Logistical Nightmare ~ this could have been done better

[KenDavidson]

I was amazed at the server side issues that were prevelent during the short 33 minutes of sales of the N4 today. I was fortunate to get an 8 GB device into my cart but continued to receive error messages when attemtping to complete the check out process in Google Wallet. Server side crashes, site issues with the device being in my cart and then my cart being empty made for an extremely frustrating span of time.

I would think with Google's ability to provide services such as their Enterprise solution: Google Computer Engine and other server solutions that they would have ensured their own servers could handle the traffic they intentionally drove today. Instead from my perspective it was nothing short of being an epic failure.

After 33 minutes my cart was suddenly empty and the phone is back to saying "Coming Soon". My Google Wallet account never reflected the item. Google needs to really consider making some changes to their internal process if they want to grow and expand in the areas they have targeted. In light of today's failure I am certain many Enterprise decision makers may be taking a deeper look into Amazon's line up of comparable service solutions.

 

[nickacs]

I had the same issue, but even though eventually the error came back with 'deleting item from your cart' and the 16GB back to 'Coming Soon', I received 4 emails in the last 20mins saying I purchased now 4 of these! 3 16GB and then I went back after the 16GB was sold out to buy an 8GB!?!? 4?1? C'mon Google... this is f-ing ridiculous... You take my 4 orders, but yet tell me error/couldn't complete...

 

[Ry]

Underestimating demand?

 

[ChromeJob]

Wonder how many people were F5'ing the **** out of the site trying to order....

 

[KenDavidson]

Underestimating demand?

That may very well be a part of the problem. But to under-estimate demand by a few thousand units may be understandable and demonstrate sound inventory and asset mangement to sell out within minutes and leave more people without than those who able to make a purchase makes investors question competency.

If I were considering an Enterprise solution providor and looking at Google this type of server side issue, regardless of the reasons on part of user (F5) I would be looking a little deeper into Google's ability to handle traffic on my site and within my organization.

 

[ChromeJob]

All the people who fought and clawed and tapped and clicked like crazy to get one on Day One may be a little disappointed when they come back in stock, with a 32GB version, or a lower price, or a $25 credit to your Wallet account when you activate.... (pure undiluted conjecture on my part, folks)

I know Google could've spooled up some more servers in the cloud, beefed up Akamai caching, etc, for the volume, but for some reason didn't feel the need to. That's the real story, not "OMG! N4 on sale! No, it's not! It's sold out! Oh, shame on you Google, how COULD you!!"

I'm joking. Today's lucky buyers will be having 4.2 phone phun in a few days. Worth the struggle, surely.

 

[bunique4life05]

A highly anticipate device is a sell out. Where is this logistical nightmare?

Let's wait and see how the ordering, billing and shipping process go before calling it a logistical nightmare.

Nexus 7 pre-orders....

Sent from my ADR6400L using Android Central Forums

 

[KenDavidson]

A highly anticipate device is a sell out. Where is this logistical nightmare?

Let's wait and see how the ordering, billing and shipping process go before calling it a logistical nightmare.

Nexus 7 pre-orders....

Sent from my ADR6400L using Android Central Forums

I am looking at this from a standpoint of other Google products and offerings and future launches. With the size and infastructure that Google offers it's customers I have an expectation of perfection. Afterall they hold a vast majority of my personal data along with my financial information. How that data is handled is vitally important to me and a lot of other people. As I move more and more of my information to Google Drive (Cloud based computing) I hold an expectation that I will be able to access my data when and where I need it and rely upon Google's servers to be up and working at maximum potential. As Google ventures into offerings such as their Computer Engine application for Enterprise solutions this server reliability becomes even more vital.

With today's server side issues: items appearing and being removed from shopping carts, duplicated orders, devices being listed as available and "comiing soon" at intermittent times and failure of Google Wallet to process items in the shopping cart it erodes confidence in Googles ability to handle large amounts of vital data reliably.

Working in the IT business I understand the challenges Google faced today and still will remain a strong advocate for their services. I did eventually grab a 16 GB N4 at 3:34 PM today. I just beleive that Google missed on this one and it warrants looking at to ensure these types of misses don't happen in the future.

 

[Ry]

With the size and infastructure that Google offers it's customers I have an expectation of perfection.

I can only reply with.. Google has a very "beta" nature.

 

[bunique4life05]

I am looking at this from a standpoint of other Google products and offerings and future launches. With the size and infastructure that Google offers it's customers I have an expectation of perfection. Afterall they hold a vast majority of my personal data along with my financial information. How that data is handled is vitally important to me and a lot of other people. As I move more and more of my information to Google Drive (Cloud based computing) I hold an expectation that I will be able to access my data when and where I need it and rely upon Google's servers to be up and working at maximum potential. As Google ventures into offerings such as their Computer Engine application for Enterprise solutions this server reliability becomes even more vital.

With today's server side issues: items appearing and being removed from shopping carts, duplicated orders, devices being listed as available and "comiing soon" at intermittent times and failure of Google Wallet to process items in the shopping cart it erodes confidence in Googles ability to handle large amounts of vital data reliably.

Working in the IT business I understand the challenges Google faced today and still will remain a strong advocate for their services. I did eventually grab a 16 GB N4 at 3:34 PM today. I just beleive that Google missed on this one and it warrants looking at to ensure these types of misses don't happen in the future.

I see but really see it no different then to many people in server playing online game. Too many people on servers causes clitches,errors and crashes. The game developers can predict and prepare for this issue but the magnitude problem always seems bigger than one can predict. Back to Google I think the issue is no different than launch of a highly anticipated online multilayer game.

I think like this you can prepare for a storm, hurricane or whatever natural disasters may hit you but in end your still picking up pieces and struggling when it hits.



Sent from my Nexus 7 using Android Central Forums

 

[six8]

I don't understand why they don't have pre ordering

Sent from my SAMSUNG-SGH-I317 using Tapatalk 2

 

[KenDavidson]

I think when it is all said and done that Google will have far exceeded even their wildest sales predictions. I am happy that they did and hope that it sends a stern wake up missile over Tim Cook's bow. If more people purchase Android devices it will only bring on more competition and more R&D on part of all of Google's competitors which in turn brings more and better technology to us as Google continues to be the world leader in this field.

 

[Ry]

I think when it is all said and done that Google will have far exceeded even their wildest sales predictions. I am happy that they did and hope that it sends a stern wake up missile over Tim Cook's bow. If more people purchase Android devices it will only bring on more competition and more R&D on part of all of Google's competitors which in turn brings more and better technology to us as Google continues to be the world leader in this field.

We don't know how many Nexus 4s were sold. Supply could be the reason they sold out so fast.

I doubt the Nexus 4 will do iPhone 5 numbers, heck I doubt it'll even do iPhone 4S 16GB numbers. Not sure why people need to position Nexus as sort of an iPhone killer. Android as a whole does just fine.

 

[ChromeJob]

A highly anticipate device is a sell out. Where is this logistical nightmare?

It wasn't the inventory or time to sellout we're talking about. It's all the 404 and 500 errors people encountered, not to mention carts being inexplicably emptied. Even now, at 15:15 PST, I'm getting alternating "coming soon" and "sold out" pages using Chrome on auto-refresh. They clearly have issues with their caching server cluster(s).

... With today's server side issues: items appearing and being removed from shopping carts, duplicated orders, devices being listed as available and "comiing soon" at intermittent times and failure of Google Wallet to process items in the shopping cart it erodes confidence in Googles ability to handle large amounts of vital data reliably.

Working in the IT business I understand the challenges Google faced today and still will remain a strong advocate for their services. I did eventually grab a 16 GB N4 at 3:34 PM today. I just beleive that Google missed on this one and it warrants looking at to ensure these types of misses don't happen in the future.

Hear, hear.

I can only reply with.. Google has a very "beta" nature.

True. I feel that Google divisions regularly overestimate their preparation and underestimate the real likelihood of calamity.

I see but really see it no different then to many people in server playing online game. Too many people on servers causes clitches,errors and crashes. The game developers can predict and prepare for this issue but the magnitude problem always seems bigger than one can predict. Back to Google I think the issue is no different than launch of a highly anticipated online multilayer game.

In today's cloud computing landscape, with clients like Akamai being able to spool up ungodly amounts of server potential to handle increased loads, this just isn't a problem unless someone neglects to attend to it. Piss-poor planning results in pitiful performance. A company as big, as publicly visible, as reputable, and as demonstrably capable of handling huge volumes of Internet traffic, should not've had any problems like this. I suspect it was not an accident, or someone in the Play Store division really frakked up in career-debilitating ways. IMHO of course.

 

[qnet]

I am looking at this from a standpoint of other Google products and offerings and future launches. With the size and infastructure that Google offers it's customers I have an expectation of perfection. Afterall they hold a vast majority of my personal data along with my financial information. How that data is handled is vitally important to me and a lot of other people. As I move more and more of my information to Google Drive (Cloud based computing) I hold an expectation that I will be able to access my data when and where I need it and rely upon Google's servers to be up and working at maximum potential. As Google ventures into offerings such as their Computer Engine application for Enterprise solutions this server reliability becomes even more vital.

With today's server side issues: items appearing and being removed from shopping carts, duplicated orders, devices being listed as available and "comiing soon" at intermittent times and failure of Google Wallet to process items in the shopping cart it erodes confidence in Googles ability to handle large amounts of vital data reliably.

Working in the IT business I understand the challenges Google faced today and still will remain a strong advocate for their services. I did eventually grab a 16 GB N4 at 3:34 PM today. I just beleive that Google missed on this one and it warrants looking at to ensure these types of misses don't happen in the future.

To be fair, their I.T. division may be a totally separate facilty. I've seen one of their (Google's) older data centers and it was impressive. They showed one room with serveral huge Google-colored pipes carrying water to cool the servers. The servers that handle your cloud data could be much more reliable than what they use for retail sales. I notice some businesses treat some divsions better than others.

 

[ChromeJob]

I think when it is all said and done that Google will have far exceeded even their wildest sales predictions. I am happy that they did and hope that it sends a stern wake up missile over Tim Cook's bow. If more people purchase Android devices it will only bring on more competition and more R&D on part of all of Google's competitors which in turn brings more and better technology to us as Google continues to be the world leader in this field.

Personally, I think the warning shot across the bow was meant for carriers and their manufacturer buddies, to show that you don't HAVE to bloat Android up with gee-whiz tomfoolery, and charge an arm and a leg, to get consumers interested. Strong sales of a plain vanilla, unlocked phone with modest specs will be a fly in the soup for those who say that bigger, better, shinier is the only thing that sells.

 

[KenDavidson]

To be fair, their I.T. division may be a totally separate facilty. I've seen one of their (Google's) older data centers and it was impressive. They showed one room with serveral huge Google-colored pipes carrying water to cool the servers. The servers that handle your cloud data could be much more reliable than what they use for retail sales. I notice some businesses treat some divsions better than others.

I can understand that, but when launching a product line that is going to represent your company and is important to your business image as this launch today it would be imperative that all of the details would be worked through and contingency plans would be in place and ready to go. They had two full weeks after announcing the line up and hours after the failures experienced in the European markets overnight. I think ChromeJob makes these points very well in his post above.

I also think that the financial world is watching very closely. Google closed out today at 659.05 with a 1.03% decline loosing $6.85 in value. I know tech stocks closed lower in general but Google has always been a strong earner. I have to wonder if this had been better planned if those losses might not have occurred? My portfolio is still heavily invested in Google stock and I will hold my shares knowing long term earnings are favorable, but still it has to create some fears in the marketplace in light of the upheaval at Apple after the less than stellar launch of the iPhone 5 and iOS 6

 

[Ry]

Personally, I think the warning shot across the bow was meant for carriers and their manufacturer buddies, to show that you don't HAVE to bloat Android up with gee-whiz tomfoolery, and charge an arm and a leg, to get consumers interested. Strong sales of a plain vanilla, unlocked phone with modest specs will be a fly in the soup for those who say that bigger, better, shinier is the only thing that sells.

The carriers? Probably.

OEMs that customize Android? Probably not. That just goes against what Android is supposedly about.

 

[Ry]

I can understand that, but when launching a product line that is going to represent your company and is important to your business image as this launch today it would be imperative that all of the details would be worked through and contingency plans would be in place and ready to go. They had two full weeks after announcing the line up and hours after the failures experienced in the European markets overnight. I think ChromeJob makes these points very well in his post above.

I also think that the financial world is watching very closely. Google closed out today at 659.05 with a 1.03% decline loosing $6.85 in value. I know tech stocks closed lower in general but Google has always been a strong earner. I have to wonder if this had been better planned if those losses might not have occurred? My portfolio is still heavily invested in Google stock and I will hold my shares knowing long term earnings are favorable, but still it has to create some fears in the marketplace in light of the upheaval at Apple after the less than stellar launch of the iPhone 5 and iOS 6

Even still. Google is not Apple. Google is not Amazon. Heck, it took a few years for Apple to get it right with the iPhone.

 

[qnet]

I can understand that, but when launching a product line that is going to represent your company and is important to your business image as this launch today it would be imperative that all of the details would be worked through and contingency plans would be in place and ready to go. They had two full weeks after announcing the line up and hours after the failures experienced in the European markets overnight. I think ChromeJob makes these points very well in his post above.

I also think that the financial world is watching very closely. Google closed out today at 659.05 with a 1.03% decline loosing $6.85 in value. I know tech stocks closed lower in general but Google has always been a strong earner. I have to wonder if this had been better planned if those losses might not have occurred? My portfolio is still heavily invested in Google stock and I will hold my shares knowing long term earnings are favorable, but still it has to create some fears in the marketplace in light of the upheaval at Apple after the less than stellar launch of the iPhone 5 and iOS 6

Point taken. I was just speculating as to what could be going on. I've never cared for the way Google handled this part of their busness. It's seems like they tried to make things better this time by not offering pre-ordering (after what happened with the N7). However it still seems just as bad or worse.