This kinda feels like deja vu right? On November 13th we went through all of this when the Nexus 4 and Nexus 10 first went on sale. By now you’d think Google would get some more servers on board for Google Play to handle all of the demand. But no, they couldn’t do that.
This morning I, along with many of you, received an email from Google that the Nexus 4 would be going back on sale today at 12 noon PST. Which it did. They didn’t decide to flip the switch early like they did on November 13th. So at Noon the Nexus 4 was indeed available, and customers got errors again just like they did 2 weeks prior. Getting errors saying it’s sold out, Nexus 4s disappearing from their cart, “due to high demand we cannot process your request” errors and more. And after you get that error, you naturally refresh the page right? Then your cart is empty. Leaving a lot of people asking “What the f**k, Google?”. I mean this is one of the biggest web companies in the world. The Search engine giant. The smartphone leader. It’s Google!
Is the demand for the Nexus 4 really that high? Or is Google just failing that hard with the launch of the Nexus 4? Probably a bit of both. After the whole fiasco 2 weeks ago, you’d think that Google would have been a bit more prepared for today. But looks like they weren’t We’ve talked about this over and over again in different editorials we’ve published over the past two weeks, and on the podcast last week Chris had a major rant about the entire ordering process.
We’ve even given Google plenty of alternatives on how to keep this from happening again. But did Google listen? Nope. We’ve said in the past that Google could have put up a pre-order system and ship them to those customers as they got shipments in. Which is what they appear to be doing with the back orders anyways, shipping them when they get more Nexus 4s in stock.
C’mon Google, you’ve got to do better! You’re a huge tech giant, who also happens to own the most popular mobile operating system. And you can’t manage to sell your flagship device without any problems? Having your devices go out of stock is understandable. But out of stock after minutes of it going live? That’s just insane. Then all the errors users get trying to purchase one, and the device disappearing from their cart as well? That is just inexcusable. Sorry Google, but I am a huge fan of yours, in fact this is my second Nexus and fifth Android device, but you’ve got to fix your product launches on the Play Store. Or perhaps put the Nexus 4 into retail stores and have them sell at the same price as the Play Store, like when the Nexus 7 launched during the summer.
New Years Resolution time for Google. I know its not even December yet. But Google needs changes in their retail department. Every product you’ve launched on Google Play has been a disaster. The Nexus 7, Samsung’s Chromebook, the Nexus 4/10, all resulted in tons of errors and very little communication with your customers. That needs to change big time. You need to hire a whole new staff to get these things up and running better for your next launch. We, your loyal customers, don’t want to go through this again!
Have any suggestions on how Google can improve their launch for their future Nexus devices and Chromebooks? Hit up the comments below and let us know.