
Nexus 4 available for purchase again today at 12pm PST - melvinmt
https://play.google.com/store/devices/details?id=nexus_4_16gb&utm_source=nexus&utm_medium=email&utm_campaign=N4_1121_%20Notify%20Me&pcampaignid=112112EMN41
======
jrajav
This is one of the worst shopping experiences I have ever had. I have seen it
come in stock several times now, but when I add it to my cart and try to
proceed to checkout, I get "Due to high demand, your order could not be
processed. Please try again later." This happens every time until eventually I
get the dreaded "Oops, we had trouble processing your request. We're working
on fixing the issue. Please try again later.", which means that they gave up
and dumped it from your cart. (Edit: Actually, no they didn't, keep trying! If
it comes back in stock, then spamming "Proceed" may work.)

Now I'm also getting it failing to add it to the cart to begin with, with the
message "Oops, we had a problem with your request. Please try again.". At
least this is better than two weeks ago where I would get very unprofessional-
looking cookie errors. Edit: The icing on the cake (Add To Cart click):
<http://imgur.com/dHmOL>

Google really needs to step up here. Forget missed sales opportunities; this
is just reflecting very badly on them, period.

UPDATE:

Possibly the first real feedback from Google on all this: A message displayed
at the top of the Play store reading "Google Play is currently experiencing
very high traffic. Nexus 4 is not sold out and will still be available for
purchase. Please try again shortly. Thank you for your patience." It was up
for about five minutes and has since been removed. The Nexus 4 is now
consistently in stock, but attempting to purchase it always results in "Due to
high demand, your order could not be processed. Please try again later."

~~~
mikeevans
What I did last time was click to "Proceed" from the cart, even if you get a
"Oops, we had trouble processing your request" error and the button is no
longer blue. Eventually I was able to order the phone that way, instead of
refreshing the page which removes the item from your cart. This might not work
this time around, but it's worth a shot.

~~~
sami36
I wish I had read that 15 min ago.

UPDATE: Nah, I tried that, Now I'm getting a popup "Due to high demand, your
order could not be processed. Please try again later." UPDATE 2 : "Oops, we
had trouble processing your request. We're working on fixing the issue. Please
try again later."

~~~
mikeevans
I guess now you know for next time, since it doesn't look like Google is
fixing the process.

------
alanpca
After today, all Google interviews should start with: "So, how would you
implement a shopping cart system?" Amazing that this can be this bad.

~~~
vijayboyapati
Google ought to pause its work on driver-less cars and magic glasses while it
learns how to run a 1990's-style online retail store. The Google Play Store
experience is shockingly poor.

------
apendleton
This is absolutely pathetic. How is _Google,_ of all companies, not able to
handle load? And how did they manage to fail so fantastically not once, but
twice, on the _same product_?

~~~
sliverstorm
This has happened repeatedly with Google in the past- I think it was a Nexus
phone back then, too. I've come to the very simple conclusion that they just
don't care all that much about how the store performs under huge load. The
phones will get sold one way or the other, and the real goal isn't to make
money as a phone seller but to drive forward the state of mobile phones.

------
georgemcbay
Dear Google,

You really need to fix your shit when it comes to selling hardware.

Despite being a huge Android/ChromeOS/etc fan, every interaction I've ever had
that involved buying hardware (or in some cases, trying to buy hardware and
failing) from the Play store was some level of painful ranging from minor
annoyance to full-blown disaster.

I get that the Nexus 4 is supply constrained, I really do. In no way do I feel
entitled to purchase one at any specific time. Being out of stock is no big
deal and I'm normally a very patient person, but your inability to address the
issue with any sort of useful public information and your lack of useful human
customer support is inexcusable. Apple, Amazon... hell, even Microsoft... all
make you look like a bunch of bumbling idiots when it comes to this stuff.

I'm basically done trying until you address the huge problems you have in this
area.

------
hardik988
I finally got mine. When you have successfully added the phone to your cart,
use this

    
    
        var j = 0;var i = setInterval(function(){document.forms[1][1].click();j++;j>600 && clearInterval(i)}, 1000);

~~~
patja
Thank you for bringing several hours of frustration to an end

------
thematt
It's an awesome phone, but not without it's problems. I bought mine on launch
day and I'm already getting a replacement. I love the phone, but along with
others I'm experiencing interference in the earpiece. We'll see if a new unit
fixes it.

<http://code.google.com/p/android/issues/detail?id=39936>

------
samstokes
Well, they haven't fixed the Play Store. Page currently alternating between
"SOLD OUT" and "Add to cart" with subsequent refreshes; clicking the latter
just goes to <https://play.google.com/store/cart?costatus=INVALID_REQUEST>
(with an error message).

~~~
samstokes
Alternative failure modes observed:

* page saying "Server Error".

* clicking "Add to cart" brings up the cart page without an error, but saying "Your cart is empty".

~~~
subspaceman
I was able to add it to my cart, but clicking "Proceed" did nothing. Refreshed
the page and my cart is now empty :(

------
marshall_law
_finally_ secured my 16GB Nexus 4. Tips / steps I picked up from various posts
in this story:

\- If you see "Sold out", just refresh. I had to refresh _many_ times at
certain points just to see "Add to cart"

\- Sometimes the "Add to cart" just fails, go back to the product page and try
adding it again.

\- Once you have the item in your cart, don't click on "cart" again, because
your can (and probably will) lose it.

\- Even though "Proceed" is grayed out, you can (and should!) click it again
freely.

\- Make sure to use firefox developer web console, firebug, or something
similar for your browser, so you can hit "proceed" as soon as the series of 3
http requests has returned. they looked like this for me (I had to enable
"Log" under "Network" for firefox web console):

    
    
      [16:03:00.085] POST https://play.google.com/xhr/ce [HTTP/1.1 200 OK 70ms]
      [16:03:00.085] POST https://play.google.com/store/checkoutcart [HTTP/1.1 200 OK 450ms]
      [16:03:00.538] POST https://play.google.com/xhr/ce [HTTP/1.1 200 OK 59ms]
    

\- You will see "Due to high traffic.." and "Oops! .." errors constantly.
Don't give up :)

~~~
vpontis
This worked for me on Chrome! It works!

------
entropy_
Has anyone been able to buy this? I've added it cart like 20 times now. Half
the times I get an error and it's not added, the other half I get an error
when I click "proceed" and then it's automagically removed from my cart.

I was there at 12:00 and wasn't able to get it. So I wonder, has anyone
actually been able to buy this?

Edit: 1hr later, still trying and still failing. I'm gonna give it an hour and
then check again.

Edit 2: They just posted this: _Google Play is currently experiencing very
high traffic. Nexus 4 is not sold out and will still be available for
purchase. Please try again shortly. Thank you for your patience._ There is
hope yet

~~~
d2vid
Just bought 2 phones after 2 hours of trying (12:00-14:05) with two browser
windows open (chrome and firefox). I was hitting the page about 20 times a
minute, and finally got through. This phone had better be the best thing
ever...

Good luck.

------
alanpca
I got an "Add to Cart" button (with 4-5 weeks to ship notice) once. When I
clicked it, I got a cart error. This sucks.

~~~
alanpca
Now it's in cart, but I can't checkout "Due to high volume". This has got to
be the most botched product release of all time.

~~~
alanpca
Cart Updated: The following items have been removed from your cart because
they are currently unavailable.

    
    
        Nexus 4 (16GB)
    

AMAZING!

~~~
Hannan
Look on the bright side, at least they told you. Mine just vanished with no
explanation. :)

~~~
binarycheese
Mine too!

------
SafeSituation
As of 3:15 EST, the 16GB version switches from "Sold out" to "Add to cart"
about once every two refreshes. Even when it's "in stock", adding it to your
cart triggers an error.

The 8GB seems to be consistently in stock, advertising a 4-5 week shipping
period. It is possible to add this one to your cart consistently.

EDIT: Now getting a generic Google server error page: "We're sorry, there was
an error. Please try again later."

------
zjonsson
This script got me an 8GB phone just now (took 10 minutes). Simply paste into
your console window (hit F12 and then ESC)

setInterval( function() { var buttons = document.getElementsByClassName( 'buy-
button-price' ); for ( var i = 0; i < buttons.length; i++ ) { if (
buttons[i].value === 'Proceed' ) { buttons[i].click(); console.log("click") }
} }, 2000);

~~~
CowGoesShoe
This worked for me twice. I had two windows open in chrome (one incognito)
with two different google accounts, one for the 16 GB, one for the 8 GB. The 8
GB went after about 7 minutes, the 16 GB took until about 15 minutes.

Now to cancel the 8 GB.

Thanks for the tip!

------
ergest
Either it sold out in a record 2 minutes which means that they never had
enough to begin with, or it hasn't become available yet.

~~~
thewordis
My clocks were still showing 2:59 when it went from 'sold out' to 'add to
cart' and back to 'sold out', all within 60 seconds.

Now, almost every time I hit refresh, it flips between the two. I'm giving up
for now.

EDIT: The trick from this comment
<http://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=4838782> worked for me after about 5
minutes of clicking.

------
volkswagner
An hour and fifteen minutes, I've been tying to purchase one item. This is
time I'll never get back in my life. This is the first time I have tried to be
an early adopter. I only found out about the Nexus4 several weeks back when I
was ready to purchase the Galaxy Nexus, only to find out those were no longer
available.

Google is their own worst enemy here with such a crappy check out process, I
would not need to have several computers and browsers hitting their servers to
get one Item. Why not let us pre order and send the darn thing when it comes
in? Why open the ordering for a small window of time while we all eat
bandwidth and time?

This is ridiculous. Now I've been at it for two and a half hours. If I did not
see the device disappear from my cart a few dozen times, I may have just let
it sit in my cart for a few hours before hitting "submit" a couple dozen times
per minute over the past couple hours!

Who comes up with this sales model?

------
samstokes
A banner at the top of the store now reads: "Google Play is currently
experiencing very high traffic. Nexus 4 is not sold out and will still be
available for purchase. Please try again shortly. Thank you for your
patience."

Not sure whether "will still be available" means "today" or "one of these
days"...

 _Update 14:05 PST_ now the banner is gone.

------
Splendor
Nexus 4 sold out again today at 12:02pm PST

~~~
kamjam
Unfortunately, you are probably going to be right! Anyone know which regions
they are supposed to be available again? Sources?

~~~
schabernakk
i think this this was more of a fact than a prediction. It seems the nexus is
sold out again.

~~~
Splendor
I made that post before noon PST. So...Powerball time?

~~~
kamjam
Exactly :)

------
bilalq
Has anyone actually been able to get an order through? I haven't heard of any
success stories yet.

~~~
funkaster
I was able to get one like 5 or so minutes ago. Took me a while and lots of
phantom items in the shopping cart. But I already got the confirmation email.

~~~
micronman
Did you keep clicking the "Proceed" button when you're in the cart page?

------
mstromb
This is a bad time of the year to have 4-5 week lead times before shipping. I
can't be the only one hesitating to place an order for an expensive piece of
electronics that might sit on my doorstep for a week while I'm elsewhere
visiting family.

------
mikeevans
Notice the huge banner at the top of the Play Store now?

"Google Play is currently experiencing very high traffic. Nexus 4 is not sold
out and will still be available for purchase. Please try again shortly. Thank
you for your patience."

------
hack_edu
Notice in big red letters on the top of the page:

"Google Play is currently experiencing very high traffic. Nexus 4 is not sold
out and will still be available for purchase. Please try again shortly. Thank
you for your patience."

------
tobyjsullivan
Curious question: They are not releasing this in Canada at the moment, but I
can go through one of my US-based servers to add it to my cart. Assuming I
ever get past the high-demand errors, does anyone know if I'll be allowed to
ship it to Canada?

Keep in mind, both Canadian and US customers access the site via
play.google.com. They are only determining your country based on IP (or
something similar) and presenting a different experience.

~~~
eventualEntropy
I'm also curious about this. I had the same idea and spent probably 20 minutes
going through a proxy of mine clicking the PROCEED button every few seconds,
but eventually gave up.

------
aditya
If you're still looking to buy one and don't want to use the JS hacks, just
tab over to the Proceed button and hold down the enter key (I'm guessing this
starts making continuous ajax requests) - took me about 30-45 seconds of
holding it down but the checkout/payment screen popped up.

HT: <https://twitter.com/TomDanTheRock/status/273546858289303554>

------
pferate
After over 2 and a half hours of trying to get my order through, I was finally
able to place my order. Confirmation e-mail just came in. I wish that the
process would have been a lot nicer.

No automation, like others did. Just did a lot of clicking the "Process"
button with a few breaks every so often. I would click on the "Cart" link
every now and then, just to verify that my cart didn't get cleared out like it
was earlier today.

------
hkmurakami
Looks like the system is available now, but I've noticed that the shipping
lead time has increased from the 5-6 weeks (1pm) to 7-8 weeks (5pm)

------
car
Well, let's face it, the N4 is probably subsidized at Googles prices, so no
wonder everyone wants one.

But Google, if you want to play this game, take a page from Amazons book. In
comparison to my recent black friday experience there, the Play store handling
of the demand is a piss poor disaster and wasting people's time. Certainly
creating a lot of ill will and an organic DDOS at the moment.

------
setheron
I'm looking to upgrade from my Galaxy Nexus (the USB port is broken and it's
annoying to charge the battery by pulling it out).

How big of a concern for people that its only HSPA+? I've only ever used HSPA+
so I'm not sure how much faster really is LTE. I know you can get 20mbs
download speeds but realistically for page loads and browsing is it that much
smoother of an experience?

------
mrchess
I've had a checkout script running for 10 minutes with no luck despite the
site says they are in stock. Just running into errors. I'll probably let it
run for another 20 minutes before giving up.

This is unfortunate though as I was trying to use the Nexus as an opportunity
to migrate off iOS.

EDIT: Finally got it after 1 hour of running the script.

------
rickymm3
It only leaves your cart if you refresh the page while the other page turns to
'out of stock'

So my advice is to not refresh the page. Keep 2 tabs open. If you get the
'there was a problem' message...go to the other tab and refresh THAT page
until its back.

Then head back to the cart and continue pressing, "proceed"

~~~
rickymm3
it also takes the ajax roughly 3 seconds to run. So click every 3 seconds to
ensure youre not cutting off a form submit that was going to take you to the
ordering page.

------
blueski
This worked for me:

Once the phone is in your basket, hit tab until the focus is on the proceed
button. Then hold enter until finally it succeeds (took about 30s for me).

Now just a "6-7 week" wait for delivery. In other words, the phone can no
longer be given as a Christmas present. Disastrous launch all round.

------
vpontis
Was anyone able to buy it? I have being trying to since before 3pm. It just
seems totally broken...

~~~
rickymm3
i got an 8gb. was around 3:03pmEST.

Went to cart, clicked "Proceed" .. got "too busy" error. Waited a few seconds,
clicked again...same error. Waited a few seconds, clicked again, and it
worked.

------
rickymm3
I got a 8gb. Must have lucked out. Im guessing they won't go back to 'sold
out' for a while based on the shipping times.

I'm trying to get a 16gb one though so I can cancel my 8gb...and no luck. this
is really awful.

------
swang93
For anyone who's still trying, I did a window.setInterval to click the
"Proceed" button. Mine hasn't gone through yet, but better than constantly
clicking :)

------
chrsstrm
This is ridiculous. I can put one in my cart but can't check out? If this
supply constraint is artificial, it's doing a great job of pissing me off.

------
ForFreedom
Not sold out..Its available.. At least the 16 GB

------
idank
It's in my cart, but clicking proceed gives an error...

edit: 5 times I've been to the last screen only to press 'Buy' and see another
error.

~~~
vijayboyapati
Same here. I can get it in my cart, but can't checkout. It gives me an error,
then it empties my cart. Apple must be having a good laugh at this

------
mieses
I got through the shopping cart and ordered an 8GB model about 5 minutes ago.

------
stupidgoogle
oh my God! i am sure I can make a better cart! :S 41 minutes, one second i get
go to cart, other i get "please try again" i think i should give up! i have
better things to do than buy the stupid phone!

------
binarycheese
Just out of curiosity, what language/platform is Google Play running on?

------
f1codz
i just bought one nexus 4, 8 gb (without any hassels at all). that is almost 8
hrs after sales began.

so folks, its not yet sold out. you might wanna try to grab it again if you
had failed to some while ago.

------
tvon
Has there been any word on how many have been available each time?

------
cumlaopre
This worked for me after about 6 minutes of clicking. reply.

------
gailees
Time to order that LG Optimus G :)

------
ergest
What a joke Google!

------
fuziontech
Aaaaand it's gone.

~~~
chrisr1386
Finally got through. Although I'm not keeping my hopes up as far as when
they'll ship it.

------
AYBABTME
Sold out...

