Service Representatives for days, or sometimes weeks, only to be promised that there is nothing wrong with their order and it should be shipping within X time period. This almost always, however, results in disappointment, as those who ordered on the 13th and are told their order should be shipping watch as those that ordered 2 weeks after they did receive their devices. How is it that Google can justify this to consumers?

3)	Failure to abide by the Google Play Device Store policy of not charging for a device until it is shipped.

This is perhaps one of the largest issues, as it is tantamount to theft. Certain individuals have received shipping emails, and their accounts have been charged for their device, but now, some 5 days later, they still have no device nor any shipping information from the number they have been given by Google. Repeated calls to both Google and UPS Customer Service have resulted in no progress for these individuals, and the lack of information concerning these cases is certainly disconcerting.

Various members throughout the course of this ordeal have sent in tips to online publications, only to be met by a cold shoulder. If this were happening with any other company, you bet that consumer alerts would be going out from various news sources alerting people that there are serious problems when ordering from the company. My question is why this situation has been rebuked as worthy of attention by so many publications.

I therefore challenge your authors and your publication on grounds of journalistic integrity to run this story.

Consumers as individuals do not, in this situation, have the power to get answers or a response from Google, and it certainly will require the aid of publications such as yours to hold Google accountable for the situation they have created. Please reach out to Google and try to get the answer that we cannot get. If nothing else, start a wave of publicity that will force Google to respond.

Know that I am sending this very letter to your competitors in both electronic and physical distribution, and I will be eagerly waiting to see which publications will opt to uphold the integrity of their business and of the journalistic profession as a whole.

Respectfully signed,

Dom Alvarado

On behalf of the forgotten customers of Google

Sources:

http://xdaforums.com/showthread.php?t=1962514