Bait and Switch Customer Service Brought to You by Google Apps

March 2nd, 2007 by John Herman, under customer service, tools. 2 Comments

Last week we switched our email back to the all new Google Apps Premier Edition. We tried it before in January but had to stop using the free version because of a disturbing amount of emails that were going into some sort of black hole and never ending up in our email or being sent back to the sender as undeliverable.. The big announcement led me to believe that it was now ready for prime time. So I got out my credit card naively thinking that it would be much better now that I was paying for the service. The promise of a phone number to call for technical support was my siren song.

So Sunday night I flipped the switch. It appeared fine on Monday, till the problems started. All of our clients with AOL mail were getting undeliverables. A couple of us were involved in lengthy email conversations with a large group. As we would receive some of the replys to the group we would discover new messages that we had never received that they were replying to. The final straw was when I emailed to a client some documents for a presentation our entire team was about to give. When I arrived they had not received them, luckily Google Apps is web-based so I was able to download it from my account. (Note: The client finally received the email about 3 hours after we left. Time delays are fun.)

All of these problems were a pain, but I thought maybe I could have setup my MX record incorrectly. Google just made this big announcement and they were going to charge me for the service… why would there be this huge problem! I convinced myself that it must be my fault like a good abused customer.

I assembled the various pin numbers I would need for my upcoming support call to Google. (Can you image the loss in productivity if one of the “free” people made it through to support?)

I was used to waiting for days for a customer service response email from Adwords, a service that is Google’s bread and butter and one that we spend a lot on for our clients, so needless to say I was not expecting a two second hold time. I grabbed something to drink and a fluff magazine to protect my mind from the evil, evil elevator music.

I dialed the support number and begin the menu dance, only the phone menu only had 2 levels. What a surprise. The first task of evil phone support now complete, I took a quick breath as I prepared for the long wait ahead. Within a second a friendly, intelligent, non-outsourced sounding voice was saying hello. What!? Wait a minute? I was taken aback for a moment, but I composed myself and delved into my issue.

When I started to speak the warning signs began, but the superior levels of customer service tricked me and my mind started ignoring those warning signs. First, I told the service rep my problem only to discover that he had not really listened to what I said. I then repeated it and I think he got it that time. Then he mentioned that their support system was down and that he would have to take notes of our conversation and then enter them into the system. It was apparent now that his number one goal was to get me off the phone as fast as possible. The call was suddenly over and I was left spinning in my chair. I had no chance to tell him what the problem was, there was no opportunity for troubleshooting. All I could do was wait for an email.

I received the email confirming our conversation a minute later. Their support system was back up. A little too fast for me to believe that it was really down. No real details from our conversation were included in the ticket and they asked me for email headers so they could look into it further. I replied with a few of the email headers clients had provided to me and clicked send. I sat back in my chair and thought about the Proctor and Gamble and GE quotes included on the Google Apps Customer page. I was using enterprise class software, this has to be just a bump in the road with a new system. They will find the answer quickly and get back to me.

A few hours later, I started to get worried. I had been dealing with these problems for a week and it was frustrating everyone on our team and all of our clients. That is the moment when I started to look through the Google Groups support section for Google Apps. I was shocked and horrified to find many other people having the same issue and they had been dealing with it on a continued basis since Google Apps launched. No answer from Google. I knew I didn’t have a chance in the world.

So last night I switched our email back to the old trusty web host. I will miss using Google Apps. Private labeling software always makes you feel important, but the lost email was just not worth it. Google, why don’t you let me know when you are really ready for me to pay for one of your services. I guess it is back to having my email forwarded to Gmail and not being able to truly use my real email address with the Gmail interface (What can I say, I really do like the interface. Not to mention having all my email on the web lets me save the day by getting files on-site that I emailed clients.)

With this experience I remembered some of the advice I always give to clients, but didn’t actually follow myself:

#1 Always check the knowledge base and support forums before you call customer support.

#2 If multiple people are complaining about an important problem in the forums, you don’t have much of a chance of getting that issue fixed quickly.

Mental Note: Follow my own advice.