Monday, 23 July 2012

Nexus 7 review #2 - support - Google Goodness (on balance)






My brand new Google / Asus Nexus 7 was faulty (or rather, the charging unit or cable was).

Google's Nexus 7 support phone number for UK customers, for ease of reference is:
0800 328 6081

Also see:

Google Goodness: it's an 0800 number, free to call from a landline (though NOT from a mobile, still a major issue in the UK, and a big wishlist item for me). Thank you, Google - that beats premium rate 0870 or non-geographic (and still chargeable from a mobile) 0845 numbers!

Google Gaffe: Google may not have planned ahead enough for the volume of calls. I've had to call a couple of times now, and each time I had to wait in a queue for 45 minutes to an hour before I could talk to someone. Just as well it was a freefone number!

Google Gaffe 2: the support staff don't seem to have full knowledge or training about the Nexus 7, or remits across the spectrum of support issue - so you might get "It's another team that deals with that aspect", or "I didn't know the Nexus 7 Gmail app displayed emails against a grey background". I also got different (and conflicting) information on different occasions from different people. Less good. At least they're friendly and try to be helpful, without being over-familiar, long-winded or annoying (ahem Three!).

The good probably outweighs the gaffes here. Given that most support helplines charge you a fortune for the privilege of trying to sort out a problem with their product or service, Google's provision of an 0800 support number was enough to make me forgive the other issues.

So - it's +1 to Google for Nexus 7 support, overall. So far. I reserve final judgement until my replacement unit and return are fully sorted out!

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