Google Play setup – just horrible

Rather than vent my anger, I’ll simply detail everything that’s wrong with the interface. Here we go.

Problem 1:

Before you can do anything on Google Play you have to setup a payment account. Simple, right? Just type in your BSB and account numbers and away you go!

Actually no. Google requires your bank account details to be verified. It’s a safety measure. I’m ok with that. But…in the instructions, they tell you that they will send a small amount to your account and that you should verify the account by entering the ‘last 6 digits’ shown on the transaction [see step 4 under Request a verification code]:

Oh and all of that could take up to 7 days. For me, the arrival of the transaction took almost 2 days. Not a problem. I logged into my account, found the transaction, dutifully wrote down the last 6 digits and tried to get back into the Google Play setup screen.

Problem 2:

Logging back in, I discovered that the setup screen showed my payment profile as complete, with no apparent way of entering the damn verification code:

To enter your verification code you have to:

Select the Payment center option on the left, and then click ‘Edit’ next to your account:

But then…you get this:

Clicking ‘Verify now’ gets you to this:

…and, of course, they didn’t say I’d need the stupid looking amount as well, now did they? So I had to log out and log back into my bank account to find, and write down, the amount.

Fuming, I logged back into Google Play and navigated my way back to Payments, clicked on the down arrow near ‘Select the amount’ and clicked on the amount I had received:

Clicking the nice, blue Verify button took me to:

To say I was unimpressed would be an understatement. Clearly, whichever moron created this interface never tested it. Or they changed it at some point and didn’t change ALL of the instructions. Grrrr….

As a teacher and ex-tech writer, I’ve always believed that confusing a new user is the cardinal sin. I honestly don’t know how non-tech savvy authors navigate this interface, especially as the problems I’ve detailed were only the beginning.

This post is already too long, so I’ll do a follow-up tomorrow.

Not happy,
Meeks