The Disappointment of Google Devices and Support

I have been an avid Google supporter for as long as I can remember. Their products are used in every room in my house. Everyone in our household and friends group uses cameras, hubs, speakers, phones, and Google services. I have been an avid supporter of their products for years, but lately, things have not been going so well.

I am an avid fan of home automation. We have smart devices in every room of the house. It has become so awkward when going on vacation that sometimes the family tries to ask Google to turn on the lights in Airbnb rentals 🤣. As of last year or so, it seems like Google Hubs and Speakers have become less intelligent, which is not great for the spousal approval factor. It is even more frustrating when I say the same command; it listens to me, but not her. Perhaps it is the use of Home Assistant that is causing the hubs to fail; however, if I directly use Home Assistant or Alexa devices and speakers, everything works as expected. Which is great, but my wife prefers the Google Home application, as she's accustomed to using it. Even replacing Nest cameras is difficult if she cannot scrub the event history in the Google Home Application. We have 10 Nest cameras, which is probably too many for our current internet upload speed. However, we like to keep an eye on things and ensure the teenagers aren't being sneaky, and that the Sulcata tortoise, Gamera, hasn't escaped from the fence.

The Fall

All of our family uses Pixel phones and have been doing so since the Pixel line was introduced. I've been using Google devices since the Nexus line. They may not have been the most feature-rich, but they were clean and lacked adware, unlike Samsung phones at the time. I pay for device protection on all my devices, but trying to get a claim filed is incredibly frustrating. Take my last experience: I dropped my Pixel 8 Pro on our gravel driveway while trying to carry too much stuff from the car to the house. My fault, I know, but that is why I pay for device protection. The phone fell, cracking the glass on the camera flash and scratching the screen.

So I filed a device claim... It took three representatives and at least 1.5 hours for them to determine I should be approved for the claim because I have device protection through Google Fi, but I purchased the phone from the Google Store. The last representative was very brief, simply stating that I was approved and would receive an email shortly. I never received the email, so I went through a second round of messaging Google support a few days later. This time was for an hour or so, during which they cancelled the first claim and opened a second claim to ensure I would receive the email. I never got it... I finally decided to call and talk to someone in person. They listened to my brief complaint about having to message multiple times and then said they would put me on hold to look into the issue. They came back and said they would need to escalate it and call me back in a few hours. I was skeptical but agreed. It was longer than a few hours, but they finally called back and sent me the email to replace my device. I understand the effort to protect against scams attempting to obtain free device replacements, but spending four hours or more of my time to verify the device and receive an email is excessive. I should be able to press a button in the application to verify the IMEI and identify the device, as I have the Google Fi application installed on all of them. This whole process takes way longer than it should and cuts into my time considerably. This device is already two years old; I could have forgone paying for the device protection and just paid for a new phone instead. It makes me wonder if I should continue purchasing the Pixel line of phones and other Google devices. If I stop, I will be replacing every device in the house, which, as you will learn from an upcoming smart home article, is a significant number of devices.

Let me know if you are also experiencing this frustration lately with Google Devices. I cannot be the only one..