Verizon at Google's mercy with Android phones.

by casper9765 Dec 5, 2009 10:18PM PST

I went to the Verizon store. Verizon tech support was flummoxed when he discovered he had no way to contact google or provide me with a contact.

I saw the Android rep at bestbuy. My heart went through the roof when he said "I have a phone number for you to contact google around here somewhere."

Well...he went over to the bestbuy computer with a bestbuy rep, and his eyes opened wide and he wrote all these things down. He came over to me later and told me he would talk to his boss and that he had my contact information.

I could just see in his eyes that google told him, "Don't you DARE give our number to a customer!"

Then it hit me. The gall of Google!!

"What do we tell Verizon and motorola when thier customers have problems with the OS?"

"Just tell them that the customer can go to google.com/support"

"But we don't have a support system there. We have no call center, not even a email and tech support. We just have user forums."

"Yup."

" But Verizon will have millions of users, they won't be able to contact anybody directly??"

"Nope. We are google, we might do many things, but we don't do tech support."

This is a good way to start a class-action suit / destroy a great open platform with Verizon / and sever ties with phone makers.

I just can't believe google can break my phone, render my dock useless and I have no recourse to get it fixed.

Ok, I'm done posting about this mess. I just think this is real news that google can sell $200 dollar products and provide no help when something goes wrong.

Discussion is locked

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Google is giving out this OS for free

by Nicholas Buenk Dec 6, 2009 10:10AM PST

Why should they be responsible for support? The usual model for open source, is you pay nothing for the software but pay for the support.

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why should they provide support?because no one else can.

by casper9765 Dec 6, 2009 12:21PM PST

uh because they screwed up the $200 phone and rendered a $50 dock useless with their "free" gmail account.

How can Verizon support an OS they didn't make? How could Motorola?
It may be open source, but google has made this OS for verizon and has been paid. Open source does not mean free or no support.
open source linux redhat versions cost hundreds of dollars..

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Google has not been paid

by Nicholas Buenk Dec 6, 2009 5:11PM PST

They give the OS away free to encourage mobile devices that use google search. You're paying Verizon for the hardware. Google has no responsibility to support a free open source OS, it's really your carriers or motorola's responsbility.

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They put it on their phone...

by paintguru Dec 7, 2009 11:02AM PST

...so they should know how it works. Same as an auto OEM is responsible for anything in and on their vehicle, so is a phone OEM. Verizon should take up their issues with their supplier, not you.

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Its just like OEM software. Less cost = less support

by minimalist Dec 8, 2009 8:27AM PST

When Dell buys cheaper OEM versions of Windows to install on their machines they take on the responsibility for much of the support that would come with a full retail version of the OS.

The support for Android should come from the handset manufacturer (In the Droid's case Motorola) since they are not having to pay to put the OS on their devices.

Its not an ideal situation because you get a lot of finger pointing (MS blames Dell, Dell blames some third party device manufacturer, the third party device manufacturer blames etc, etc) but the system is a well established precedent. Lets just say it is what it is. If people want rock bottom prices they get rock bottom support.

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Droid Shortcomings, Verizon, Most still want the Droid

by quasar-atl Dec 6, 2009 9:46PM PST

Dear Buzz Gang and Crew,
It appears at least for now that many Droid owners are willing to deal with the shortcomings of the phone and service support in exchange for the features of the phone. If you review the Droid support groups:

http://androidforums.com/support-troubleshooting/15744-true-frequency-severity-current-droid-problems.html

you will see what I am talking about. Obviously, the Droid is not for everybody. When making a decision like this, especially now that Verizon is doubling its early termination fees, you really have to make sure you fully understand what you are buying.

http://arstechnica.com/tech-policy/news/2009/12/so-verizon-about-those-doubled-early-termination-fees.ars

http://www.pcworld.com/businesscenter/article/183830/how_will_verizon_defend_higher_early_termination_fees.html

I just think that so many people were willing to jump aboard the Droid for the features and not take into account the "total cost of ownership".

Just a thought people. Later.

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So should Mozilla offer technical support for Firefox?

by Wowfunhappy Dec 8, 2009 8:10AM PST

Google can't afford the cost of technical support, because they aren't actually making any money off of the phone, at least not directly.

It would be like demanding that the makers of Firefox offer technical support. It just isn't economically feasible.

Verizon should be doing technical support; it's idiotic and stupid of them to not do so.

Obviously, Google has a better understanding of their OS than Verizon does. Fine. So Verizon does some research. Or, it could even contact Google and ask them to help train their support employees.

But Google can't. They aren't making enough money to do so.

...I wonder if this will be a problem for Chrome OS... uh oh...

Verizon at Google's mercy with Android phones.

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