Monday. Bought a phone online on fi.google.com in less than a minute. Pixel 3a. Looks great on the picture! Promising specs, especially camera. Thank you for your purchase.
Wednesday. Received delivery email and the package. Fast! What’s inside? Nothing. Surprise, surprise! Tracking number is right, address is correct and even my last name is not misspelled as usual.
Calling support. Wait, only they can call you. Please provide IEMI of your phone. What phone? I didn’t get one. OK. Any phone. 20 minutes later. Verifications and confirmations that it’s not a camel calling but me. And me is me indeed. And where is the phone? They ask. Good question. Sorry, excuse me, sorry, apologies. Somebody from our team will contact you soon.
How soon? Any time estimates? No. I don’t want to give misleading information. Is there anything else I can help you with? Well … I just want the phone or at least some time estimates. I don’t want to give misleading information. Is there anything else I can help you with? (this was a human, not a machine, I can assure). Thank you for your help. Would you like to participate in a brief survey about our service? Enough is enough. Hanging up …
Thursday. Nothing. Friday (Shabbat Shalom!). Nothing. Saturday-Sunday (Relax!). Nothing. Monday. Nothing. Contacting support again, this time via chat. I am no longer certain it’s a human being on the other end, but the story repeats itself — word for word. Tuesday. Identical to Monday. Wednesday. Identical to Tuesday.
Thursday. Something has to change! Let’s break the Matrix. Sending email. Suggesting I’d rather go to the Apple Store for instant delivery. No, not the Pixel. They don’t have it there. iPhone or something …
Magic words worked! In 5 minutes I got the first email back. Are you sure it’s the right box? Please confirm by replying I AGREE. Done. What’s in the box? Please send photos. Done. Are you sure there no phone box inside mailbox? Well, I have a lot of patience, but it has some boundaries too. Anyhow, no, there’s no box inside a box. I am sure. Please confirm. I AGREE.
We will contact our delivery team and let you know as soon as we can. Do you want a replacement device? Replacement? Are you satisfied with the service? Yes, indeed ….
And this is the same company, at least by name, who gave me the very first Android phone ten years ago on Google I/O conference for free. Things change. Things change …