Google Store Chelsea — Local services in New York

Overall experience was good, however it’s a balance of good and bad. Warning, this is a long read.

First off, Ranzi and Christiaan were extremely patient with troubleshooting my weird camera clicking issue. They both were professional and worked hard to figure out how to replicate it exactly each time. Unfortunately, I couldn't leave phone with them that day for repairs. Ranzi opened a ticket for me documenting everything so when I come back, I could just drop it off without having to go through all the troubleshooting again and to ask for Christiaan.

I came back a few days later to drop my phone off for repairs and Mehdi was the person that helped me. I was requesting for Christiaan however, was told no several times. When I explained the problem and that a ticket was already opened, Mehdi was insistent that my issue isn’t happening. It became frustrating because he didn’t appear to want to help me but instead push me away. I understand that the customer isn’t always right but my issue does happen and it’s been replicated by two other people.

After a bit, Mehdi gave in and took my phone to back up my data for a factory wipe. I informed him that I already had backed up my data and it can just be wiped. He had opened WhatsApp and said I’m not logged in. Told him that I really don’t use it anymore and need to uninstall. He just gave me a glaring side eye and shook his head – that felt a bit rude to me but maybe I’m reading too much into it. Also explained to him how to replicate the problem (once again, thanks to Ranzi and Christaan) – he just waved me off with an “yeah, ok.” He gave me my receipt and told me to come back in two hours.

Came back two hours later and Christiaan was there. He retrieved my phone and wanted to make sure the issue is fix before I left – which I really do appreciate the follow through. Unfortunately, the issue wasn’t fixed. There were no notes on how to replicate the problem. Christaan immediately took it back up for repairs. He told me to come back in an hour. Not a problem.

When I came back, Mehdi was the only one available at the time so I went back to him. He looked up my phone, it wasn’t ready. He said it should be just a few minutes. Alright, I’ll hang around. Since there were nobody else waiting for support, Mehdi left the desk and was chatting with some other folks. Half an hour later, he’s still chatting but guess he finally realized that he should go check on my phone.

He gives me my phone and says to have a nice day. I noticed some weird etching on the screen, side and the back. I ask him about it. He did a quick glance without really looking and said it’s impossible. I tell him that I’m pretty notorious on keeping my phone in the case so the side and back shouldn’t be scratched and the front had a screen protector. He kept saying that it’s impossible and to have a nice day. At this point, I frustrated and left.

I do also need to call out Natalie on the sales floor – I had questions about phone cases because my Google case in light rain color started yellowing weeks after I got it. She was patient and listened to me essentially vent/grip about it. She didn’t interrupt and appeared to be truly engaging on what I was complaining about. She had given me some tips on trying to clean up the case and explained it was inevitable that it would happen but agreed it was weird for that to happen so soon. I asked her about other clear cases that were on display – I specifically wanted a semi or fully clear case because I wanted to see the Sorta Seafom color on my phone. Once again, she patiently explained that the yellowing will happen later down the line. Though I didn’t get the answer I was hoping for, I appreciate Natalie for being patient with me.

So overall, thank you to Ranzi, Christaan and Natalie for making my experience better.

TLDR: Ranzi, Christaan and Natalie have awesome customer skills and try to the best of their abilities to help customers. Mehdi just didn’t seem to care enough...

I recently upgraded my cell phone with Verizon and purchased the new Galaxy S24. When I set up my phone all my text messages transferred over except my group chats and all pictures within texts. The Verizon store couldn't figure it out, then over a 2hr phone call with Verizon tech support couldn't figure it out, the Geek Squad at Best Buy gave it a try and after a couple hours still didn't work. So it was suggested to me I try the Google Store in NYC and drove 4.5hrs in traffic to NYC yesterday, went into the Chelsea location at 9th Ave between 15 and 16th street and asked for a manager. When I walked in and met the store manager Ramon, I expressed to him how desperate I was to get my group chats to transfer from Google messenger to my new phone and was helpless. Many of these group messages were with family members and over the past couple years lost my Father and Aunt, and wanted to keep these family text. Also none of the pictures in text transferred. He graciously walked me back to the tech desk where we spent about 2hrs working on the phone. He and another employee named James decided to add the SMS Backup and Restore App and we started the process. The store closed at 8PM so I walked across the street to Starbucks and jumped on their wifi so the backup process didn't get interrupted. Ramon and James explained to me there was going to be several steps I need to take with the new phone and was able to start this process where I stayed overnight and I can happily state that the process completed at 5 AM this morning and I now have all my group text along with pictures restored on my new phone. Thank you so much to Ramon and James for all your help, this means so much to me. Hope you have a wonderful Thanksgiving...

TLDR - You may or may not be able to return the Pixel you bought at the online store in this location.

I stopped by the Apple store a while back to return an iPhone I had purchased online. The return was done on the spot with the first person that approached. Minutes later I was engrossed in an engaging conversation about product with same employee.

I stopped by the Google store yesterday to return a Pixel I had purchased at the official Google store online. I stood there for a while, finally approached. It turns out nobody was sure if I could return the phone, then they didn't know how to handle the upgrade kit. I asked why? And was lectured about separate inventory, which is not the end user's concern. Someone else came with contradictory info and they all asked, well, what are you going to do? If I was you I would ship it back because if you do the return with us it may get messed up. Then they waited for me to answer. I left their only US retail location with the phone in hand.

I called online store support the person on the phone was a heavy script reader, they could not generate a return label and had to escalate it and "someone will call me 24-28 hours". Really? All this to return an item?

My user experience between Apple and Google was night and day. I am not an Apple fan boy and generally enjoy Google's product offerings, but wow, did they drop the ball on the customer experience and engagement.

It should not take me three + days to return a brand new item purchased from the company store to the company's sole retail location, or their online store.

FAIL.

Apple empowered their rando employee to get this done for me on the spot, and we spent the rest of the time talking product and converting that into a...