[Official] Play Store orders & shipping thread!

Updated Dec 6 1:30AM EST

Below is specific only to the orders from the first day the Nexus 4 was live.
Limbo 1 order fulfillment: ~99%
Limbo 2 order fulfillment: ~99%
Limbo 3 order fulfillment: ~91% (the majority of orders fall into this category)

"fulfillment" = shipped
Above is my educated guess on the status of the shipments that have been going out. I'm constantly tracking this and several other sources for continuing information.

Current status of orders and shipments:

Points below are confirmed:

• First major batch shipped Nov 19 (upgraded to Next Day Air).
• All orders that took place on the 13th that were back-ordered will be upgraded to Next Day Air for free.
• Play Store Customer Service do not have any relevant information about your order. Calling them is nothing short of a complete waste of time.
• Orders have not been shipped on a first-come first-serve basis. There is no pattern to the shipments, it is seemingly random. We have indisputable evidence of this.
• Addendum to above: It is believed that we are finally going in order. Some of the later orders were shipped first due to an incomplete manifest.
• Many people have noticed the last updated date on the Play orders page has changed. No one is certain yet what this might mean.

Points below are likely:

• Logistics have been outsourced to UPS.
• Order mechanics "slid" during the initial rush of the first few minutes of the product going live. This caused several issues (including an incomplete manifest sent to UPS).

Status of your order (limbos):

1) Order placed. No e-mail of any kind (including order confirmation) received.
2) Order placed. Order confirmation received. No other e-mail of any kind received.
3) Order placed. Order confirmation received. Back-order e-mail received.

If you want to see the "levels" post that everyone is talking about, you can find that here:
http://xdaforums.com/showthread.php?p=34283797#post34283797




---------------------Preserved for archival purposes-----------------------------

I made a small G+ post here, in an attempt to get more information:
https://plus.google.com/u/0/114261440449469571809/posts/bwnLP4C4vJA
Please +1 and reshare it if you have a moment.

A petition (over 1000+ signatures at this point in time!)-- if you have a moment, please sign it:
https://www.change.org/petitions/go...onse-on-the-nexus-4-shipping-backorder-fiasco

A letter template drafted up by member thekooliest:
http://xdaforums.com/showthread.php?p=34369253#post34369253

Tentative US order time: 09:00AM PST
Changed "confirmed" to "tentative". 09:00AM PST is most likely, but you should be watching out regardless.


These are some of my favorite threads here! We all heard that the Nexus 4 is now official but I'd wager that a lot of us are waiting for preorders to open up on the Play Store.

Post the usual "I ordered!" "It shipped!" etc. here! I, personally, cannot wait for this guy. Just sold my S3 for it.

I did call Google to ask if they were going to open pre-orders for the device. Doesn't look like it this time around, but I was told that you will be able to purchase on November 13th and that stock would start shipping "either on the 13th or the 17th," whatever that means.

Current information (as of Nov 12):

• No one knows what time the purchase will go live.
• Best guesses are sometime in the morning of the 13th (office hours), or at 00:00 PST. I'm personally leaning toward the former. (NEW: see below)
• There will be no pre-order on the Play Store.
• Check here for specific country availability.
• Check here for more information on shipping and handling for your country.
• A Virtual Credit Card (VCC) cannot be used with your purchase in the device store. Also, at this time, the country of your credit card must match the the country to which you're shipping.
• Taxable charges, if any, depend on what state you're ordering from.
• We do not know what shipping options will be available. Right now, only 2-day shipping is confirmed. We are hopeful for an overnight option at launch.

News added Nov 10:
Android Police got a little clarification from Google-- the rep said pretty much exactly what we've been assuming for the past couple of weeks. They also agree with me that the button will be more likely to go live in the morning sometime, rather than at midnight. See source here: http://www.androidpolice.com/2012/1...-shipments-start-november-13th-no-pre-orders/

News added Nov 13:
A German Google employee has revealed that the Nexus 4 should be selling at "around breakfast time" in Germany. He also mentioned that would be about 8-9AM. This would lead us to believe that the order form will go live at 0:00PST as originally anticipated. Germany is 9 hours ahead of Pacific Standard Time-- aka, 2AM Central, 3AM EST.[/url]

enviii said:

It means you are in limbo 2. Where nothing happens, but you have a backorder email. Or is that limbo 3?

Click to expand...

Click to collapse

Limbo Level 1: Made purchase and it shows up in your Play account and Wallet (status irrelevant) but no confirmation, back order, or shipping emails from Google. These people are known as the Untouchables.

Limbo Level 2: Made purchase and it shows up in your Play account and Wallet (status irrelevant) and received a confirmation email, but no back order, or shipping emails from Google. These people are known as the Forgotten.

Limbo Level 3: Made purchase and it shows up in your Play account and Wallet (status irrelevant) and received a confirmation and back order email, but no shipping emails from Google. These people are known as the Betrayed.

Limbo Level 4: Made purchase and it shows up in your Play account and Wallet (status irrelevant) and received a confirmation email and shipping emails from Google. These people are known as the Impatient.

Those who have their phones in-hand today are simply the Hated.

Alright guys, here's the deal. I work at UPS's logistics center here in Louisville, Kentucky. I am one of the few employees on the line of logistics whose job to pack packages according to the packing slip, and then send it off within the conveyor belt in which then places the shipping label and then is stored in the shipping area in which are waiting to be picked up to either be shipped via ground, one day, two day, etc.

I've registered with XDA forums because it is one of the fastest moving threads on the internet regarding the Nexus 4 fiasco and it’s my off day today and I’ve thought I should share some information relating to the release of this phone and how we do operate. Here’s what’s happened and is happening at the moment. November 12th, we received approximately 17,000 Nexus 4 devices from LG Korea/Google. 7,000 of these devices were 8GB devices, and the remaining 10,000 were the 16GB devices. The shipment was wrapped in stretch plastic wrap, stacked on wooden pallets. November 14th, we started then to unpack these pallets and take apart these devices so we can start packing and shipping.

Remember we work in all areas of the warehouse, we do not just ship out for Google, we have thousands of clients whom also use us for their shipping needs and we need to prioritize each client accordingly.

So you’re asking, what’s the delay? Where are these items being shipped out so slow? Because the shipping manifest that was received was incomplete from Google. We had further received additional customer information later on and were able to ship out then. Packaging each package takes only 5 seconds from hand on time to automated machines sticking the shipping labels on them and scanning them. Then they are transported on belts to their respected buckets in which they are picked up and start their journey throughout the UPS network. The remaining phones we’ve had on hand yesterday the 19th of November had dropped from about 890 16GB devices and about 340 8GB devices. We have managed to ship out everything yesterday. Meaning there is no more stock, and replenishing this stock will take time and is estimated as freight shipping dealing with sea (which Google is using) is slow.
So there you guys go.


Thanks.

This is Jonathan, from Google Play Suport Team.

First, let me start off by extending my deepest sympathy to all the people that ordered their Nexus 4 device on nov. the 13th and still have not received it yet. We at Google Play value your business and are doing all we can to fulfill orders as soon as humanly possible.

Unfortunately, as many of you know by now, the demand for the Nexus 4 device was so overwhelming, that our internal servers processesing the orders crashed, and we had to resort to a secondary processor for said orders. This caused a multitude of problems, including but not limited to duplicate or triplicate orders, missing orders and the such. We understand that you have been frustrated by the lack of information, but again, let me assure you that we are getting everything in order, so that we can process the rest of the orders in a timely fashion. As mentioned in a prior email sent to customers, your shipping fee wil be fully refunded, and we are looking into offering something extra to our affected customers, such as Play Store credit or a free accesory for your Nexus device.

To answer some of the most common questions, if youre seeing a date change in your Play Store orders screen, that means that your order has been revised by our team, and has already passed final verification. You can expect to receive shipment confirmation emails in the very short term (within 48 hours). We do have stock on hand, and will be working troughout the week with our partners to fulfill as many orders as we can.

We will issue a formal statement in the coming hours, so please stay tuned.


Sincerly,

Thomas J,
Google Play Support Team

Nov 13 Limbo Phone/Email Support Guide

Phase 1, the Nov 13 OCCUPY Google Play/Wallet Phone Support, has ended. We did not get our shipping/tracking info or any promise of discounts, freebies, or partial refunds, but we did learn some stuff that might help others:

Findings

1. Phone support and email support (http://support.google.com/googleplay/bin/request.py?&contact_type=devices_shipping_status) are the same people. They answer phones and answer emails.
2. Phone and email support is outsourced, cannot communicate directly with Google regarding your order, and cannot communicate directly with shipping regarding your order. All of their available information is: what you can already see in your play account and wallet, what email communications have been exchanged between you and them, and what (if any) communication has taken place between them and the "shipping specialists."
3. Phone support is 100% powerless to actually do anything to resolve your issue while you are on the phone. If you call expecting resolution while on the line, you will be disappointed. They have very limited options, and none involve letting you talk to someone in shipping, or putting you on hold while they "talk" to someone in shipping on your behalf. You will not be able to receive a shipping confirmation email while you wait on the line. The only things they are able to do is explain the information they are able to see as described in #2 and send a note to the "shipping specialists" requesting that they investigate and respond to phone/email support. Shipping will not respond to you directly, but may possibly respond to phone/email support. If they do, phone/email support may transmit that information to you.
4. Phone support is 100% powerless to offer any sort of compensation for your situation. They may mention the shipping refund, but that is all they are able to offer. If this is what you are after, see Phase 2.
5. First level CSRs, those who answer the phone first, cannot see your email communication with Play/Wallet support. They are able to see whether your issue has been "escalated" to "shipping specialists." The are able to escalate your ticket, though not your call, directly to a shipping specialist, or send your call to the second level CSRs. If they escalate your ticket to shipping, they can do nothing else but wait for a response from shipping, so your call ends.
6. Second level CSRs, aka "Floor Supervisors" can see what first levels see, and all of your email communication with Play/Wallet support. They are able to escalate your ticket, but not your call, to a shipping specialist. This is all they are able to do. Once they escalate your ticket to shipping, your call ends.
7. There are first-level CSRs with special privileges, known as "mentors" who may refer to themselves as "supervisors," but they are not supervisors.
8. Any supervisor who claims to talk to someone in shipping while you hold is not telling the truth, and is violating the CS company's policy.
9. They are able to send you a confirmation email while you are on the phone with them.
10. If you respond directly to the confirmation email, it will go back to the first level CSR you spoke to on your call. If you ask a Second Level / Floor Supervisor to pend the ticket to him/herself, your email response will also go to that supervisor.
11. If you call back, your ticket gets assigned to whoever picks up the phone, and you start over with new first, second, whatever level CSR you are able to speak to. One might infer the system is designed to encourage you to call only once, and then to use email to follow up.

~~~The above can be verified by WhenBearsReign and jefferyrbrown1983, who along with myself were on the entirety of the call. CTMeow can verify some, but dropped off about half way through. We are working to bring you the audio recording.~~~

Conclusions
Calling phone support may not be a total waste of your time if the "shipping specialist" has any juju, as it may perhaps possibly who knows maybe free your order up and help it ship faster. On the other hand, as Bear pointed out so eloquently during the call, These shipping specialists are as real to us as unicorns.

Recommendations
The continued ambiguity notwithstanding, the following is prudent:

1. Call, be polite, and request to be connected to a Floor Supervisor. Stay on the line and repeat your request until you are connected to the Floor Supervisor.
2. Ask the Floor Supervisor to investigate your issue and to escalate the issue to the shipping specialists.
3. Ask the Floor Supervisor to assign the ticket to him/herself to ensure that he/she receives your replies via email.
4. Wait for their response via email confirming that your issue has been escalated to the shipping specialists.
5. Be polite and end the call.
6. Follow up with email* as often as you like. *Do not call back - this will literally do nothing but waste your time if you have already completed steps 1-5.
7. Move on to Phase 2.

Fellas, what is Phase 2?

:highfive: