I promise this will be my last word on the subject but looking at the traffic to my website I’m not the only person not getting a Nexus 7 tablet today at my PO Box because Google Wallet cancelled their order. The issue is interesting because it shows a massive lack of communication between Google Wallet and their fulfillment partner.
First, so you can stop reading here if you want to know about your Nexus 7 order and a PO box, Google Wallet will not deliver a Nexus 7 to a US PO Box. If you pre-ordered using a US PO Box address and haven’t gotten a cancellation yet, stop reading and change it now. Then you can come back to read why. For the person in Australia, I have no idea if they can or will deliver to a PO box there. I’m sure their fulfillment partner is different with different rules. That’s why I specified US PO boxes.
Once Google Wallet sends your order to their fulfillment partner, they’re done. Unfortunately they neglected to get all the shipping details from their partner when they started selling the Nexus 7. Only after they sent the first batch of preorders to their partner for fulfillment did they learn that their partner did not deliver to a PO box. Their partner apparently had no other option but to cancel the order and tell us to start over.
I’m sure that this has been fixed on their website now to prevent you from making the same mistake I did. For me, I seldom give second chances. Especially when my credit card and technology are involved. So far Google Wallet managed to get my credit card flagged for fraud, forced me to re-enter the same number several times even after I cleared it with my bank, had me wait for almost 3 weeks with no status and then finally cancelled my order with no recourse and then told me to start over.
I like Google, I think the Nexus 7 has the potential to be a great tablet. I even looked at Staples to buy one. You don’t get the $25 credit to Google Play but you do avoid Google Wallet. That almost looks like a fair trade. I certainly won’t be doing business with Google Wallet. Right now they look like a part time operation relying on their business partners without sufficient oversight on their part.
Thanks to Google Wallet, I won’t be buying a Nexus 7. I have two ways to show my displeasure at the way I’ve been treated, this blog and my money. Both Samsung and Amazon will be coming out with new tablets in response to the Nexus 7. The Nexus 7 has set the bar for both cost and performance in a 7″ table. Google Wallet has barred the way for me with their performance.
When I buy a 7″ tablet, and I will, I’ll buy from Amazon or Newegg. I’ve been buying from both for years and never been disappointed by their performance.
Update Sept 7: Amazon certainly came through with the Kindle Fire HD 7.
© 2012 – 2019, Byron Seastrunk. All rights reserved.
My order to an Australian PO Box was just cancelled. The order was placed as soon as the 7 was announced, and they wrote to me just last week to say it would ship this week. I suppose I should be grateful they didn’t do anything worse.
They cancelled mine because I shipped to a different address than my billing address even though all my information was correct and approved by another vendor a day before. After 3 days of contacting them each day, they say that my case is “under investigation”. I have never been treated this way in the history of ordering online. Not a follow up phone call, nothing and even at that, the cancellation notice was lost in my dreaded “Gmail” acount. (You can’t order from them using your normal email account, you have to register for Gmail and the notices go to that account.) This operation is a joke!
I just had the same problem. My address wasn’t a PO box. I received a cancellation email from Google about two days after placing the order. It was a form email stating that they could not authenticate my credit card. Google froze my Wallet account so I could not get in to check credit card information or address information. The form provided areas to scan in drivers licence or passport info and they wanted a scan of a recent credit card bill to verify billing address. They provided no email/phone/chat or any other way to contact them. They also stated that the review would take 3 – 5 business days or longer and in the meantime the account was shutdown. About 3 days later I received an email stating that they had reviewed the information that I sent them, they verified the account, apologized, unfroze my account and said I could reorder (my order was still canceled). I will not reorder until the Google Play Store/Wallet/Checkout or what every they decide to call themselves is at least on the same level as the smallest mom and pop storefront on the web.
I agree, I too have been burned by Google Wallet. What an amateur operation. They cancelled my order without notifying me at all. And it wasn’t a PO box, just a regular home address. No Nexus 7, I guess I’ll wait for the iPad Mini.