For a company that’s invaded our lives as much (and as well) as Google, the one thing they’ve never had to do is provide customer support—until now. And Nexus One owners are paying the price.

Selling an actual product to actual consumers is a very new game for Google, and if the myriad messageboard complaints and now a New York Times piece are any indication, the company is making the kind of toddler missteps you’d expect. Google sells the Nexus One exclusively, but haven’t set up a system of customer service that’s anywhere near adequate for a product as buzzed-about as the Nexus. There’s no way to contact Google by phone, and email responses are reported to take several days for a response. That’s a huge problem for Nexus One owners.

We like the Nexus One a lot—Jason even called it “the best Android phone” on the market—but if Google doesn’t get their shit together and start providing the kind of service smartphone owners have come to expect, it’ll prove a serious setback for not just Google but Android as a whole. We hope they work it out—they’re working to reduce that several-day delay in email response to a few hours, but it better happen fast if they don’t want people to lose confidence. [NYTimes]