Android Pay and the Google Pixel — broken for me
“Hang on a minute, I purchased the latest flagship device from you and this is the support i’m getting?”
I recently plunged head first into the Google Ecosystem after years with Apple Devices, I picked up a Pixel the week after they hit Australian stores.
Everything went well for the first month or so, I had everything configured just the way I want to, I even moved banks so I could make use of Android Pay which quickly had become my default way of paying when suddenly….
All of a sudden whenever I went to pay or add a new card this appeared. I didn’t root/unlock my bootloader or modify the device in any way I was simply enjoying the stock experience and using (what I consider) a key feature of the device
So I decided to call Google Support and see if I could get this fixed.
Calling Google is really easy on the Pixel, just head into settings, head over to the support tab and click phone (us plebs in Australia don’t get chat support it appears)
I was told someone from Google Support would call me back in the next 30 minutes, however before I hung up I got a call back from a nice person over in the USA.
“Oh we are so sorry that you have this issue however I need to pass you over the android pay team as I cant help you with this” hmmm okay this isn't the greatest start, the nice rep grabs a few more details from me and informs me that someone from the Android Pay team would call me within the new 24–48 hours.
Ended up getting a call back within the hour, again very nice rep who took the same details again and then asked me to enable developer mode and send across a bugreport (not the most user friendly of tasks to do….)
This was around 4–5 days ago and I have received some nice daily follow up emails asking the exact same questions and no resolution path at all.
To rule a few things out I wiped and restored my phone, that didn't fix the issue however it did show that the backup/restore in Android 7.0 doesn't work fully as I lost quite a few SMS messages…..
At this stage I had a phone where one of the core features doesn't work, lost a few SMS messages, has started to randomly reboot along with the Daydream functionality making the device so hot that after 15 minutes i’m forced to stop using it and have no idea when this will be fixed…
My problem is that although I think this is a great device, poor customer service (making me fell like i’m at fault) has tarnished my overall view on not only the device but google overall.
I’ll update once Google come up with a solution
