How Google screwed me up and cancelled my Nexus 4 order.

Oh yes... November 27 was a happy day for me.  I received my receipt for the purchase of my Nexus 4 and I was one of the lucky ones that was going to get it from 1-2 weeks! That means that at the worst the devices would ship on December 12! Perfect timing for Christmas!! While everyone who ordered it were getting (slow) shipment updates I didn't received any, but hey the last thing you lose is faith right? So I patiently waited my 2 weeks for an update but since I received nothing I decide to call Play Store customer support. After explaning my situation they said that my devices would ship that day during the evening. AWESOME! They confirmed that information by email.

I went to sleep like a kid on Christmas eve. So I wake up in the morning, open up my email and!!!!!! Nothing. No shipment status update. So I call Customer Support again and this is what they said:

Wait, what?! 2 weeks on  December 17? But I thought you said it was going to ship on December 12 evening!! Hold on... I'll contact Customer Support again.

Yes! Finally somebody with a calendar! And he even escalated my problem! Good job Ben!!

Even though Ben "escalated" my problem I knew something was not right. I've heard rumors of orders from Puerto Rico being cancelled because they have Puerto Rico as country and not United States . So I call Customer Service again, to make sure mine is alright and if its not right, well, fix it. This is what they said.

CSR Kaila said "I see nothing that shows your order is in jeopardy of cancellation". Phew, I was worried for a moment, now I just need to wait for the 17th to get my tracking number.

The 17th arrived but the tracking number didn't... so I called them and they just stated the obvious...

Dear CSRs: Even though you have it in your systems, I've made it clear with about the 10+ times I've attached my receipt's copy, that my estimated ship time was from 1-2 weeks. Yeah, that was due a week ago. Anyways...

I call Customer Support again, this time was the first time I actually felt that the CSR was trying to help me. Jamila put me on hold for about 20 minutes while she called different departments trying to find out what happened to my order. Jamila, honestly, Thank you.

This was her kind response

Jamila escalated my problem once again, she was really helpful. I was really sure her extra steps would get this solved.

On the 18th I finally received a status update!!!!!!!!!!!!!

WAIT WHAT?! WHY IS THAT?!

PO Box?! (for security reasons I will not post my address but..) My address isnt a PO BOX!!! I'll contact them again and I'll show them that I have no PO Box!! This is what they said.

Yeah! I told you that!! I have no PO Box!! Now what are we going to do?! You just cancelled my order!!!! I write them back, a little mad towards this. And this is what they answered.

Wait...hold on, hold on...I wasn't born in the US but I know enough geography to know that US is not a state, let alone PR a city of US state. What the hell is wrong with you guys?!

First of all. Google being such a high end technology company shouldn't validate user input for such errors?! How is that MY mistake when I have those options available to choose at checkout?! 
Second, I was PROACTIVE and heard rumors of order being cancelled because of that, so I called to fix it and what did I get? A CSR that couldn't make the change AND a response saying that MY order wasn't in jeopardy of cancellation. Great uh?

So after Google's poorly designed checkout system, 3 weeks of wait and a bunch of lies from poorly trained CSRs I guess I'm supposed to accept that Google cancelled my order.

Please share this post, I want the world to know how flawed Google is as a company. We trust our personal information to Google devices and their services, to a company that can't get to ship a cellphone right.

UPDATE 12/19/2012:
So I called Customer Service again and they told me the only thing left to do was to place another order to which I replied "How I'm supposed to order an item that's out of stock?". The CSR "escalated" my problem to the Shipping Department to see if there was something they could do.

¿Quienes son los verdaderos bullies?

Hace un tiempo atrás estaba conversando con un niño. Me contaba lo mucho que le gustaba su escuela actual porque aprendía mucho y “porque el nene de la otra escuela ya no le hace bully”. Me quedé en “shock” cuando escuché ese término salir de la boca de un niño no mayor de diez años. En mi asombro le pregunté: ¿Que significa “bully”? A lo que él con una cara triste me respondió: “No sé”.

Se dice que los seres humanos nacemos solamente con dos miedos: miedo a caernos y miedo a los ruidos altos. El resto de los miedos que tenemos los hemos aprendido por experiencias ó se nos han enseñado. ¿Recuerdan cuando su mamá y papá le decían "Uy! Por ahí viene el Cuco!"? Sí, le estamos enseñando a nuestros hijos a tenerle miedo a un personaje ficticio. Este miedo es aprendido, sicológicamente se lo estas plantando en la cabecita que justamente, esta en una etapa de absorción total.

Este tema del “bullying” es algo real que lo hemos estado viviendo de siempre pero nunca se había traído a la luz pública de esta manera. Se escucha en la radio, se ve en la televisión, en las redes sociales, en fin en todos lados. El problema está en que se le esta presentando esta tema a los niños como “El Cuco”.

Llega este niño (al que llamaremos Jaimito) a la casa y le cuenta a sus padres que su compañero Pepito lo está molestado en la escuela. Instantáneamente los padres identifican a Pepito como un “bully” y le recomiendan a su hijo que cuando “el bully”(Pepito) lo moleste se lo diga al maestro. En este momento ya el niño debe estar asociando la nueva palabra que sus padres dijeron “bully” con su compañerito Pepito. Al cabo de varios días en una reunión de amistades los padres de Jaimito comienzan a hablar con otra pareja sobre la situación de su hijo en la escuela. Sus padres con rostros llenos de preocupación y un tono  tanto triste comienzan a contar lo que pasó “….Pepito….el bully ese… le da…se burla… mi hijo… me da miedo… pobre Jaimito…” todo esto frente al niño. En este momento Jaimito le encontró definición al término que sus padres usaron para llamar a Pepito asociando “bully” con burlas, agresión física, con algo malo, algo que preocupa a sus padres, algo de lo que debe de cuidarse, algo a lo que le debe tener miedo.  

Somos nosotros mismos los que le estamos bajando las plaquetas sicológicas a nuestros niños y quitando las defensas necesarias para lidiar con este tipo de situación. Debemos ser prudentes en los temas que se tocan en frente de ellos y en especial como se hace. El cerebro es un aparato maravilloso y complejo que no trabaja igual en todos los seres.

Ahora piensa, ¿quienes están siendo los verdaderos bullies?