My terrible Google Customer Support experience when trying to buy a Pixel 7

Morgrain · October 23, 2022

Hey guys. I need to voice a bit of criticism and share my horrible experience with the Google Support. I've seen many reports over the years about the horrible Google Customer Support (also here on LTT), but never experienced it myself. Well, here we go.

I bought the Pixel 7 Pro (with the Pre-Order Bonus) whilst the Pixel 7 presentation was still going directly from Google Store Germany (6. Oct), of course with the Pixel Watch (Pre-Order Bonus in Europe).

Everything was going fine, there was no issue visible. I paid via credit card. The expected shipping date was the 13./14. October.

When time went by and it was the 12. October, there was still no shipping notice - the order wasn't even in preparation. So I contacted Google Support for the first time and asked if there was something wrong with the order. The rep told me (standart text block) that everything was okay, I just had to wait until the 14. Oct.

When the 15. Oct came and nothing changed (again), I contacted the Google Support. Rep told me (againt text block) "current final delivery date is 17-19. Oct, you have to wait until that duration so I can do something.

Of course this "waiting duration" lay outside of the Pre-Order Bonus. But naive me, I thought the Google Support could actually notice, or fix, my problem.

Fast forward: I contacted the Google Support, thrice more, and at the third time they told me I had to wait for the 25th Oct until they could "do anything". So I went ahead and closed the chat, opened it again and started it for a fourth time (on the 20. Oct), where finally a rep (apparently this time a human, and not a bot) said: I do believe that there might be a payment problem, it seems that we currently do not support the Verified by Visa method.

I was stunned: They what?

Well, so I went ahead and contacted my bank. And they agreed: Yes, there seems to be a technical problem, Google never asked you (and therefore: us) to use the special Verified by Visa pin, which is mandatory for our system.

Now the real deal started.

I went back to Google and they claimed that only the bank could help me. Whilst the bank said that there is no way to change a pending payment, only Google could either request another booking, or let me change the payment method.

It should also be noted that I contacted my bank (again) and the bank rep laughed at the text I showed him from Google (Google Rep told me, in writing: "Google does not currently support the 3D security protocol used by "Verified by Visa", "MasterCard SecureCode" and similar services.") and said: we have thousands of those secure bookings via Google, they work. This seems to be a technical problem, from Google, a bug between our servers and you need to escalate your case to get it solved.

Now the solution would seem simple: Change the payment method, escalate the case.

But, oddly enough, the Google support (in good old textblock fashion) only sends me links to general FAQ Google Play Store payment method changes, which do not apply to the Google Payment Centre (where one manages the Google Store sales). There is no way for me, as a customer, to change the payment method - because it is, because of the technical error from Googles server, still valued as "pending". As per the Google costomer support, I should change the payment method - but it's simply not possible. I send them screenshots and videos of me trying to use that option, which doesn't exist, via several devices - to no reaction.

My request to get the case escalated has been, until this date, ignored.

The Google support also offers no alternative solution, like letting me order anew with a sort of voucher/credit note to still receive the Pre-Order Bonus, or any other. That "request" was simply ignored.

All they did was tell me that "everything was alright", until it wasn't and when they realized that there is a problem (there was no way for me to notice), they a) offered no solution at all and b) gave me links that didn't even apply to my problem, simply because the Google Payment Centre does not allow changes made to Payment methods when the payment status is still on "pending".

The support also never offered any words of comfort or insight/sympathy ("we did a mistake there, I'll fix it for you" - or something along the lines of that). It's just a horrible customer experience and this make me thing twice about ever trying to buy a Pixel again. The support has been wholly useless, it seems like I am talking to a Bot and there is no solution in sight, except endless standard text blocks.

TetraSky · October 23, 2022

At that point I'd just cancel the pre-order and buy a different phone. Clearly Google doesn't care nor want your money.
That's the problem with companies that are just too big. You either wait 2 weeks for an unhelpful response from a human or you get a useless auto generated response. And to be honest, the pixel phones really aren't all that. Like Luke said on WAN show, they always have a bunch of issues.

I had a similar experience with trying to get my bank card added to Google Pay (now Wallet), it simply didn't work due to an error on Google's side. Had to contact support, took about a month before it was finally "solved" when a human actually looked at it and fixed it.