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Nexus 4 Orders Remain in Limbo

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Last week, Google sold out of its Nexus 4 stock in the U.S. soon after the device went on sale. Shorty thereafter, it sent out emails to some customers who placed an order that morning saying that the device was back ordered and that it would start shipping out again in three weeks. However, there are also some Nexus 4 customers who have been resigned to an even worse fate. They still haven’t heard anything from Google.

There is a lengthy, testy thread going on over at the Android Central forums where users are discussing the chaos that was and still is the Nexus 4 release date. Most of the anger on the thread is in regards to the lack of information that Google has been delivering to those that have yet to receive their Nexus 4. Many of those who received the back order email last week are frustrated with the lack of information in regards to their order, and the vagueness and unreliability of Google’s customer service representatives.

Read: LG Nexus 4 Unboxing and Hardware Overview (Video).

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Some Nexus 4 orders remain in limbo.

However, there is another group of Nexus 4 customers who have it even worse than just lack of information from customer service representatives or a missing back order email in their inbox.

It appears that some Nexus 4 customers who pre-ordered on day one haven’t received any kind of information from Google. We’ve heard from one person specifically who says that he placed an order at 8:35am, according to a confirmation email he received from Google, but hasn’t received any kind of information beyond that. No back order email last week, no shipping confirmation.

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Google has yet to issue any sort of update for some Nexus 4 orders.

Instead, his order is listed as “Pending” in Google Wallet and his order status has not been updated since November 13th meaning that the order he thought would arrive two days after its release date still remains in limbo six days after the device’s launch.

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The transaction remains as “Pending” in Google Wallet.

It also appears that some Nexus 4 customers are saying that they placed an order for a Nexus 4 last Tuesday but still haven’t received even a confirmation email from Google in regards to the order leaving them confused and frustrated and their order in doubt.

This wouldn’t be an issue if these people placed an order extremely late in the day or if Google fully clarified the situation, but neither of those things happened. Instead, loyal Android customers who placed orders early in the morning are left wondering where their device is while Google remains silent leaving its uninformed customer service representatives to clean up the mess.

So, it could be that these customers, who placed orders shortly after the device went on sale, may not see their situation improve until Google’s Nexus 4 stock situation improves, which, according to Google, will take place in two weeks. Of course, the company hasn’t said exactly when the device will return to stock or how much stock it will have when it returns. If Google did oversell the Nexus 4, it could be that some people will be left out in the cold, even when the new stock arrives.

Needless to say, this is a situation that not many imagined when Nexus 4 orders went live last Tuesday and unsurprisingly, has left many customers feeling frustrated and looking at other smartphone options.

18 Comments

18 Comments

  1. anon

    11/19/2012 at 2:57 pm

    mine’s on back order too, which i don’t mine since it’s very popular but what pisses me off is that they haven’t even addressed the issue publicly. i want to love google but they’re making that difficult.

    • non

      11/19/2012 at 3:34 pm

      Yup, the fact that google has been so silent on the matter is disturbing. A company full of multimillionaires doesn’t seem to have the backbone to get ahead of this screwup. It goes to show what they really think of the little guy.

  2. Evil Donkey

    11/19/2012 at 3:13 pm

    The nexus 4 killed my parents :(

  3. openingtojoy

    11/19/2012 at 4:52 pm

    The Nexus 7 launch was the same nonsense. Worst customer service and sales follow up I have ever experienced. Google blamed UPS, overloaded servers, yadda yadda yadda. The Nexus 7 was available at Office Depot and Sam’s Club before the pre orders were even shipped. I’m not suprised at this at all. Google apparently can’t do retail….

  4. Stewart G

    11/19/2012 at 5:06 pm

    I’m one of the many that have been placed in the ‘pre-ordered’ status. My assumption is that there was some glitch on their ordering system where the device went live on the play store a few minutes before actually showing in the inventory or something similar. To the best of my knowledge, anyone who placed an order in the initial 5 minutes (mine was 8:34 A.M. PST) has been placed in this ‘pre-ordered’ bucket.

    I understand that it is a popular device and they somehow over sold their inventory, but at least the people who ordered late have a status. They are backordered, and will ship within 3 weeks (2 weeks now). A few who have been backordered, actually have received a shipping notice and/or device by now and they have been given free shipping for Googles mistake. Most of the people on Android Central just got delayed emails and were able to verify their shipping by logging into UPS to see their devices would arrive Friday last week or today (Monday).

    Those of us in the pre-ordered bucket though are left completely in the dark. There has been no status updates on the orders since the initial order confirmation on Nov. 13. No shipping emails, no backorder emails, no expected shipping dates. Emailing customer support will get you either a canned response of “Your device will ship on November 15th”, even though that date has come and gone, or no response at all. Calling customer support will get you a variety of answers, but it is very clear that they have no idea what is going on with those orders. Google doesn’t even know if those orders have been billed and/or shipped. To make matters worse, since they don’t know the status of our orders, they are not making them priority. Backordered orders are being fulfilled first as orders are cancelled or new stock comes in. It is impossible to get any response from Play Store customer support at all on our status. We also do not have a free shipping guarantee since they don’t know if the orders have shipped.

    I can tell them with 100% certainty that no, pre-ordered orders have not been billed or shipped. Those of us in the bucket have no packages expected when logging into UPS. Our authorizations have not been captured and have actually been released by the banks by now (auths are held by the bank for 3 – 7 days).

    In a comedic turn of events, I have actually been wrong all along about the current status and no updates. Yesterday, Sunday, November 18th our status in Play Store has changed from ‘Pre-ordered’ to ‘Shipping estimate: November 15, 2012’ which was the status of those that did get them on the 15th. Also, the order date changed from ‘November 13, 2012’ to ‘November 19, 2012’. So the order date changed to one day in the future, 6 days after being placed, and the expected delivery date changed from never to 4 days before the NEW order date. As of 5:00 PM on the 19th, there have been no further updates on the Play Store, and Google Wallet still says ‘Pending’ with no more information than ‘Nov 13 – Google Inc. received your order’.

    Clearly Google is not ready for direct to consumer sales or support, and their engineers and I.T. department which built the highest traffic website in the world and a huge knowledge graph on every Google user, cannot even build a simple shopping cart and track order status.

    • diggdugg

      11/19/2012 at 6:58 pm

      You summed it up! Well said Sir!!

    • DLF

      11/20/2012 at 3:59 pm

      Thanks for confirming that others have seen their actual order date(!) in the Play store change over the weekend from the 13th to the 19th. That freaked me out Sunday night. And in my case the obviously incorrect “Shipping Estimate: November 15, 2012” has now been changed to nothing. And Google Wallet still says the transaction is Pending, although as you noted the pending c.c. authorization has been released. We’ll see if the actual charge made is $13.99 less than that original authorization, as Google promised.

  5. Greg

    11/19/2012 at 5:40 pm

    Big jokes all round. I ordered mine at about 11:40 Eastern on the 13th obviously and have not received any back order email, no shipping details. Called Google twice and they know nothing.

    • Jmax

      11/19/2012 at 5:58 pm

      I ordered mine around the same time. I just received my email. It’s been shipped. Check your Google wallet maybe it ship already as well. Good luck

  6. Stewart G

    11/19/2012 at 5:49 pm

    Wow. And just like that, I got a shipping notice. I am the first of the pre-ordered group to get one that I know of, so its a promising sign that they will be going out soon to the others in the group. Both Play Store and Wallet show the new updated status. I was charged the shipping fee though which they have waived for backorders.

  7. ZeroGravity

    11/19/2012 at 6:15 pm

    At least you placed an order. I didn’t even have the opportunity to do that.

  8. Enayet

    11/19/2012 at 6:37 pm

    I am not sure why Google has taken this strategy. Google is a company who has the most talented people working there and I cannot believe they do not have a reasonable estimate of what the demand would be like. I am frustrated as like so many others. But I will wait few more weeks before looking for other options.

    • openingtojoy

      11/19/2012 at 7:09 pm

      Maybe Google should have gone to Google and searched “Nexus 4 demand” to get the info ahead of time. It was pretty obvious from reading the forums that this would be a huge hit…

  9. openingtojoy

    11/19/2012 at 7:02 pm

    Why doesn’t Google simply take pre-orders and stack them in a cue like Apple and every other online retailer?? This “out of stock” so come back later from Google is pitiful. Just take the orders – if it takes 2 weeks or a month or 2 months to ship it just say so – like Apple does. But take the orders – Apple does pre orders at every launch – it isn’t rocket science.

    • diggdugg

      11/19/2012 at 7:17 pm

      FINALLY! Just got my shipment confirmation…time to stop obsessing says my wife.

  10. Frustrated Android Developer

    11/19/2012 at 7:32 pm

    As an Android Developer, I had been happy with Google. However, the Nexus 4 Launch and subsequent Order Processing has been a most frustrating experience. I needed a Nexus 4 to test software on the latest version of Android. After spending countless hours refreshing the Google Play website, I was finally able to place my order and received an e-mail from Google stating: “Thank you. You’ve made a purchase on Google Play. You will not be charged until your order has shipped.” This e-mail also had a receipt for the order and I checked my Credit Card to verify that Google Wallet had an Authorization of $1. However, I received another e-mail from Google stating that the order was cancelled. The Credit Card information was correct and everything in Google Wallet was fine. I called Google’s Customer Service and the only thing that they could do was have someone e-mail me giving the same status that I could see through Google Wallet. The bottom line is that I probably will not get my order shipped even though I have an e-mail from Google confirming my order.

    The least Google can do to remedy this situation is to acknowledge their errors and give a credit on a future purchase to those customers whose orders on November 13th were bungled up by them.

  11. Joelle Eedy

    11/19/2012 at 8:27 pm

    My mothers neighbour is working part time and averaging $9000 a month. I’m a single mum and just got my first paycheck for $6546! I still can’t believe it. I tried it out cause I got really desperate and now I couldn’t be happier. Heres what I do, jump15.comCHECK IT OUT

  12. George

    11/20/2012 at 1:02 am

    oh no the world is going to end because i have to wait a few more days for my next phone. come on guys, really?

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