Google needs to understand how to sell and service
Thursday, October 25, 2012 at 2:59AM My wife wants one of the new Google Chromebooks and we figured that this could be the ideal laptop for her. It would also serve my son well for when he needs to do research for homework etc. And so we headed to the Google Chromebook website.
The link to purchase pointed to PC World (you can guess where this is going) and so I clicked it. The Chromebook was listed as available, but not to 'click and collect' so we headed down to our local store the next day. There was a man in a Google T-shirt stood in the laptop area and we struck up a conversation. He demoed the Chromebook to us and we were quite impressed- he explained that it was excellent value for £379.
"£379? You mean £229? We are looking for the new one that PC World states as available on their website."
"Never heard of that one. Are you sure?"
I showed him the product details on my iPhone which strangely would not come up in the PC World website on their in-store computers.
And so the conversation continued, but ultimately went nowhere. No one else in store could help and we eventually left, considering what else we could buy for my wife and son.
This followed my dreadful experience with Google over a faulty Nexus 7 and it doesn't offer the impression that Google understands how to sell and service hardware.
Both the selling elements and customer service need to be looked at closely, and quickly because every time I go through something like this the cost of a MacBook Air starts to look less extreme for the use it will get.
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Reader Comments (11)
Incredible. I've never bought directly from Google here in the States, but after hearing your and Gavin's horror stories, not sure I'd ever want to. This is totally insane. I bought my Nexus 7 retail at the Navy Exchange and I suppose that if I ever decide to buy a Chromebook I'll go the same route. Certainly nothing I've read about buying directly from Google makes me think I'll ever go that route.
"iSheep"
"Apple Fanboy"
"poor, out of date technology"
"Paying silly money for just a name"
I rarely hear poor customer service chanted. One of the major reasons I buy apple is the service.
Macbook air is expensive, but mine gets so much use - the new ones, if you pay the extra for i7 and 8GB ram, may cost over a grand, but can do almost anything outside high-end graphics stuff (games/video/etc). Brilliant device, running even complex virtual machines easily.
And I built a high-end desktop for about £300 for my games and video stuff (i7, base motherboard, 16GB ram, decent enough graphics card - yes I scavanged keyboards, monitors, HDD from old machines etc)
ps. A look on their website indeed indicates chrome books "Starting at £199.97"...
With the new chromebook "samsung series 3" clearly showing at £229
I can see an older "Samsung series 5" with a £379 price tag?
There's this: http://www.trustedreviews.com/asus-vivobook_Laptop_review
Proper desktop CPU and full-fat Windows 8 (not Windows 8 RT) with touch-screen. Ok it's almost twice the price, but it seems good value.
As for the Chromebook it sounds as though it was PC World's cock-up; it's a new product and the guys in-store don't know about it. Has it actually been released yet?
Apparently it has been released. Google uses PC World to sell it, however, so they have some responsibility. I know what PC World are like, so should Google.
PC World employee not having a clue shock! You'll probably find that the assistant just got the Google T-shirt and nothing else - certainly no understanding of the product or training. Apple had the same problems many years ago and its that which led to the Apple Store initiative.
The reason for going to PC World is their 21-day no questions asked returns policy not their knowledge of what they're selling...
"The reason for going to PC World is their 21-day no questions asked returns policy not their knowledge of what they're selling..."
Do they have such a thing? Would love to see that written somewhere. Got a link?
If you mean the following, point 1 is a problem-
You have changed your mind?
If you change your mind and would like to return your product, we're happy to exchange or refund it as long as:
The product is in its original unopened and sealed packaging
You return it within 21 days of date of purchase
You have proof of purchase (Original receipt, delivery note, bank statement)
I've never had a problem with the box being opened when returning things to them - although I am very careful about opening boxes!
If you want to get around that get the store employee to open the box for you at the store (some pretext about checking its working) and then note it on the invoice as 'box opened in store'...
"Google uses PC World to sell it, however, so they have some responsibility. I know what PC World are like, so should Google."
True; I'm just so used to retailer links on manufacturer websites being useless. Most of the time they don't actually stock the product.
I guess I'm much more positive and confident about buying from a some guy over ebay than from Google :-D
Yep, google is a mess. They need to put their act together and fast because they are not just losing opportunities to sell, they may be losing customers too.