When is a phone not a phone?

The answer? When it’s a brand ambassador.

TL;DR

My faulty Google Pixel 6 can’t be examined, let alone fixed, and Google seems ambivalent. As the most used Google service in my life, it makes me question my choices for all of the others; personal - Chrome, Gmail etc. - and professional - Google Workspace, Google Cloud Services and the like. If Google doesn’t care about its consumer experience then what does that say about it’s attitude to any customer? Should I continue to risk the use of its services for any critical operation? Maybe it’s time to consider Amazon and Apple as my Big Tech suppliers?

The phone

I had a Google Pixel 6. That is, I bought a Google Pixel 6 at the Google Store about four months ago. You will have seen the Google Pixel 6 advertised on TV, the web, every one of the Google Services you use (YouTube , Google Search etc.) with the emphasis on it as

“The first-ever all Google phone.”

Google is very proud of the new Google Pixel 6 (and Google Pixel 6 Pro) and so it should be. I have been very impressed with the phone - fast, stable (although others have experienced issues here), a fantastic camera etc. Everything that I want in a phone. A reliable, pocketable, personal computer for all my information needs.

Technically, I still have a Google Pixel 6... but it’s been lying dormant in a box for the past nine days. As I write this (my need for catharsis all-powerful) it seems that it may never leave that box. The screen failed to light up ten days ago as I picked up the phone on a Sunday afternoon - although it was still connected to my Bose 700 headset and could be switched on/off - so I visited the Google Store where I bought it to find out how to return it for inspection under warranty.

So starts a farcical journey that would darken the name of even the smallest consumer operator. When it’s the customer experience offered by one of the world’s leading technology companies we move from the sublime Google Pixel 6 to the ridiculous Google Store / Google Support Team experience...

The customer experience saga

Sunday - Day 1

The Google Store is a little tricky to navigate but I found the returns section and duly entered the IMEI number of the phone and selected the issue: “Screen - display problem”. I was reassured that this should be covered by my warranty and Google Store provided two repair options - Walk-in or Mail-in. The closest Walk-in option is 44.1 miles away (according to Google Maps) so Mail-in seemed the sensible option.

Then another choice; “Use my own packaging (responsible for damages in transit)” or “Send me packaging (Not responsible for damages in transit)”. “Send me packaging” seemed sensible - allowing for the 1-2 delay waiting for the packaging was preferable to risking the screen issue being blamed on damage in transit. I duly submitted the return request and within a minute had a live RMA ready for my return. A perfect start.

Monday - Day 2

The first physical step step - the packaging arrived on Monday morning, ahead of schedule, so I popped into the office to package the phone and print out the return label.

And here the farce begins...

There was no return label. The Google Store assured me that it would be emailed to me - to my Gmail account, in fact - but there was no email. I searched for it using “Google Store”, “return label”, “Pixel 6” etc. but Gmail yielded nothing.

OK, I thought, let’s revisit the Google Store and use the live chat feature to ask for help. Google Support Enquiry 6-5646000032373 was initiated.

My caseworker - [G] (from the “Device Support” unit, based on their email address) - told me initially that the return label had been emailed so I should look again. I asked how to search for it, describing the searches that I had performed already, and was told that those would find it. I was then told that I should go to the Repair Details Screen in my Google Store account and choose the Email Shipping Label option.

That makes sense... but there is a small problem. The Repairs Detail Screen doesn’t have an Email Shipping Label option. I pointed this out to The Google Support Team and their resolution was simple; just cancel the return - which they did for me, before I could protest - and request a new one. That will definitely result in a return label email.

Tuesday - Day 3

And so I did. Request a new return. In Google Store packaging. And the packaging duly arrived but no return label by email. I updated [G] at The Google Support Team on growing support case email thread. The day after my case was opened they assured me that they had escalated my issue to their specialists and it would soon be resolved.

No email, no return label.

Wednesday - Day 4

The now daily contact with my new friend [G] at The Google Support Team did nothing to resolve the issue. I was assured that the specialists were working hard on their investigations and was asked if I would provide more information on my “issue”. I guess it was baffling the specialists in The Google Support Team. It was certainly baffling me; why couldn’t the Google Store, or any one of The Google Support Team, send one email to a Gmail account? It seems pretty baffling, right?

Thursday - Day 5

Now it was time for a new member of The Google Support Team to step in. This was [F], who “... [took] the liberty on reviewing your case since the specialist working on this is currently out of the office.” The good news was that my case had been escalated to the “Dedicated Team”. The bad news was that they had decided to cancel the return, advise me to start another and reminded me to check if I was “... using the correct email account and your Google Drive storage still has enough space to receive new email messages.” Sage advice you might think but they chose to email me on the Gmail account which I used for my Google Store order.

I pointed this out to [F]. By this point I was 5 days without the phone that manages all of my Google Pay payments, provides me with keyless access to my car, acts as the Google Authenticator for my work and personal multi-factor authentication needs and is the primary tool for most of my banking.

[F] assured me that the “Dedicated Team” had identified that there was an issue at their end (in the Google Store?) and that the only resolution was to request another return. So I filed another and waited...

Friday, Saturday - Days 6 & 7

No label. More emails. More escalation. No results.

Sunday - Day 8

In desperation I did what any savvy LinkedIn user does and searched for the most senior Google Store representative I could find and sent them a LinkedIn InMail.

Monday - Day 9

My LinkedIn stalking worked and the senior Google Store representative - [N] - replied, apologised for the situation, promised that I would hear from the Customer Services team (AKA The Google Support Team?) very shortly.

Tuesday - Day 10

More email exchanges with The Google Support team but no resolution, pathway to resolution or timeframe for resolution.

Wednesday - Day 11

OK, enough is enough. I decided to give up on the Mail-in return process. Time to bite the bullet and make the 45-mile train journey into London to my nearest Google Store repair Walk-in location. Time to create a new (fourth) return request.

The good news is that the Walk-in option doesn’t require an RMA - you just... walk-in. Or you can call ahead to book an appointment. Given my experience to date I thought booking an appointment might be prudent, so I called the London St Pancras repair store shown on the Google Store website.

The bad news is that there is no point in walking in to the repair shop. A faulty screen will not be looked at without a replacement screen in stock. I suggested that perhaps my screen wasn’t actually faulty but the repairer said that it was policy to only receive phones for repair when parts are in stock. The repairer has no screens for the Google Pixel 6 and has a backlog of over 30 customers ahead of me, awaiting screens... this number has been building since “early January” and the repairer - despite being a Google-authorised Repairer (as they reminded me several times on the call) - has no stock.

The best that the repair could offer was to take my details and call me at some unspecified point in the future to advise when (if?) screen parts are in stock again. The only silver lining is that I didn’t travel speculatively, following the cheery advice on the Google Store

“Visit at any time during opening hours or call to make an appointment.”

I have provided more feedback to [N] and this afternoon they replied to say that “the team” would be in touch... and I now have a new case opened. Now it’s [A] (from the “Store Support” unit, based on their email address - different from [F] and [G]) and they inform me that the problem is an “address constraint”. I have asked what that means but as yet have no more information.

With no means of returning the phone by mail or at a store, I decided to try a constructive approach and provide a full UX breakdown test, documenting every step in the process to [A] so that they can understand my confusion at the “address constraint”, if not fully appreciate my exasperation and frustration. Exasperated and frustrated because the only information entered in the return process is the IMEI number for the Google Pixel 6 phone itself - at no point am I asked to supply any address information. The address that the return packaging will be sent to (and I know this works because I now have three sets of return packaging... and suspect I will soon have four) is the one that I supplied when I ordered the phone back in October.

Confused, exasperated, frustrated and ￡600 out of pocket.

The brand damage

And so to a conclusion. Not for the phone, or my customer experience; they linger in cyber-limbo with no end in sight. A conclusion on the impact that consumer experience has on brand perception.

The initial response that I received from [N] concluded with

“Thank you for your patience and for the passion you've shown to the Google ecosystem to date. I hope we will be able to repay your faith.”

I took this at face value and saw it as a considered response from a senior manager who fully understands the concept of Customer Lifetime Value. That consumers are often also business users and, sometimes, wield a degree of decision-making power over business spending. That customers associate surprising products and services with the brands behind them.

My expectations met - exceeded actually - with the Google Pixel 6 have been first tempered, then frustrated, and now troubled by the Google Store and The Google Support Team. Together, the Google Store and The Google Support Team have demonstrated that Google has no idea about consumer service or how challenging a dead phone, with no support, is to its customers... or how that indifference and lack of attention impacts their brand.

To be clear, I don't blame [G], [F] or [A] in this process. They are following process and protocol and working with the tools that they are provided. My ire is directed at the Google organisation - specifically the Google Store and The Google Support Team - and that means, to a degree, at [N] who is (or appears to be, from their job title) in charge of these enterprises.

Google Store and The Google Support Team do not have the tools, skills, ethos or understanding to provide consumer services on the evidence of my experience.

I have been a Google acolyte for over ten years. I moved my business onto Google Workspace before it was GSuite. We switched from Microsoft Exchange to Gmail around 12 years ago. We moved from Microsoft Office to Google Apps 10 years ago. We bought into Android, Chromebooks and Android Auto. We use Google Cloud Services. We always had alternatives but found that the Google experience was better, in the round. Things just work, support requirements are minimal, documentation has been (in general), excellent.

But a problem phone has made me wonder. With the smartphone such a critical tool for modern life, is the Google ecosystem up to the job?

Maybe it is - prior to my Google Pixel 6 I have used Android on a series of OnePlus phones. Maybe Android is fine and its just Google and their Pixel 6 service that is the problem.

But maybe not. Maybe the tied-in, everything-from-one-vendor Apple approach has its merits as the importance we attach to the device - and its impact on our life - increases? Maybe I need to put my 20 years of resistance to the Apple bandwagon aside and think about the certainty offered by their closed ecosystem, with its deep consumer and retail expertise? Maybe mission-critical consumer support is something that Apple understands and cares about? Even if not, I have found myself - for the first time in over 20 years - actively asking myself

Maybe it’s time for a MacBook Air and an iPhone?

When Google moved from “Don’t be evil” to “Do the right thing” I expected an increase in its consumer service ethos.

The other Big Tech business that I shop with regularly - Amazon - has never yet dropped the ball on customer service with me. I am shocked to discover the lax attitude at Google Store but not as shocked as I would be to experience that with Amazon. Amazon’s customer experience, when things go bad, has always met - or more often exceeded - my expectations to date. So maybe I need to reset my thinking and explore a Prime Exclusive Phone ... has anyone out there tried one?

Maybe I’m just realising, very late in the day, that ultimately you get what you pay for and that I may resent the price of Apple’s approach but when it comes to the increasingly mission-critical nature of the smartphone it’s wise to end my cynicism and start to think value and not price.