#fail at Google #io2010
Broadly, I don’t like to make negative statements about organizations or people. In my experience, most organizations and people are well-intentioned, but simply prone to mistakes and errors in judgement. Further, I may be the one making the mistake or error. That said, if I have a particular bad experience, it is often good for me to write about it to get the foul taste out of my mouth and _hopefully_ someone responsible can read about it and fix it.
Once upon a time a developer went to a conference called Google I/O.
The first day was great, lots for conversations with smart folks.
On the second day, the developer realized that they forgot their badge at home during the 40 minute drive to the conference.
Not to worry or turn around, the developer thought. Just like all the conferences the developer had attended before, with proper ID they will surely let him in.
Arriving at the event, the developer walked to the help desk.
Developer: “Please help. I left my badge at home and I need a new one.”
Google: “Sorry, we cannot help you, our systems do not support printing two badges.”
The developer asked for someone else, and then someone else and then someone else. Finally, the developer got to someone that seemed like they could make something happen.
Developer: “Who do you need to hear from in order to let me in the conference? If you got an email from [unnamed Google executive] would that do it?”
Google: “You can do whatever you like, we won’t help you.”
The developer was somewhat upset at this point. Not only did the “system limitation” make no technical sense, but Google seemed to forget that the developer spent money to attend the conference, that the developer likely talked to lots of other developers; they seemed to forget that customers, particularly developers matter.
The developer knew some Google folks at the I/O, so he sent some email and made a call.
The developer got a response quickly. This Google employee was helpful (you know who you are) and told the developer what might work to get him in the conference without driving for another 80 minutes.
The developer went back in the conference with this new information. The developer talked to one person and then another and then another — finally to reach someone that really worked for Google and had the authority to make something happen.
Developer: “I talked to [unnamed, but helpful Google employee]. They told me if I showed you my confirmation letter, you may be able to let me in the conference.”
Google: “Nope. He should know better. I am going to call him.”
Google goes off to call unnamed (but helpful) Google employee. Google can’t get in touch with unnamed (but helpful) employee, comes back and says “Left him a voice mail, but I can’t print you a badge.”
Developer: “Why not?”
Google: “Our systems cannot print out two badges.”
Developer: “Ok. Write my name on a piece of paper and put it in the holder.”
Google: “No.”
Developer: “So, I need to drive back to Silicon Valley? Really?”
Google: “I have sent people back to Holland for forgetting their badges.”
The above line was said with pride. Really. Now, the developer suspected that it was said with the sort of pride one feels when they are trying to show their power in a conversation, not with the pride of being malicious toward someone intentionally, but that is a nuance thing.
Developer: “What if [unnamed Google executive] forgot their badge?”
Google: “[unnamed Google executive] would not forget their badge.”
The developer loved this response. Google was basically calling him an idiot, which clearly he was for forgetting his badge, but more so because the developer believed that a company like Google that wanted to attract developers to their platform (or to work at their company) would never treat attendees this way.
Developer: “Ok, I see how it is going to be, but I don’t understand. What are you trying to prevent?”
Google: “It is against our policy.”
Developer: “But why?”
Google: “I can’t have our conference staff printing out badges all the time for people that forget.”
Developer (motioning to all the conference staff just sitting around): “There are lot of folks doing nothing, can’t one of them do it?”
Google: “No.”
Developer: “Is there anything we can do?”
Google: “You can call one of your friends at Google and use their badge. Or you can get someone else you know to give you their badge.”
Developer: “Really? Doesn’t that defeat the whole point of badges?”
Google: “No.”
The developer was very confused at this stage, but he was an idiot, so you would suspect that.
Developer: “Ok, I have a workaround, but it doesn’t make any sense, I really want to confirm that I can get anyone’s badge and just walk in.”
Google: “Yes, everyone is doing it.”
The developer keep wondering if this violated the policy too. That logical flaw didn’t seem to trouble Google. The developer wondered what would happen if every attendee gave their badge to a homeless person on the street during lunch time. Would Google think that was ok?
The developer shook the hand of Google. Thanked them. Walked away.
You can draw your own conclusions from this story. It is only one-side. I am sure Google would have a different take, but the developer will not be attending I/O again (save perhaps to organize that badge swap with the needy of San Francisco).
Update:
The above was a summary. For example, I saw Scoble during these events and actually used him as an example to ensure that I understood the badge swaping process. In addition, I accepted my defeat (although I had several offers to use others badges), went home and back (80 minutes exactly), so I could get my hands on the HTC phone. It is a fairly interesting device.
Thanks to the Google folks that have reached out to me as a result of this post. Reaffirms my respect for most Google employees (I have many friends that work at Google).
I fully understand why they have this policy; to ensure that I didn’t give my badge to someone else. There are lots of ways to check for that. Further and most importantly, you need to start from a position of trust, particularly with a paying customer, especially in the tightly nit developer community.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Don‘t_be_evil
Mike Amundsen
21 May 10 at 20:01
That’s absolutely ridiculous. I really don’t know what to say.
Daniel Huckstep
21 May 10 at 20:02
Ugh, really sorry to read this, Douglas.
Will try and get to the bottom of it ASAP.
-DeWitt
DeWitt Clinton
21 May 10 at 20:10
I believe you will not be able to get a second badge in many conferences (Siggraph for example). Otherwise a person may give his badge to a friend and ask for a second one.
That said, the solution proposed by the Google I/O staff was terrible. Anyway, didn’t all this conversation took more than 80 minutes?
Bruno Evangelista
21 May 10 at 20:17
Sad. Brazil (1985).
Stefan Plattner
21 May 10 at 20:20
Actually, you should have everyone give their badges to Apple employees.
Dave Reed
21 May 10 at 20:27
Wow, amazing! That happened to me at the last TechEd I attended. Seems it’s a universal problem eh
Steve
21 May 10 at 20:32
@bruno even if it did, I bet it used a lot less gas.
Sean Lynch
21 May 10 at 20:41
And you expect us to believe this?
Do you know someone that can confirm this?
Nicolas Miyasato
21 May 10 at 20:51
Well, their motto is “Don’t be evil”, not “Don’t be stupid”
Kevin Dente
21 May 10 at 21:20
People lose badges all the time; they should certainly have a mechanism for re-printing. That said, I do have to wonder… Would the average Microsoft employee treat a Google employee any better at TechEd or PDC? I can think of a few softies who hate EVERYTHING Google from the bottom of their heart and certainly wouldn’t make it any easier for you to get another badge. Perhaps you simply encountered the reverse.
Adam Machanic
21 May 10 at 21:28
I bet you won’t be forgetting your badge again
Milton Dorkenhoff
21 May 10 at 22:00
The only way to know you didn’t give your badge to someone else would be if they had checkpoints. That would inconvenience that vast majority that DID bring their badge. I walked aroung all day and not once did someone stop me or ask me to turn my badge around so it could be seen. I’m glad they didn’t print you a new badge!
Sheldon McGee
21 May 10 at 23:34
I lost my badge at MS-PDC once and they did had a procedure for those cases. I had to pay for it but everything went OK and was treated well. This sort of things happens, organizers should know best.
EduardoFV
22 May 10 at 00:05
You have to admit thought that their Google AdSense seems to be spot on. Reading the margin on this post I have links for “Printed Lanyards On line”, “Design your own ID badges”, “Custom name tags” and my personal favourite “Visitor Management: Find out why thousands prefer our visitor management software”. Classic!
Perhaps you should have spent the time writing this post.
PeteGoo
22 May 10 at 00:48
Here’s the official Google I/O Lost Badge Route, for reference.
http://twitpic.com/1pu34k
Dave Reed
22 May 10 at 01:20
I worked the Google I/O Sandbox (aka the exhibitor booths) under my manager’s badge. He never came to the show, as I even picked up his badge. I did have a moderately long exchange with the person handling special issues at the registration counter around this.
At first, I thought they weren’t going to let me pick up his badge. But, when I was able to show them the e-mail from him where he said at the top: “this is the information you need to impersonate me at I/O,” he appeared to give in.
After that, I was repeatedly, and almost politely, informed that, if he showed up later, there was no way in hell they were going to give him another badge. Then he asked for my name and cell phone, so he could call me when my boss showed up. That was okay, since he wasn’t coming, so I gave it and moved on with my life. Although, the bit after that, where he asked who whether I was going to keep the Android phone for myself, was maybe a small step beyond the line.
I’ve actually run the eBay Developers Conference in years past, so I am sympathetic to his plight. You get all sorts of people coming up with crazy stories who are trying to scam you.
However, I notice two big issues with your exchange.
First, the basis of all good customer service is empathy, which was clearly missing here. Without that, everything is doomed to fail, regardless of the actual outcome. If the Googler had appeared to actually understand why you might be unhappy with what he was saying, and been able to articulate a semi-logical reason for the policy you might have been disappointed, but not angry.
I propose something like: “I know it’s bad, but we’re way oversold, we’ve been scammed in the past by people pretending to lose their badge, and we only have enough phones for the exact number of people, so we had to put in this policy. We know some people will be unhappy, but the alternatives have proven to be worse.” Invoking your fear of the fire marshall is also a good escape route that I’ve used in the past.
Second, the whole point of being in a so-called “leadership position” is to have the understanding to know when you need to break the rules. Any idiot can repeat a policy. It takes a smart person to know when to modify them. In this case, a savvy person would have recognized that you are highly unlikely to be a scammer and highly likely to be a person who actually left your badge at home. So, there should have been a remedy path available here. Apparently, there wasn’t, but that’s another issue entirely.
So, I am sorry to hear about your troubles. That seemed like a needless waste of time and a great way to lose positive developer karma, which was a pretty big reason why they spent all that time and money in the first place. I think your takeaway action is to make sure PDC is more well behaved.
Adam Trachtenberg
22 May 10 at 07:35
Thanks for all the comments…
1. I offered to buy another ticket, but was told the conference was sold out. Since I knew that they were worried that I was trying to scam them, I thought this would address the issue. No dice.
2. In order to get the phone, they scan your badge, so there is no way to get two phones for two badges. Net, no risk.
3. I have my ID. I have my confirmation email. I have an email from a Google employee about the issue. I offer to buy another ticket. There is no way for me or a partner to get two phones. You can look me up on the Google search thingy. I think the risk of me scamming a phone is fairly low.
4. Talking to some of our developer event folks, we have a process for this. Based on the comments, it looks it worked at PDC, but not at TechEd (not to sure about that).
5. If anyone that I know gets locked out of a MSFT dev conference (which shouldn’t happen), contact me and I’ll get it fixed.
douglasp
22 May 10 at 08:57
There’s a good reason why they can’t/shouldn’t reprint a new badge. What if you “say” you lost your badge, get a a reprinted one and then give your “lost” badge to a friend who didn’t pay for the conference?
Since no one will ask you for ID to confirm you are the badge owner and since, you are able to swap badges with other people, reprinting your badge will be giving you two tickets for the price of one.
They could have been more helpful and maybe they did explain this, but hey, I don’t know.
Cheers
Damian
25 May 10 at 16:26
That guy you talked to kind of reminds me … http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=SdLCHSh_yIE
So I say to this guy, “I can’t do anything unless you show me the badge…”
Stefan Wenig
27 May 10 at 11:31
[...] in še na I/O 2: Google, podjetje preprostega in človeškega, dela to? Preberite Zgodbo o razvijalcu in pozabljenem “zlatniku”. [...]
Nemčija zmaga « Blog Luka Cvetka
28 Jun 10 at 19:29