Google cancels many Pixel Fold preorders; customers now have to wait an extra month or two

Some consumers who pre-ordered the Pixel Fold are discovering that Google is canceling their orders when the time comes to ring up the order just before it is shipped. That's because the bank or the credit card submitted with the order can't seem to verify to Google that the funds are available. As one Reddit poster wrote, "Ordered May 10th and order canceled early this morning because payment couldn’t be verified. Geeze I’m glad a random $2,000 charge won’t go through at 3 am on a Sunday and now I get to wait another month for my fold."

It seems that Google is quite aware of this issue as Google Support told another Redditor that they are looking into the situation. Google also recommended that customers experiencing these order cancellations do not place a new order for the phone. Google told this customer that phone calls have been spiking because this is happening to a lot of people. The rep also said that Google would issue an update in the next day or two. Now to show you how confusing this whole thing is for consumers, another customer who had his Pixel Fold pre-order canceled was told to place a new order.

One Google customer wrote, "I did the chat support for the issue and just essentially pleaded that they don't cancel my order. (my bank declined 4 times until I woke up and texted it was an authorized charge) I never received any other update from Google itself saying to update payment or cancellation or anything. Just hope it goes through. is lack of transparency on Google's part."

The unexpected Pixel Fold pre-order cancellations are happening to a large number of people. Here's another story. "This just occurred with me. Pre-ordered the first day it was available, had the usual fraud concern with a big order through my CC this morning, called the bank to clear it on their end, Google canceled on their end. I called and spoke with a Google Store agent who said they can't do anything and to reorder but will escalate the issue since it's a known bug to try and clear this up for me within 24 hours."

What is making this problem worse is that those who pre-ordered the Pixel Fold expecting to receive it late this month or sometime in July now have to wait until August 30th to September 8th for the 256GB model in Porcelain, August 2nd to August 10th for the 256GB model in Obsidian, and September 13th to the September 21st for the 512GB variant in Obsidian.

Asking customers to wait an extra month or two to receive their phones does not seem right. Even though it isn't totally clear who is responsible, Google or the financial services company that the customer uses, it doesn't seem that the customer himself should be punished. For a company trying so hard to make the Pixel ecosystem as relevant as possible, this is another setback. As one Reddit subscriber said, "I am so disappointed. I slapped that preorder button so quickly, and now if I place a new order I'd have to wait until end of August."

Google slipped one affected customer some Google Play credit after going through the same rigmarole as others did. So if you are in this situation, don't hesitate to ask for something from Google for having to deal with this hassle. Ordering a new phone from Google should not be so difficult. But then again, getting a Pixel update on time shouldn't either.