The following post is half ranting and half warning to beware of Android's piece of shit updates.

Last year, I got a 32GB wi-fi Nexus 7 for Christmas. (I payed for part of it) I decided I wanted one after seeing videos of what tablets can do, and I thought having a little companion device for social media and Youtube videos would be great. Up until yesterday, it was fantastic and I loved it.

Then Android 4.4 happened.

Apparently while I was taking a shower my Nexus 7 (2012) got hit with the 4.4 update. Awesome, I thought. I'd been waiting awhile for this and did not hesitate to hit the install button. My device rebooted and went into the install screen (as it should) and I saw the progress bar slowly but surely going up. Then, suddenly, "Error!" pops up and the little Android dude has a red exclamation mark coming out of his compartment. I restarted my device thinking that it would just boot up like normal except with Android 4.3 still... NOPE. I get stuck in a "No command." screen and the Nexus constantly reboots. Now I'm legitimately angry and confused.

I look it up online and don't see anyone else having this issue, so I posted a thread on an Android forum site when I noticed on the side that there are indeed people with this issue. Navigating through one of the threads gave me a bunch of things to try, but none of them helped me at all. I don't know jack shit about fastbooting and flashing stock Android, it's confusing as hell and after trying to understand it I was more confused than when I started. Now I'm really fucking furious, so I do the next worst thing: Contact Google.

I filled out a complaint and hit the "call me" button and within seconds my phone rang. I was told my wait time would be about 5 minutes, but within 30 seconds I was connected with someone at Google. I was transferred over to a "tech specialist" who sounded like he was 65 years old and knew less about the tablet than me. After a couple of standard troubleshoots, I was told that I should be able to issue an exchange. Okay, it's not what I was after but who am I to argue when I'm getting a brand new tablet in exchange for my old one. Unfortunately shit is never that easy.

I call back 10 minutes later with an email that was sent to me regarding the exchange. Basically I just needed to confirm some info to them and I should have been good to go... but the person on the line this time was a little more knowledgeable than the geezer I had spoken to earlier. He asked if there was any damage at all done to my Nexus, to which I stupidly replied "Yeah, there's a tiny crack... but it's pretty much non-existent." "Ohh..." He replied, my heart sank as I knew this was going to bite me in the ass. He told me Google couldn't replace it if there was any sort of damage on the tablet, and that I would have to talk to Asus about getting it repaired.

I feel I should mention that all the people at Google I talked to were American, so I could understand what they were saying perfectly. Then when I was transferred over to Asus, I could tell I had crossed the oceans with this call.

I blindly gave the lady some info she requested about my Nexus and eventually the call ended with me getting an email that contained a shipping address to send my device to. The people there would investigate my tablet and determine if the crack was a manufacturing problem or if it was my fault. If it was their fault, they would replace the screen free of charge, if it's mine, "a quote with an attached fee" would be emailed to me. Obviously even if it was their fault, they would have blamed me anyway, so I didn't get any hopes up for that.

It was after this phone call that I realized, wait a goddamn minute, I just want to send my fucking Nexus to Google so they can remove this piece of shit update and get my Nexus running like it's supposed to again! I could care less if they fix that tiny crack in the screen, I just want to use my goddamn tablet! I was too disgruntled to catch this earlier, and it was getting fairly late so I decided I would take action the next day.

Today hits. I go right to business but this time instead of a phone call, I email Google about it. This was quite annoying because it took them like an hour to send/reply to each email, and most of the time they just offered shitty troubleshoots I'd tried 500 times already. I realized this wasn't going to go anywhere, so I tried understanding the fastbooting mumbo jumbo I talked about earlier. I got the files I needed and, NOPE. Couldn't for the life of me figure out what the fuck I was doing wrong after following the instructions, so I said fuck it and gave up. My Nexus is as good as dead and I lack the know-how to revive it. The 400 something dollars I'd invested in the tablet (counting Google Play purchases) are now totally useless to me. I'm broke as shit and pissed at Google so I don't think I'll be investing in another Android device for awhile now.

TL;DR: Google are evil shitheads and you should just fork over the extra money and buy an iPad or Surface. Edit: No, nevermind. You probably shouldn't. Just be aware Google are doodoo brains for letting this faulty update through.

/rant

Try going into recovery mode.

Ignore the first set of steps. Start at "Alternatively, follow these steps:".

You're right. Apple never has any issues, ever.

Your device isn't "dead." Your bootloader is fine, and I imagine your recovery partition is fine as well. Find yourself someone who knows Android debugging and get them to fix it for you. Or, hell. Do it yourself. Find the Android SDK, install the USB drivers with it, and then run the fastboot command. You can grab the images you need off of Google's site and upload them using the fastboot flash commands and reinstall Android.

Over simplified, but your device is not broken.

PS: Don't live in south Texas, do you? I'd totally fix it for you. Free of charge and all.

2 things.

1. No they didn't. 2. Sick I got the update too.

You're not going to have better luck with Apple tech support. If you get an iPad and it breaks, you're just going to end up with an even more expensive brick. When my iPhone broke, they told me the water damage indicators were showing that it had been submerged in water. They said it was impossible for the water damage indicators to change without the phone being submerged in water, and that they wouldn't repair or replace it. My phone had most definitely not been submerged in water.

And I have to imagine Microsoft do exactly the same types of things with their hardware, like the Surface. That's the way tech companies work. Unless you want to completely stop using these devices, it's something you'll have to deal with.

Northern Wisconsin. Asus did tell me to send it to Texas funnily enough. I'll check into it a bit further, and if I can't figure it out I'd totally be willing to send it down your way.

@mattyftm: Yeah, I know. Kinda just in a "Urgh fuck Google and everything they do!" mode right now. Sure enough I bet Apple/MS are just as bad if not worse.

You have probably tried this, but maybe this will help:

http://www.howtogeek.com/130611/

@mattyftm said:

Same thing's happened to me; not with Apple, but with another phone manufacturer. Extremely frustrating because it automatically makes it look like you're trying to pull one over on them, even if you're being totally honest.