Really strange support for Nest Thermostat issue

[freintime]

I'm a long-time Google devotee. It has been my and my family's OS for years, and I've used Google hardware since they started making devices.

I just got off the most perplexing and frustrating customer support I think I've ever had with almost any tech provider. 

My Nest thermostat fell off my app about six days ago, while I was on holiday. Since we live in a hot climate, I got really worried and called the house sitter, but it was apparently working fine.

When I got home, I reset the thermostat multiple times. I can get it working and get it connected to the wifi, but not to the app or my "household."

I spent time on customer support this morning. What I found out, to my surprise, is that Pixel 6 and Pixel 7 users running Android 13 have a known issue connecting a thermostat to the app and the household.

I share this as I know this is a known issue for other users ... it seems that Google is aware of the issue and have diagnosed it. It's just surprising that it is a known issue between Google's own products.

 The dialog continue after that and it was confirmed that Google Pixel 6 and 7 users can't connect Nest thermostats to their accounts.

[AtlasBlack]

Looks like "Theresa's" programming is broken lol

[Ashepherdson]

Yeah this ain't right.. I'm a pixel 7 user with a nest and have no issue controlling my thermostat with my phone at all.  

[Markjosephp]

Hello folks,

I'm sorry to hear that you lost access and are having an issue reconnecting your Nest Thermostat in the Nest app. I'd be happy to take a look at this for you.

Could you provide me with your support ID number from your chat support? This is to check how the troubleshooting has gone so far and to try to make it right.

Regards,
Mark

[freintime]

Hi Mark,

There isn't any ongoing troubleshooting. Just the end verdict that Android 13 users with Pixel 6 or Pixel 7 phones have identified (by Google) issues linking those devices to the Nest. 

I'm reasonably competent technically and have done multiple resets of the Nest itself, tried to pair with and old Samsung tablet instead of my Pixel 7. What support indicated is that this is a "known issue with Pixel devices and Nest devices" ... if "known" I suppose the next question would be if Google is working on diagnosing root cause and fixes!

[Markjosephp]

Hello freintime,

I appreciate all the steps you've taken to try to add your Nest Thermostat to the Nest app due to network pairing issues. Creating another home structure for the specific thermostat might help. A question: when you try adding it in the app, does it show which particular Nest device it tried to pair with? Have you tried restarting it to ensure that they would communicate with each other?

Best,
Mark

[Markjosephp]

Hey there,

Checking back in — how's it going? Still need our help?

Thanks,

Mark

[Jenelyn_O]

Hi folks,

Chiming in — just one final check in here since activity has slowed down. We'll be locking the thread in the next 24 hours, but if you still need help, I would be happy to keep it open. If there's more we can do, just let me know. 

I appreciate the help, Mark.

Regards,

jenelyn

[freintime]

Escalation moved up to Google/Nest Engineering which determined it is a hardware issue.

Sadly, I'm out of warrantee. I've ordered a replacement. 


As a loyal Google customer, my only nitpick is that I spent around 5 hours total on help chats with Tier 1-3 help who walked me through multiple reboots, and I had to create a new Home instance, switch 10 home devices over to going around my house ... only to come at final outcome as an unfixable issue.

That's not a great customer experience, all in all.

[Jenelyn_O]

Hey freintime,

I understand. Thanks for sharing your thoughts and experiences. We really appreciate your cooperation and taking the time to do all those troubleshooting steps to isolate the issue. Be assured that we're taking note of your feedback. Please let me know if you still have questions in mind, as I'll be willing to assist you further. Otherwise, I'll be locking this thread after 24 hours.

Kind regards,

Jenelyn