CES 2010 has wrapped up. Both Larry and Judie flew out this morning. I have one more evening here before I head out to meet Elana and attend a friend’s wedding. Everything went more than smoothly here despite the huge number of people and the hectic pace. There was, however, one thing that was a complete and utter fail. It reinforced the fact that Internet shopping can’t rely entirely on technology. It needs to have at least one place where there can be immediate human interaction if it hopes to truly succeed in providing excellent customer service.

Here’s what happened — and why Judie and I were, unfortunately, not able to review the Google Nexus One while still here in Las Vegas together.

The second night we were here for CES, we were attending one of the shows and had the opportunity to see the Nexus One firsthand demoed by a representative from Google. It was impressive. Truly, truly impressive. It was fast, sleek, and seemed to offer an Android experience that could really change my perception of the operating system. We both decided to order them. Since we were in Las Vegas together we decided to have them shipped to us here while CES was still going on. That way we would be able to record our first experience with the devices together, live and in person. It should all work out (we thought), since Google was shipping the phones using FedEx overnight for free. The order went in on Wednesday night. We expected to have the phones sometime on Friday. We were excited.

Thursday evening Larry and I were preparing to go into a cocktail party and visit with the number of different vendors when we bumped into Kevin Tofel from JKOnTheRun and Matt Miller from ZD Net. Both of them were playing with their shiny new phones. We struck up a conversation with them, and we were happy to learn that they were both more than impressed with the devices — at least thus far. Then things began to turn south. Kevin commented that although he had ordered his phone early in the day two days prior, it hadn’t shipped for over 36 hours and therefore he had only received the device an hour or so earlier — more than two days after ordering it. A quick calculation, and I realized that a similar time lag would result in our phones not being delivered on Friday but instead arriving at our hotel Monday. That was a problem, since both of us would be gone by then.

Reach out and don’t touch someone

Immediately, I got on my iPhone, pulled up the receipt for the phones and looked for a phone number I could call in order to either redirect the phones or change shipping to Saturday delivery so that we would have them while we were still here. There was no phone number. I dug down into the help menu, and eventually (and I mean eventually since it wasn’t easy to find) located an e-mail address. I typed a long explanation asking for help either changing the shipping to Saturday delivery or rerouting the devices. I hope for the best. A few hours later I hadn’t heard anything and so I sent a second e-mail. The next day I sent a third e-mail.

By this time I was quite concerned, and I wanted to make sure that the phones wouldn’t arrive at the hotel on Monday when neither of us was there to claim them. It was at that point I received an e-mail confirmation from FedEx that both packages had shipped and were scheduled for Monday delivery. UhOh

I called FedEx and spoke to a lovely woman who did everything possible to help. Unfortunately she eventually discovered that the phones were in a sealed container that would not arise and be unsealed until Monday morning. In other words there was nothing they could do about it. At her suggestion, however, I asked her to change the FedEx notation regarding the shipment said they would automatically be rejected and sent back to Google. That way we would receive a refund and could start the process over once again.

Two hours later I received the following e-mail from Google — mind you it was more than 36 hours after I first tried to reach out to them.

Hello,

Thanks for your email. We apologize for the delayed response. We have addressed your concerns below.

First, it appears that you have questions about the shipment of your Google Nexus One. For more insight into shipping, please visit this page
in our Nexus One Help Center:

Upon receiving your shipping confirmation email, you will be given a tracking number that will assist you in determining your package’s estimated delivery date.

Second, at this point in time, it is not possible to cancel your Nexus One order. Your order is processed shortly after your purchase is complete. Our expedited order fulfillment process does not allow for sufficient time  for an order to be canceled. You may check your order status at any time by signing in to checkout.google.com.
Once you receive your order, if you decide that you don’t want the phone, you may return it by following the instructions listed here:

Please note that full refunds will only be issued for unopened packaging.
We apologize for any inconvenience. Regards, The Google Team

So here’s the thing.

1. I received this e-mail from the Google team after receiving the shipping notification.

2. They apologized for the delay in responding but had they responded sooner, before the shipment had gone out, they might have been able to make the changes we needed.

3. Had there been a live person to whom we could have reached out it might well have been possible for us to redirect the packages, arranged for Saturday pickup, or cancel the orders prior to them being processed and shipped. Because there was no live person to whom we could speak there was nothing we could do about e-mail numerous times and wait for them to respond — admittedly on their part belatedly.

When visiting with the Google representative a few nights prior, I overheard her say to another CES attendee that one of the biggest things about the announcement of the new device was that they had changed the model by which people will purchase cell phones in the future by moving the process entirely online. I’m not sure this is accurate (since the first iPhone employed a new model as well), but one thing is clear — if this model doesn’t include live, human interactions in the future it will be even more frustrating than trying to purchase a cell phone in any of the numerous cell phone retail operations throughout the country. Amazon has a way to speak to a live person and resolve issues. So do many of the other big eTailers. If Google wants to play in this sandbox they need to adopt such a model. And soon!

Yes, if we been less eager we would’ve waited to get and both ordered our phones delivered there. That wouldn’t have given us the opportunity to review them together, however. It was a good plan. Unfortunately because of the shipping delay and the inability to speak to someone in real time and ended up back at square one — both of us will likely be ordering the phones upon our return home.

Monday Morning Update…

As if everything else was not already a total fail this morning (Monday, days after the initial attempt to contact them…) I got this…

Hello Daniel,

Thank you for your email. We have reviewed your account and can confirm that you have successfully updated your payment method for this order. You
can verify your payment method was successfully updated by looking for the message “You successfully updated your payment for this order” on your
Order Receipt at…

Now that your payment information has been updated, your order will be charged and shipped according to the shipping method selected at the time
of purchase. You can check the status of your order any time at…

When your order is shipped, you will be sent a shipment confirmation email
that will include a tracking number you can use to track your package
online. Orders within the United States can be tracked via FedEx, while
orders outside of the United States can be tracked via DHL. All shipments
require signature upon delivery.

Regards,
The Google Team