In a bizarre incident, Google recently sent ten Pixel 4 units to a customer who had ordered just one. The user took to Reddit to recount the story of this hilarious shipping blunder from the company.
Redditor u/timias55 had ordered a single unlocked 64GB Pixel 4 from the Google Store for $499 (the deal is still live). However, when the package arrived a couple of days later, it was a carton containing a whopping ten devices.
The Redditor felt like he’s won a lottery. However, after consulting with an “angel on his shoulder” and his wife, he eventually decided to return the nine extra Pixel 4 phones worth about $4,500 at the sale price. The US laws allow him to keep them all, and Google could have done nothing about it.
“I gotta be honest, for a moment it felt like winning the lottery, but it was only a moment as [the] angel on my shoulder, and my wife, both spoke up, and I knew there was only one choice,” he wrote.
He contacted the Google customer service and informed them about this blunder. Google requested proof of the number of devices and the tracking slip. The customer sent them a picture of the nine extra units and mentioned that he has removed one phone from the carton.
After a few days of communication and making him wait three times, the company finally arranged a pickup for the extra units.
However, they messed up here as well. The tracking slip only had a pickup request for eight phones. After another round of communication, a second slip was sent for the ninth device.
Ultimately, everything was sorted. However, the man had to go through a bit of trouble just to do the right thing. Google could have handled the situation better.
Google repeats last year’s Pixel 3 incident, with a Pixel 4
This is not the first time Google Store has made a shipping blunder and put honest customers through the trouble. Last year, a buyer had received ten Pixel 3 units when he simply wanted an exchange for a faulty unit.
The buyer sent back the faulty handset in pursuit of a refund and ordered a new Pixel 3 to take its place.
However, Google only refunded him $80 and sent ten phones for his new order. He also decided to return the excess units but struggled to get a refund for the original device as a result.
So in the past 12 months alone, we’ve seen this sort of thing happen twice (that we know of). There could have been other similar incidents where the lucky customer lawfully decided to keep the excess units. Google needs to clear things up as soon as possible.