Another reason why Google lags behind Apple: Customer service

Not to pile on after Sebastien’s review of the Nexus 7, but I just had to share this little tidbit of information.

I emailed Google customer service over an issue that I had with the Nexus 7, and I received a response. The problem is, the response came 17 days later. Yes, a one followed by a seven. 408 hours after the fact.

It’s just another reason why Google has a long way to go before they can come close to the Apple experience…

Here is the original automated response I received from Google Play:

And here is the follow up, a mere 17 days later after I received the initial automated response:

Okay, fair enough, they warned me about “extremely high volumes” (whatever that really means). I think it should read, “To be honest, we were caught off guard that people actually desire an Android tablet.” A delay is one thing, but this is beyond a delay, this is over half a month later. Sadly, I’ve read many reports that corroborate my experience on various message boards.

To add insult to injury, the response acts as if I actually spoke to someone at Google, when in fact, I’ve never spoken to anyone. No one’s called, emailed me, sent a pigeon; nada. How can you “promise” something, when I’ve never spoken to you in the first place? And does Al actually exist? Or is that actually AI, as in Artificial Intelligence? As in another canned response that somehow got sent out?

No big deal, I’ll just take my Nexus 7 down to the nearest Google Store. Oh, wait…

For the record, I still love my Nexus 7, but Google, and every other would be Apple competitor has a severe disadvantage in the customer service department. Like it or not, that counts for a lot.