August 24, 2007 | Friday

Google, GrandCentral, and the disappearing digits

By Jackie Danicki - Blogger  in News |Online Sales |Search Engines |Google

I blogged last week about the negative fallout from the closure of Google’s video marketplace. So it is only fair to update with the information that Google finally took note of the barrage of criticism it received for the way it handled things.

As it should have done in the first place, Google is now refunding customers for the purchases they made. Lots of squeaky wheels getting their grease, then. One cannot help but wonder why so much squeaking was necessary, as Google had the means to offer refunds all along.

So it is also worth noting that, only days after the Google Video marketplace fiasco, another Google property denied customers the virtual goods they had paid for. Once again, the Google approach to making things right with those customers is attracting intense criticism.

GrandCentral, which was acquired by Google last month, promises “one number for life” to its customers. A few days ago, that promise was broken for hundreds of customers who had their phone numbers effectively turned off by GrandCentral.

Google, a company worth billions, did offer to pay to reprint the business cards of one customer.

GrandCentral co-founder Craig Walker took to the Grand Central blog to issue a statement which was, to the company’s credit, obviously not concocted by spin doctors. It was a genuine and very human response to what was happening, and much more effective than what Google’s PR people carefully craft for others in the company. He and his co-founder, Vincent Paquet, were also out en force in the comments sections of influential industry blogs, stating their case, apologising, and promising to do what they could to make things right for those concerned. For all this, Craig and Vincent deserve kudos.

But the fact that the onus is on affected customers to make claims against GrandCentral for losses (business cards and beyond) does not suggest that much has been learned from the Google Video marketplace closure.

More to the point, Google must studiously avoid incidents like these if it wants to foster trust with customers, especially in the savvy geek community. Those geeks are often early adopters - the sort of people who had iPods a good 18 months before they started to appear on your family’s Christmas lists - and where they lead, mainstream customers tend to follow.

Google knows it cannot afford to have such people lead everyone else away from their products and services. But does Google know how to prevent situations like the Google Video and GrandCentral debacles from happening again? Only time will tell.

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