Google has taken a lot of heat the last few weeks over its support -- or lack thereof -- for the Nexus One. Customers find dealing with Google's support forums to be lacking. Google hinted that it may be making some changes to better handle the situation.Google began selling the Nexus One (made by HTC) in early January. The first wave of deliveries proved troublesome, and the device had issues from the start. Many complained about the Nexus One's inability to find or connect to T-Mobile's 3G network. During the first week, those who bought the Nexus One turned first to Google. Google was tackling user problems via its support forums. Google promised to get back to people within one or two days. When you're without a phone, that's just too long.

Customers then turned to T-Mobile, which is providing the wireless network for the Nexus One. T-Mobile turned people back to Google. Customers tried HTC, and met pretty much the same brick wall.

When the lagging support issue began to garner attention, Google issued a statement saying, "We work quickly to solve any customer support issues as they come up, and we are trying to be as open and transparent as possible through our online customer help forums." Analyst Ken Dulaney said at the time that Google's response was "not good enough." I agree.

The company later acknowledged some of the Nexus One's initial problems, and said that a fix was on the way. Google said in its support forums, "Our engineers have uncovered specific cases for which a software fix should improve connectivity to 3G for some users. We are testing this fix now, initial results are positive, and if everything progresses as planned, we will provide an over-the-air software update to your phone in the next week or so. It may be, however, that users are experiencing problems as a result of being on the edge or outside of 3G coverage, which a product fix cannot address."

Google announced an over-the-air software patch for the Nexus One this week, which it says will fix many of the device's problems. Google took things a step further, however, and endowed the Nexus One with some new features while fixing problems at the same time. The new capabilities include Google Goggles, a new version of Google Maps for Mobile, and multitouch. Nice.

So what is Google doing about support issues moving forward? Well, reports hit the internet this week that Google has placed an ad for "phone program support manager." The job description is as follows:

• Lead Google's direct relationships with one-on-one support vendors to drive a successful customer experience for direct-to-consumer Android customers.
• Define and implement scalable business practices that leverage our internal best practices in one-to-many support to create efficiencies in high-touch support activities through channels such as phone and chat.
• Play a central role in helping the team build success metrics, reports, and infrastructure tools.
• Establish and manage to defined service level requirements to ensure vendors are meeting contractual requirements and customers are receiving target service levels and establish and manage training program for support representatives.
• Work with internal resources to provide escalation resolution for dissatisfied customers.

Gee, what could that possibly mean? When asked to comment on the report, Google said to InformationWeek in an email, "We're flexible and prepared to make changes to our processes and tools, as necessary, for an optimal customer support experience."

In other words, Google plans to make some changes to the way it is handling customer support for the Nexus One. For its sake, I hope the changes come sooner rather than later.