I Can No Longer Recommend Google Fi • Hacker News Board

Re: I Can No Longer Recommend Google Fi

#51

Post by iammiles » Fri, Jan 11, 2019, 9:33 PM UTC

buf wrote: post #5

I just traveled to Japan, the Phil, Bulgaria, San Francisco, and Boston without having to change sim cards or worry about my data situation. I'm going to keep it until someone else can do the same at a lower price.

This has been my experience as well. Last year I went on a trip through Morocco and the UK. Never worried about my usage despite using services like Spotify and Google Maps. Got a bill that I would expect with traveling within the States.

My normal day-to-day has me on WiFi the majority of the time so my phone bill usually comes out to about $36 a month.

Edit: For the curious, I've been using Fi with a Pixel 2 since the phone was released.

Re: I Can No Longer Recommend Google Fi

#52

Post by radicaldreamer » Fri, Jan 11, 2019, 9:34 PM UTC

sithadmin wrote: post #20

radicaldreamer wrote: post #4

Earlier quoted context omitted.

And no other carrier offers up to 9 additional data only SIMs on the same plan without additional charges.

This is by far the thing I miss most about Fi, and I'm shocked that no other carrier so far has replicated the feature.

It’s because people will figure out that they don’t need voice services st all...

Re: I Can No Longer Recommend Google Fi

#53

Post by envy2 » Fri, Jan 11, 2019, 9:34 PM UTC

holidaygoose wrote: post #19

ndiscussion wrote: post #2

Google Fi sucks, it's way too expensive. The last several years have seen an explosion of MVNOs, mobile virtual network operators. I use Mint Sim and get 3gb LTE/month with unlimited talk and text, and unlimited throttled internet after the 3gb, for $15/month.

I'm perplexed. I can see hating them for other reasons, but expensive would not be the word I associate with Google Fi. I pay $22 including taxes/fees per month, but it's probably not a good carrier for people who watch a lot of video on their phones. * they're also probably one of the only honest carriers in terms of taxes/fees. My previous carrier had a much higher tax % which I thought was normal, but now I realiz…

If you use large amounts of mobile data, their plans very quickly become obnoxious (throttled after 15GB) and expensive ($80 plus taxes/fees).

Compare that with T-Mobile, who offers $70 a month (including taxes/fees) with throttling at 50GB and 20GB of hotspot data for $15/mo more, or even AT&T or Verizon, and it's more expensive for less service.

Re: I Can No Longer Recommend Google Fi

#54

Post by strictnein » Fri, Jan 11, 2019, 9:34 PM UTC

SamWhited wrote: post #30

drewg123 wrote: post #16

I'm going through something similar with Lyft. I got a new pixel phone, had to re-setup my account in an airport added my cards, and was unable to hail a ride due to some "oops, there was a problem, try again" error with both the cards I entered. That was 9 months ago. To this day, I've been unable to use Lyft, and I can't get anybody to really look at the issue. I'm not sure why they don't want to take my money, but…

Please look up information about Uber's business practices and don't use them. A few minor technical problems are nothing compared to how bad Uber is. Disclaimer: Austin resident who is still mad at both of them for all the massive lies they published all over the city and the huge amount of our money and time they wasted with their stupid campaign to not have to fingerprint drivers.

> "A few minor technical problems"

If they're literally unable to use a service because of a glitch, it's not a "minor technical problem".

Re: I Can No Longer Recommend Google Fi

#55

Post by pasbesoin » Fri, Jan 11, 2019, 9:36 PM UTC

iandanforth wrote: post #29

The lede here is somewhat burried: "From what I’ve since learned, if a card in your Google Pay is stolen, or someone uses your Payments account fraudulently, or anything happens that leads to a security flag being raised, it can lead to your Google Payments account being frozen. ... If you can’t use Google Payments, you can’t pay for Google Fi This, fundamentally, is why I can’t suggest anyone use Project Fi anymore.…

Pre-Google-Fi and into Google Fi, I considered the various "un-appeal-able" account scenarios with Google products, including how they sometimes tied back to loss of access to other Google products including one's Gmail account and basically any access to the baseline Google account at all.

When I signed up for my first Android phone, I created a new Gmail address for it.

When I decided to give Fi a ago -- and get a discount on a Nexus 5x -- I looked at how Fi commandeered any already-connected Google Voice number -- in a one-way process, by the way -- and used a Gmail account that did not have Google Voice set up. And kept my other number active on another carrier, by the way -- I wasn't porting it.

Fi can be pretty good, when it works. Google account management, on the other hand, remains a minefield of irreversible pitfalls.

I might suggest to Google, that they try re-introducing some orthogonality into their accounting structures. But, I'm tired of suggesting things to Google; they've had more than enough time to get -- or buy -- a clue.

Re: I Can No Longer Recommend Google Fi

#56

Post by EpicBlackCrayon » Fri, Jan 11, 2019, 9:36 PM UTC

iandanforth wrote: post #29

The lede here is somewhat burried: "From what I’ve since learned, if a card in your Google Pay is stolen, or someone uses your Payments account fraudulently, or anything happens that leads to a security flag being raised, it can lead to your Google Payments account being frozen. ... If you can’t use Google Payments, you can’t pay for Google Fi This, fundamentally, is why I can’t suggest anyone use Project Fi anymore.…

Same thing happened to me! I got it fixed by submitting a BBB complaint.

Re: I Can No Longer Recommend Google Fi

#57

Post by 013a » Fri, Jan 11, 2019, 9:36 PM UTC

iandanforth wrote: post #29

The lede here is somewhat burried: "From what I’ve since learned, if a card in your Google Pay is stolen, or someone uses your Payments account fraudulently, or anything happens that leads to a security flag being raised, it can lead to your Google Payments account being frozen. ... If you can’t use Google Payments, you can’t pay for Google Fi This, fundamentally, is why I can’t suggest anyone use Project Fi anymore.…

One thing I can suggest; if you're deep into google products, you should be paying the $5/month for a G-Suite account with your own domain. You get access to better business-class support. Fi is now also supported on G-Suite accounts.

It's a no-brainer. It sucks that their personal account support is so bad, but there is a solution.

Re: I Can No Longer Recommend Google Fi

#58

Post by raz32dust » Fri, Jan 11, 2019, 9:36 PM UTC

buf wrote: post #5

I just traveled to Japan, the Phil, Bulgaria, San Francisco, and Boston without having to change sim cards or worry about my data situation. I'm going to keep it until someone else can do the same at a lower price.

It's all good until you have to deal with Google support

Re: I Can No Longer Recommend Google Fi

#59

Post by drewblaisdell » Fri, Jan 11, 2019, 9:36 PM UTC

sithadmin wrote: post #42

drewblaisdell wrote: post #24

Maybe someone on HN will know the answer to this: is it easy to enable/disable service with Google Fi? My use case is to use Fi while traveling internationally for a few months out of the year while switching back to my existing plan in the US. I only want to pay for Fi in the months when I'm out of the country.

You can pause Fi service for a few months at a time. However, Google will catch on to your proposed usage pattern and will eventually boot you from the platform. Majority usage outside the USA violate ToS. There are plenty of stories on r/projectfi about this. I've also had a personal friend that was booted after he subscribed to Fi, then moved out of the USA month later for a temporary work assignment, and was boote…

Thanks for the info.

> Majority usage outside the USA violate ToS.

Bummer.

Re: I Can No Longer Recommend Google Fi

#60

Post by reificator » Fri, Jan 11, 2019, 9:37 PM UTC

andrewvc wrote: post #32

mcrae wrote: post #17

Earlier quoted context omitted.

TMO only gives 2G internationally which, while it doesn’t sound terrible, it ends up being unusable in practice. Your experience may vary though I guess.

Yes, can confirm. I can't actually load a webpage on their '2G' service anytime I travel to europe. I suspect that their partners in europe throttle with an algorithm so aggressive it flat-out breaks TCP.

> I can't actually load a webpage on their '2G' service anytime I travel to europe

Remember when web pages were measured in kilobytes? Pepperidge Farms remembers.