Who Designed This Crap? Die, Google Wallet, Die

Google Wallet is a disaster that has already happened. The Google Apps for Business folks should take this one over.

Generally speaking, I’m quite pleased with Google’s Apps for Business. They’re pretty well thought out and they made it possible for me to move my entire business to the Cloud. That was two weeks ago. This week, Google Wallet, not part of Google Apps for Business, and I had a nasty encounter over my attempt to pre-order one of the new Google Nexus 7 tablets.

You know Google Wallet, Google's answer to PayPal. Right now, that answer is an anemic whisper.

I can’t believe the same people who designed, implemented and maintain Google Apps for Business had anything to do with Google Wallet. Of course, they didn't. At this point in history, Wallet is a total piece of crap that is nowhere in the same league as PayPal and it's got to be hurting Google's bottom line.

I quickly discovered that, at least right now, the only way to pre-order a Nexus 7 is through Google and that seems to mean Wallet, and only Wallet. So, I went to Google and added a 16 GB Nexus 7 and a cover for the tablet to my cart. Then off I went to check out. Wallet asked for a credit card, but it wouldn’t take the card for one-time use. No it wanted me to enter the card permanently so I would be able to use it for all the Wallet based purchases I will never, ever make after this fiasco.

Still expecting Wallet to be at least akin to the most primitive online buying services I've used, I entered my card info. Within seconds, Wallet told me that my credit card company rejected the purchase. I don’t mean to brag, but this is a debit card and I have a large balance in the bank account the card is tied to. As part of the failure message, Wallet invited me to click and fix things. At which time, I had the option of editing the card info or deleting the card and adding another. I tried to edit the info, replacing the sneaky little code on the back of the card.

No matter what I did after that, Wallet appeared to do nothing. So, I added my one-and-only other card, an American Express card with a very nice credit line that I rarely use and always pay off at the end of the month. Same experience. AmEx refused the charge. Then, like a crazed and frustrated monkey, I deleted first one and then the other card, trying everything I could to get Wallet and my bank or AmEx to play nice. Same problem over and over and over again. And, what’s really annoying, Wallet has very few ways you can do anything. So, I endlessly bounced back and forth between the meager menu items, not believing what was happening, which, essentially, was nothing but one rejection of the charge after another.

And, the Wallet history log for a transaction is a joke. It lists a payment method update followed by a failed charge, and does this over and over. But, nothing has a date/time stamp, so there's no way to know when the last failure took place or whether you're getting closer to actually charging your purchase.

Then I got a bright idea. I called my bank. Long story short, a fraud alert stop was placed on the transaction. They lifted the alert and, try as I might in that miniscule menu system, Wallet was not able to get approval from my bank. So, for diversion, I decided to clean out my spam folder. There I found a message from AmEx that it too had put a fraud alert stop on the Wallet transaction. I called them and they lifted the fraud alert stop.

I asked both the bank and AmEx reps I talked to if this was typical with Google Wallet charges. Neither would say it was, preferring to feed me the same old same old that they work hard to protect me from fraudulent transactions on my account. Is Wallet so fraud prone that two major credit card companies put holds on every transaction?

It’s now many hours after the fraud stop alerts were lifted for Wallet purchases, and Wallet still can’t get approval of the transaction on either card. I had hoped to have a Nexus 7 tablet in hand early on to assess it’s potential. But, it doesn’t appear that Wallet will let that happen.

News flash! I lied.

After several more attempts to pay for the Nexus 7 with Wallet, I succeeded today with my debit card, four days after I first attempted to place the order. I have no idea why this attempt worked and all others failed. Maybe it was the trouble ticket I entered four days ago, among other things, threatening to write this column.

Even if it was that ticket, there's a problem in Google's Wallet that needs fixing. It may be in the system and it may be a reputation issue among financial institutions. Maybe Google should turn one of its other development teams loose on Wallet. I can’t imagine businesses flocking to this problem prone payment system. And, that's too bad, because right now we need systems that help build our economy, not place massive roadblocks in the way of its growth. Maybe the current Wallet team should get some training.

Hey, Wallet folks, take a look at our video on Cloud Computing training, here! :o)

Barry Gerber is Editorial Director for Bestofmedia USA, publisher of Tom’s IT Pro (TIP). He managed the Tom's Hardware site for several years, and oversaw creation of the site that is now Tom's Guide. Barry is the spiritual father of TIP, having devoted three years to its development. Barry spent many a happy year as in IT pro in finance, insurance, health and education. Also, he has written for a number of IT publications and published a number of IT related books.

See here for all of Barry's Tom's IT Pro articles.