Hacker News Board Hacker News, browsed like a classic message board
Live data from Hacker News

I Can No Longer Recommend Google Fi

onemileatatime.com

Post reply on HN
Print view View original

221–230 of 464 posts

Re: I Can No Longer Recommend Google Fi

#221

Post by alasdair_ »

jlarocco wrote: post #61
zenexer wrote: post #47

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I recently had nearly the same exact problem with Microsoft. Security department is a black box—zero communication. A friend working for Microsoft even escalated my case internally at the time, but nobody could do or see anything. My account was eventually unfrozen without so much as an email to notify me, never mind an explanation. The point is, this issue isn’t limited to Google.

Wouldn't surprise me if Microsoft saw how much money Google saves by not having support, and decided to follow their lead. They used to have decent support.

>They used to have decent support.

In 2001 it was apparently on par with the "Psychic Friends Hotline" - https://slashdot.org/story/01/04/27/1715203/microsoft-tech-s...

Re: I Can No Longer Recommend Google Fi

#222

Post by m0zg »

It always seemed like a rip-off to me, given that there existed a $120 per 4 lines T-Mobile plan with _global data_ for free and unlimited domestic data (well, speed is capped after 4GB per line, but still pretty decent). When abroad, data speeds aren't going to impress, but it's enough for email and maps and it works nearly everywhere. I'm not associated with T-Mobile and don't hold any of their stock. Just a satisfied customer.

Re: I Can No Longer Recommend Google Fi

#223

Post by pxeboot »

jessriedel wrote: post #158
jessriedel wrote: post #124

> Google Fi won’t restore service or allow your number to be ported out until the bill is paid, so around and around we go. I'm surprised this is legal. Number portability isn't something phone companies offer out of the kindness of their heart; it's required by law. Does the law really allow them to hold the number hostage as part of a payment dispute? EDIT: Nope, this is illegal: > Once you request service from a n…

This Reddit thread concluded that because a T-mobile account was suspended for non-payment and the number is unportable while suspended that the customer was out of luck. https://www.reddit.com/r/tmobile/comments/4wotw8/tmobile_won... I don't see how that matters legally. The FCC requirement doesn't make portability conditional on some account status defined by the carrier. But IANAL.

Since T-Mobile holds the primary numbers for Google Fi accounts, going from T-Mobile to Fi legally isn't a port, just a change in T-Mobiles billing system.

Re: I Can No Longer Recommend Google Fi

#224

Post by pxeboot »

brewdad wrote: post #217
magduf wrote: post #121

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I just went to western Europe (Germany specifically), and spend 15 Euros for phone service there. It's simple: I just bought a SIM card at a shop (O2) and put it in my Verizon phone. I got a prepaid card that had unlimited text/calls (within Germany only), and 3GB of data, which was far more than enough for my 2 weeks there. Cellular service is much cheaper in Europe than in the US, so you might as well take advantag…

My son will be traveling to Europe this summer for a school trip. He'll be spending time in 6 or 7 different countries (UK, France, Germany, Switzerland and a couple more I can't remember right now) Is there a better option than Fi for this type of trip?

On a recent trip to Europe, I found this prepaid SIM a much better value than Fi:

https://www.amazon.com/gp/aw/d/B01FI1JW72/ref=cm_cr_arp_mb_b...

Re: I Can No Longer Recommend Google Fi

#225

Post by holidaygoose »

fakename wrote: post #82
holidaygoose wrote: post #19

Earlier quoted context omitted.

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…

How are you managing such low data use? I easily burned through 1gb in my first week (partly due to my podcast app downloading 400mb -> me changing the settings -> it downloading 200mb the next day -> me finding the right setting to block it from using mobile data). I've been keeping mobile data turned off unless I explicitly need to use it. I turned it on last night to google something quickly, and it managed to use…

I'm equally astonished how people can use so much data :)

Like one of the other posters said, I don't stream on phone, and use the wifi at home and at work. I'd love to see the breakdown of data usage (reported by the phones) for heavy users. I wonder if it's like 4GB netflix, 200MB chrome, 100MB Tinder, 20MB Uber, 5MB email.

Re: I Can No Longer Recommend Google Fi

#226

Post by walterbell »

notatcomputer68 wrote: post #212
astura wrote: post #169

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Seems you have to be current on your account to port your number. They aren't, but they also are unable to use Google payments to become current.

I'm not a lawyer yada yada but it says on my dollar bill that it's legal tender for all debts, public and private.

Show up at Google HQ security gate with cash in hand and journalist in tow?

Re: I Can No Longer Recommend Google Fi

#227

Post by lyall »

fastball wrote: post #210
ploxiln wrote: post #130

Earlier quoted context omitted.

This is also a problem with Square, and Stripe, and Paypal ... it's an unsolvable fraud/scammer problem. Basically, if there was customer support that could fix the problem, then skilled scammers can get money and control out of them. They can do it a lot better than you can get your stuff re-enabled, they know just when to say what to whom. Verizon just accepts the inefficiency, and also over-charges random customer…

I mean, crypto is a payment system that won't kick you off for fraud.

Even if it's deserved ;)

Re: I Can No Longer Recommend Google Fi

#228

Post by komali2 »

8ytecoder wrote: post #137
dstaley wrote: post #39

Stories like this make me incredibly wary about the future of my Google account. I've been using it for almost twelve years. It has a copy of every photo/video I've taken for almost eight years. It's what I use to download apps, listen to music, and pay for things, and get around. I'd be absolutely devastated if I suddenly lost it. I've been planning for a while now a sort of contingency plan where I regularly backup…

Every time a comment like this comes up I say the same thing: Your email address is very very valuable and everything in the digital world is tied to it one way or the other. Own the domain so you can port it to another provider. Keep a copy of your emails somewhere - a mail app on your laptop? If you use drive, sync it fully to a laptop. It's not just Google, any service - paid or free, can and will shutdown your ac…

I bought my domain through domains.google.com though, lol

Though, my nameservers are on bluehost. My biggest issue is figuring out other aspects of google-tied-ness. For example, everyone has my @gmail email right now. Websites, newsletters, contacts, everybody. Untying that will take a while. Also, I use Inbox for organizing my mail, and I like that a lot. I need to figure out a way to get similar functionality while using a me@example.com domain... either forwarding or something... but then how do I send mail FROM me@example.com?

Mail stuff is so obscure to me, I'd love to sit down and learn it sometime but there's always something "more pressing" for a work project or whatever for me to learn.

EDIT: So, I decided to give it another go. Seems impossible through Inbox, but through gmail I found a thing under settings to "add another email address I own" that lets me input manually the SMTP information that bluehost shows for my email. Might be working, who knows. I'm stuck waiting for google's "verify" email to turn up in my bluehost web inbox.

Re: I Can No Longer Recommend Google Fi

#229

Post by tarikozket »

I switched to Google Fi from Verizon last month. I tested it in the Bay Area, Southern California and Florida. The service quality sucked unimaginably. I literally had to use my iPhone like an antenna in the office in San Francisco to have a phone call. The internet sucked badly as well.

I switched back to Verizon and Google Fi made me feel thankful to have Verizon.

Re: I Can No Longer Recommend Google Fi

#230

Post by sangnoir »

rexpop wrote: post #188
duxup wrote: post #72

Earlier quoted context omitted.

It turns out it didn't take computer AI "taking over" to just arbitrarily decide you're out, or wrong, or whatever with no recourse. A company of humans have decided that's ok.

Corporations are the first generation of general AI.

"Corporations as slow AI" is subject that SF author and occasional HN poster Charlie Stross (@cstross) touched on in a presentation at CCC in 2017[1]

1. http://www.antipope.org/charlie/blog-static/2018/01/dude-you...

Post reply on HN