6 ms·

A Question : Since Google has a bad track record with customer service, how much they have a chance to people trust them ? They can be "google" and they can be

by devmach 14y ago

A Question : Since Google has a bad track record with customer service, how much they have a chance to people trust them ? They can be "google" and they can be good at infrastructure but i see "image transfer" is problematic here: i want to know that i can "speak" with someone when something went wrong , past experiences shows it's nearly impossible. (When my account is locked ,i don't want to loose my servers, email, docs, im, storage and thereafter my job...)

notatoad 14y ago
sigh i'm so sick of seeing this come up every time google introduces anything new. they have, at the very least, adequate customer service, as long as you're their customer. as a gmail user you aren't paying them any money and are therefore not a customer. If you pay for google apps, you get customer service. I'm sure that this product will include customer service at least on par with AWS (which, as far as i'm aware, is basically zilch). you're not going to 'loose' any servers that you are paying for.
- JoshTriplett 14y ago
  > If you pay for google apps, you get customer service. This has come up many times in past discussions, and many paying Google Apps customers have explicitly said that they receive little more service than free gmail users.
  - jrockway 14y ago
    By calling, or emailing?
    - Bjartr 14y ago
      Since when does Google have a phone number, even for apps users?
      - hboon 14y ago
        Of course they do. Login as a paid customer and go to http://support.google.com/a/bin/request.py http://support.google.com/a/bin/request.py.
- nyellin 14y ago
  This is simply wrong. I had a serious issue with Google AppEngine. My emails to support were utterly ignored. Nothing. No reply whatsoever, so I moved off AppEngine and have been nervous since then about every Google service is use. There was also the developer payment scandal a few months ago, not to mention the gmail and adsense horror stories that I hear about on a regular basis. I lost all my trust and respect for Google after I started using their paid services.
  - azylman 14y ago
    Were you a free user of Google App Engine? Unless you weren't, your comment is irrelevant. And if you weren't, you'd be in the minority of paying users who have customer service issues... For example, I, as a paying Google Apps user, have a 24/7 support line I can call.
- deleted 14y ago
  [deleted]
- jeffbarr 14y ago
  > include customer service at least on par with AWS (which, as far as i'm aware, is basically zilch) We have a wide variety of customer service options: http://aws.amazon.com/premiumsupport/ http://aws.amazon.com/premiumsupport/
  - finnh 14y ago
    I put down my iphone and opened my laptop just to respond to this. I've been using AWS for a couple years and never really needed support, so never tried to contact them. Recently I was assigned an Account Exec who reached out to make sure everything was cool, introduce himself, and recommend buying into at least the cheapest support tier (which was much cheaper than I had remembered). He then qualified that with great advice: "actually, you can just wait until you need it and sign up right then. No reason to pay before that". That impressed me. In addition, Jeff Barr personally emailed me both times I commented on his blog posts about AWS. At random hours of the day. I'm beginning to suspect that "Jeff Barr" is a non de plume fronting a group of people, like Franklin W. Dixon.
    - SpikeGronim 14y ago
      I have met Jeff Barr and can vouch for him. He is in fact a flesh and blood person. He's just really dedicated to making you love AWS.
      - jimnachlinmtr 14y ago
        I have met Jeff Barr, or should I say JOHN CONSTANTINE They both look like Sting, that's for sure. Well, Jeff less than John, but even so. Ok, Jeff looks like a actual dude and John Constantine looks like a fictional antihero of questionable allegiance.
      - shasta 14y ago
        What? When I met Jeff Barr from Amazon, she was a woman.
        14y ago
- vannevar 14y ago
  Google with its heavy emphasis on tech teams led by rock-star computer science PhDs is not well-equipped culturally to compete on customer service with Amazon, a company built on retail with exponentially more experience dealing directly with paying customers.
  - oh_sigh 14y ago
    I don't think it's that simple. It's quite easy to operate in retail and have horrible customer service. So it's not just the fact that amazon is in the retail space and google is in the technological space. It's to do with the fact that Amazon made a decision very early on(maybe on the first day) to do what is best for the customers.
    - vannevar 14y ago
      It's quite easy to operate in retail and have horrible customer service. A fair point. But there's a big difference between a company that has provided customer service from the very beginning (even if it was poor at times), and a company that for most of its history has made a concerted effort not to have customer service at all.
- technomancy 14y ago
  > If you pay for google apps, you get customer service. This wasn't true in my case; my Google Voice account disappeared when they forced migration of apps accounts to a new system, and the official answer was "ok, here are instructions on how to get a new one." I don't use Google Voice any more.
- JustARandomGuy 14y ago
  I made an account just to reply to this, that's how much I disagree with you (usually I'm a committed lurker). I originally hosted my apps with Google App Engine. I experienced several problems with my apps, and I received no response from Google when I emailed their staffers on the google-appengine Google Group. Then came the huge price hike in fall 2011, not to mention that Google shut down their google-appengine-java and google-appengine-python mailing lists and "outsourced" their help to Stack Exchange ( https://groups.google.com/forum/?fromgroups#!topic/google-appengine-java/aG1R_Kzj8jA https://groups.google.com/forum/?fromgroups#!topic/google-ap... ). When I need help with an application, I want help directly from the company, not a third-party site. I migrated my apps to AWS, couldn't be happier. AWS has their own help forums, filled with staffers constantly answering questions. Not to mention they're constantly lowering prices (seriously, it seems every 4-5 months, AWS announces a price decrease). For me, I couldn't use GAE or Google's new IAAS until they beef up their customer service.
arihant 14y ago
We were using App Engine in 2010 for the image delivery part of our product. We had troubles scaling and one of their engineers e-mailed me personally, asked me for my code (if I am comfortable with it, of course), and helped me fix a couple of things. Anymore customer service would result in Google writing my apps for me.
- JoeCortopassi 14y ago
  Has anyone else had a positive experience like this? I've literally heard of zero positive customer service experiences with Google, that didn't involve a blog post/rant making it to page 1 of Hacker News
  - azylman 14y ago
    I've also had experience like that when I was developing with one of their APIs (specifically, Blogger). Basically, it was when they were rolling out a brand new version of their Blogger API and the documentation was outdated. I was trying to get it to work and one of their developers looked at my code and helped me get it running.
    - gmazzotti 14y ago
      I have a free Google Apps service, once the system ask my age and I decided to put my company "bithday" instead of mine. Great error! the system block me because I was under 13. I try everything and didn´t know how to fix it so I e-mailed Google, 2 days later (i thought that I won´t get any reply) somebody from Google call to my phone and explain me step by step how to fix it (it was like a 15 minutes call)
  - sonnym 14y ago
    This is a clear example of a sampling bias. The voices of those angry with an experience of poor service will raise a cacophony compared to those who have a pleasant experience and simply carry on with their lives.
    - 14y ago
salimmadjd 14y ago
Google only believes in algorithms. With app engine they started charging me like $800/month after their price hikes. There was no way to speak with anyone. I basically sent an email from the link from the admin console only to get a lame reply the following week. In contrast, at least in regards to other amazon services, their customer service is very high. Amazon has experience providing customer service and are not ADD like google. When they do something, they stick with it and ensure success across the board. After my experience with the Google App Engine, I will never trust google with anything else anymore, especially anything that is vital to my business.
- gbog 14y ago
  > Google only believes in algorithms. I find them believing more and more in mouse hover and js animations.

by devmach 14y ago

notatoad 14y ago

sigh i'm so sick of seeing this come up every time google introduces anything new. they have, at the very least, adequate customer service, as long as you're their customer. as a gmail user you aren't paying them any money and are therefore not a customer. If you pay for google apps, you get customer service. I'm sure that this product will include customer service at least on par with AWS (which, as far as i'm aware, is basically zilch). you're not going to 'loose' any servers that you are paying for.

JoshTriplett 14y ago
> If you pay for google apps, you get customer service. This has come up many times in past discussions, and many paying Google Apps customers have explicitly said that they receive little more service than free gmail users.
- jrockway 14y ago
  By calling, or emailing?
  - Bjartr 14y ago
    Since when does Google have a phone number, even for apps users?
    - hboon 14y ago
      Of course they do. Login as a paid customer and go to http://support.google.com/a/bin/request.py http://support.google.com/a/bin/request.py.
nyellin 14y ago
This is simply wrong. I had a serious issue with Google AppEngine. My emails to support were utterly ignored. Nothing. No reply whatsoever, so I moved off AppEngine and have been nervous since then about every Google service is use. There was also the developer payment scandal a few months ago, not to mention the gmail and adsense horror stories that I hear about on a regular basis. I lost all my trust and respect for Google after I started using their paid services.
- azylman 14y ago
  Were you a free user of Google App Engine? Unless you weren't, your comment is irrelevant. And if you weren't, you'd be in the minority of paying users who have customer service issues... For example, I, as a paying Google Apps user, have a 24/7 support line I can call.
deleted 14y ago
[deleted]
jeffbarr 14y ago
> include customer service at least on par with AWS (which, as far as i'm aware, is basically zilch) We have a wide variety of customer service options: http://aws.amazon.com/premiumsupport/ http://aws.amazon.com/premiumsupport/
- finnh 14y ago
  I put down my iphone and opened my laptop just to respond to this. I've been using AWS for a couple years and never really needed support, so never tried to contact them. Recently I was assigned an Account Exec who reached out to make sure everything was cool, introduce himself, and recommend buying into at least the cheapest support tier (which was much cheaper than I had remembered). He then qualified that with great advice: "actually, you can just wait until you need it and sign up right then. No reason to pay before that". That impressed me. In addition, Jeff Barr personally emailed me both times I commented on his blog posts about AWS. At random hours of the day. I'm beginning to suspect that "Jeff Barr" is a non de plume fronting a group of people, like Franklin W. Dixon.
  - SpikeGronim 14y ago
    I have met Jeff Barr and can vouch for him. He is in fact a flesh and blood person. He's just really dedicated to making you love AWS.
    - jimnachlinmtr 14y ago
      I have met Jeff Barr, or should I say JOHN CONSTANTINE They both look like Sting, that's for sure. Well, Jeff less than John, but even so. Ok, Jeff looks like a actual dude and John Constantine looks like a fictional antihero of questionable allegiance.
    - shasta 14y ago
      What? When I met Jeff Barr from Amazon, she was a woman.
      - 14y ago
vannevar 14y ago
Google with its heavy emphasis on tech teams led by rock-star computer science PhDs is not well-equipped culturally to compete on customer service with Amazon, a company built on retail with exponentially more experience dealing directly with paying customers.
- oh_sigh 14y ago
  I don't think it's that simple. It's quite easy to operate in retail and have horrible customer service. So it's not just the fact that amazon is in the retail space and google is in the technological space. It's to do with the fact that Amazon made a decision very early on(maybe on the first day) to do what is best for the customers.
  - vannevar 14y ago
    It's quite easy to operate in retail and have horrible customer service. A fair point. But there's a big difference between a company that has provided customer service from the very beginning (even if it was poor at times), and a company that for most of its history has made a concerted effort not to have customer service at all.
technomancy 14y ago
> If you pay for google apps, you get customer service. This wasn't true in my case; my Google Voice account disappeared when they forced migration of apps accounts to a new system, and the official answer was "ok, here are instructions on how to get a new one." I don't use Google Voice any more.
JustARandomGuy 14y ago
I made an account just to reply to this, that's how much I disagree with you (usually I'm a committed lurker). I originally hosted my apps with Google App Engine. I experienced several problems with my apps, and I received no response from Google when I emailed their staffers on the google-appengine Google Group. Then came the huge price hike in fall 2011, not to mention that Google shut down their google-appengine-java and google-appengine-python mailing lists and "outsourced" their help to Stack Exchange ( https://groups.google.com/forum/?fromgroups#!topic/google-appengine-java/aG1R_Kzj8jA https://groups.google.com/forum/?fromgroups#!topic/google-ap... ). When I need help with an application, I want help directly from the company, not a third-party site. I migrated my apps to AWS, couldn't be happier. AWS has their own help forums, filled with staffers constantly answering questions. Not to mention they're constantly lowering prices (seriously, it seems every 4-5 months, AWS announces a price decrease). For me, I couldn't use GAE or Google's new IAAS until they beef up their customer service.

arihant 14y ago

We were using App Engine in 2010 for the image delivery part of our product. We had troubles scaling and one of their engineers e-mailed me personally, asked me for my code (if I am comfortable with it, of course), and helped me fix a couple of things. Anymore customer service would result in Google writing my apps for me.

JoeCortopassi 14y ago
Has anyone else had a positive experience like this? I've literally heard of zero positive customer service experiences with Google, that didn't involve a blog post/rant making it to page 1 of Hacker News
- azylman 14y ago
  I've also had experience like that when I was developing with one of their APIs (specifically, Blogger). Basically, it was when they were rolling out a brand new version of their Blogger API and the documentation was outdated. I was trying to get it to work and one of their developers looked at my code and helped me get it running.
  - gmazzotti 14y ago
    I have a free Google Apps service, once the system ask my age and I decided to put my company "bithday" instead of mine. Great error! the system block me because I was under 13. I try everything and didn´t know how to fix it so I e-mailed Google, 2 days later (i thought that I won´t get any reply) somebody from Google call to my phone and explain me step by step how to fix it (it was like a 15 minutes call)
- sonnym 14y ago
  This is a clear example of a sampling bias. The voices of those angry with an experience of poor service will raise a cacophony compared to those who have a pleasant experience and simply carry on with their lives.
  - 14y ago

salimmadjd 14y ago

Google only believes in algorithms. With app engine they started charging me like $800/month after their price hikes. There was no way to speak with anyone. I basically sent an email from the link from the admin console only to get a lame reply the following week. In contrast, at least in regards to other amazon services, their customer service is very high. Amazon has experience providing customer service and are not ADD like google. When they do something, they stick with it and ensure success across the board. After my experience with the Google App Engine, I will never trust google with anything else anymore, especially anything that is vital to my business.

gbog 14y ago
> Google only believes in algorithms. I find them believing more and more in mouse hover and js animations.