UK thread - Contracts, news, information, etc.

Welcome to the UK Nexus 4 thread on XDA Developers

CONTRACT PRICE COMPARISON
As is the norm, many of you are planning on obtaining the device SIM-free and unlocked for as little as possible. You may also be considering searching for a good value-for-money SIM-only contract. Here is a handy chart to help make your decision. If you need more information on the individual contracts, check the network's website.




If you're planning on going with 3/Three for the first time, be sure to check out Quidco's deals (thanks Turbotab) and TopCashBack's deals (thanks Azza_1) for added cashback and, technically, money off.

If contracts aren't your thing you can always go for a decent giffgaff goodybag. Giffgaff uses O2's network and masts for signal so you know you'll get a decent amount of coverage.

RETAIL SIM-FREE PURCHASING GUIDE


RETAIL CONTRACT PURCHASING GUIDE


NOTICES

• If ordered from Play, TNT will be delivering your Nexus devices. When entering the tracking number on TNT's site, remember to track as a reference number, not a consignment number.
• The Nexus 4 is currently in stock on Google Play. This will forever be the best place to buy the phone, provided you can wait upto a week for its arrival.

DETAILS

• TNT do not do Saturday deliveries for the Nexus devices.
• If you have multiple items in your order, Google will wait until they have both of those items in stock before they despatch your order.

PLEASE NOTE! ALL RETAIL NEXUS 4 "VARIATIONS" ARE IDENTICAL TO THE GOOGLE PLAY MODELS!
UNLOCKED, NO BRANDING, NO APPS, ETC. THIS WRITING IS BIG AND I HATE IT.

30/12/2012: I apologise for my inactivity in this thread. Lots has been going on in life and I just haven't thought to check here. I'll try to stay on top of this main post, but I doubt I'll be getting involved with thread conversations very often. If you need me to edit this in any way or you have any information that could be useful, please send me a PM.

22/04/2013: I would once again like to apologise for the lack of updates here. I have been busy doing university work, so I haven't had any time to update this until now. All the spreadsheet stuff has been updated.

TeRRa4.

It's a start, no more no less....

https://sites.google.com/site/nexus4cr/responses

There seems to be a knowledge gap amongst some posters how the shipping via courier works. Having worked in a logistics role in the past and been end to end with 3 of the major couriers in the country I'm just putting down a quick few words on how it works (or is supposed to). I'll use an example of a parcel going from Glasgow to Aberdeen by TNT, you could equally substitute any other 2 points in the UK - it all goes via Birmingham(!))

There is no way on this earth that C2000 are going to be shipping out boxes of phones to each TNT depot for them to print the labels - rate of shrinkage (euphemism: theft) would be immense. They're going to want this lot tracked to within an inch of it's life - if someone farts near it they'll want that recorded...

So let's say I've decided to send a parcel... from Glasgow to Aberdeen. So I pack it all up and book it in with TNT. TNT generates a waybill with my reference on (so I can print the label) and also assigns it an internal TNT parcel number. At this stage I can tell the recipient that it's coming via TNT and they can track using the reference (or the TNT parcel number if I can be bothered to read it from the waybill). At this point the parcel is still in my possession - and although TNT know about it, it doesn't exist on the web tracker until it's in their possession (depending on the courier that might be as the driver picks it up or as it arrives in the collection depot). It will be scanned in by the collection driver ("collection scan").

The collection driver turns up. Picks up all my parcels and scans them all in. They still don't go live in tracking (but they are now known by the internal TNT system) until he returns to the depot and they are scanned at "collection depot inbound" - now within a few minutes they should definitely be live on the web tracker.

In the collection depot, all "same depot" parcels are extracted (so in my case anything shipping directly out for the Glasgow depot in the morning). Everything else gets shunted off ("trunked") to the hub depot, which is usually between J1 & J10 on the M6 for most UK couriers (simply because by being there they can be "central" in a weighted mean fashion to the vast majority of their business - it's also handy for the UK's major freight airport - Castle Donnington/East Midlands - for the International stuff). As the parcels are loaded for trunking, they are scanned ("collection depot outbound").

At the hub depot, it's all scanned once more (hub inbound") - and the parcels are sorted out by destination depot - so my parcel to Aberdeen gets put in the pile for Aberdeen, other parcels get put in the trunking run for wherever they're bound. Once more they are scanned "hub outbound". The truck chugs up to Aberdeen with my parcel on board.

At the delivery depot - the parcels are scanned again. "Delivery Depot Inbound". Then sorted out in the delivery depot into the various van runs. They are scanned once more "Delivery depot outbound". TNT driver then drives it to the delivery address, where he scans it once more "Customer delivery" and gets you to sign for it.



So... all our parcels are originating from Computer 2000, Lutterworth, Leicestershire. They will most likely be shipped direct to the TNT Hub which will act as both collection depot & hub in this instance. They will then be sorted out by TNT just like any other package to the right destination depots and progressed just like any other parcel as above.

So we have an official response from Dan....

"Dear all

I know that what you are going through is unacceptable and we are all working through the nights and weekends to resolve this issue. Supplies from the manufacturer are scarce, and our communication has been flawed. I can offer an unreserved apology for our service and communication failures in this process.

For those that originally received a 3-5 days shipping estimate, your orders are now in process for fulfillment. You can expect an email notification early this week which will include tracking information. Although you will be initially charged in full, you will receive a credit for the shipping charge soon after.
For others that received pre-Christmas shipping estimates, we anticipate processing your orders for fulfillment this week.

I realise that the people who ordered the Nexus 4 so early are among our most committed and loyal users and we are doing all we can to put things right.

Sorry again.

Dan"


Anybody who has not had action on their account, who are entitled to it according to his statement, might be worth giving Google a quick call to double check. But otherwise...


1) Communication from Google to all customers on what has gone wrong, including an apology.
I would say Dan has apologised a number of times, and given a (Google and LG approved) reason for the problem.

2) Accurate shipping information supplied to all outstanding Nexus 4 orders within 48 hours.
Looks like this has happened, no shipping emails just yet but only time will tell - I'd be interested to hear in the next 24 hours if there are any original November 13th limbo orders that have not been actioned.

3) Accurate information provided to customers on when the money will be taken back out of their account with at least 24 hours notice.
Not quite - there have been users whose accounts have had requests for money from Google, but there was not sufficient funds. I don't know what will happen to these orders, or if Google are aware of the issue for any user that has experienced it. Let me know.

4) As the initial communications regarding estimated shipping were inadequate, (which is major factor in deciding to purchase the device) at least a full refund for all overdue shipping costs.
Again, this appears to happening.

5) An apology to your Customer Service Representatives for putting unneeded pressure and stress upon them because of the lack of internal communications.
Not sure from Dan's statement.

6) Shipping to be conducted on a “first come, first served” basis, based on the time on our Google Wallet receipts.
again not directly addressed, but we would have to presume this is now happening.

7) All future communication regarding any shipping of Google Play to be improved greatly.
Only time will tell.



All in all, personally I think Dan has done as much as he can to get things sorted for us all. There are still a few remaining questions, which I will ask in time, but I think it's sensible to let a little time pass to see exactly what situation we are in.

I did not do this. We did this. This happened because of all of us, everyone who raised the alarm with Dan so he would speak openly, every single one of you who signed up to give weight to our argument, and the continued posting around the web to raise awareness. And let's not forget Dan, too. Thank you, I KNOW there are a lot of people with more hair now because of it.

(But we're still watching and if there are still problems let me know!)

I think everyone here is speculating too much. All of us from the December orders said the exact same things, discussed the same things and were able to prove a lot of it false.

Ultimately, my first order in december missed the delivery date by just a few days (after 6 weeks of waiting)
My second order placed yesterday arrived this morning at 8am, 17hrs and 2 minutes after ordering.

Too many are quick to jump to conclusions that you're going to have to wait for 2 weeks.

Firstly, when you ordered - isn't that what you expected? Were you not told 1-2 weeks for delivery? If you were guaranteed delivery today, and didn't get it, fair enough, moan to your hearts content, but that wasn't the case. Everyone, including me, ordered under the impression we will get it in 2 weeks time. Anything earlier, we should be grateful.

Secondly, who said you are going to have to wait 2 weeks? Just because you didn't receive yours today doesn't mean it won't come tomorrow? As you can imagine, there are loads of people ordering these phones, do you honestly expect TNT to dedicate their entire operations and all resources just to ship out phones for Google? They have capacity, only so many can be shipped out in a day.

In the december batch, people that ordered a week after me received their phone a day or two earlier, that was it. I can survive a day or two - it won't be the end of the world if you get your phone a few days later.

Google isn't shipping things out manually. Likewise, it would be ridiculous to expect them to roll out phones and place them in the containers chronologically. We can safely say each phones IMEI is linked to the order, as usually is. So you cannot expect them to individually pick out phones one by one, based on their time, the minute and the second they ordered to make sure it is all unloaded off the planes in exact order and it's absurd to even assume such a thing. They're done in batches, like everything else. If you weren't in todays batch of deliveries, you might be in tomorrows, or the day after or the day after that.

And to prevent some of the same discussions from being repeated over and over again:

FACT: Choosing to link your device or not during checkout has ZERO impact on your delivery
FACT: Assuming you are in mainland UK, your location has ZERO impact on your ship date (if TNT get lost finding you that's unrelated)
FACT: Ordering 2 seconds before the next guy does not mean you will receive your order before him/her.
FACT: The guys at the airport in Korea are not loading phones one by one by hand while looking at who ordered at what precise second and minute in the day. Likewise, the guys at the airport in the UK won't be doing that, nor will TNT. It will be in a batch.
FACT: If you didn't receive your phone today, it doesn't mean you will never ever receive it
FACT: You all purchased under the assumption delivery will be in two weeks time, worst case. It has been just 1 day and a lot of people are already moaning - "i ordered a product with a 2 week shipping estimate and it's been 1 day and i still haven't received it, google sucks" -> sounds ridiculous.

I've been following this thread closely even after I've received my devices and giving input where I can in hopes it can help others, but honestly, moaning after just 24hrs of ordering for a product that was stated for 2 weeks delivery is, ridiculous.

If after 2 weeks you haven't received it, then go complain like hell, you have every right to.. but not so early on.