I have owned Galaxy phones for years and have been very satisfied. When it was time to purchase a new phone, I was contemplating getting an iPhone only to try some thing new. My husband had a google pixel XL and was very satisfied with it. He assured me that it was better than an iPhone and talked me into getting the google pixel instead.
So I did. I paid nearly $1000 for my brand spanking new google pixel 2 - 128gb.
I liked it, sure. It worked well and had a couple of cool new features, and the camera was amazing. I had possession of it, and was using it for approximately 1.5 months until one day, while in use as a GPS, the screen went blank and the phone crashed and rebooted. It had an error message displayed on the screen that said “ERROR: Slot Unbootable: Load Error.” The recovery options are also all inaccessibleXX.
My husband tried a few things but couldn’t revive it. It was a goner.
I called Google Pixel customer support for the first time Sunday 10/14 around 4pm. After troubleshooting failed, the representative offered to send a new phone in 5-10 business days. I explained that I couldn’t wait 5-10 business days because having a phone was essential for my business. I requested it to be overnighted and the representative told me that that was not possible. I asked to speak to a supervisor, he assured me a supervisor would call me back within 1-2 hours.
Instead of hearing back from the supervisor, the same representative called me back and recommended i submit a claim for a new phone (same offer he gave me earlier). Again I told him I couldn’t wait 5 business days. He said it is possible that it would get here in 2 business days but he couldn’t guarantee it. At that point I asked for a refund. The phone was only 1.5 months old and it failed me. I wanted my full money back so that I could go to the store and by a new iPhone instead.
The representative said that I’ll have to talk to the supervisor for a refund. I said that’s fine. He said the supervisor would call me back in 30 min - 1 hour. I said fine.
I never received a call from the supervisor.
I finally called back 2.5 hours later. After going through the whole story, the (new) representative on the phone told me that my previous case was closed because someone called me back an hour ago and there was no answering machine so he couldn’t leave a message and he closed the case. (We were home the whole time and they had both my husband’s cell phone number and our house line and we never received a call on either phone).
Appalled that my case had been closed with absolutely no resolution, I demanded to speak to a supervisor. I explained the whole situation, again, and explained that I wanted a full refund because i am now disgusted with google’s customer service and I no longer want a google pixel. The supervisor I spoke to was nice, and empathetic and assured me that she would escalate the case for a refund, and provide a status update tomorrow when she got into work. I asked her if there was a direct way I could contact her and she told me to respond to the email that I would receive. I received the email which stated just that; the case has been escalated and that I would hear back with an update in 1-2 business days.
Next day comes, and next day goes, and I never heard from Bridgette, the supervisor. I responded to the email and did not hear back.
I called back on Tuesday. I spoke to a representative and stated i wanted to get a status update on my refund. She transferred me to another representative from another department who put me on hold 3 times, each for 5-10 mins at a time. She finally told me she had to reach out to the refunds department for an update. She told me she would call me back after talking to them.
The call back I received was from a phone number with 11 digits. When i answered the phone, there was no connection and no one on the other line. They called my cell phone once and my house line twice. All 3 times with no one there.
I finally called back 2 hours later. Now speaking to another NEW representative where I had to start over with my story. She assured me that the refund has been escalated and there was no update to provide. She said the claim states that I would get a status update in 2 business days. When I explained that today is 2 business days, she said that there was no update to give.
She assured me that she would be the one to call me back with an update. I asked her when I should expect to hear from her. She told me that I might hear back this week, but if not, then next week.
That means I am now waiting 2 full weeks for a possible resolution meanwhile not having a cell phone the entire time.
My husband who was happy with his Pixel 2 XL (and tells everybody about it) is now distraught with my experience and wondering if he should trade his phone in if this is the level of support received. He’s also never seen a phone ‘bricked’ so quickly with no way to fix it since the default settings lock you from trying to repair the phone remotely.