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I Can No Longer Recommend Google Fi

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Re: I Can No Longer Recommend Google Fi

#361

Post by throw7 »

I think this is a very good example of PRIVATE vs. GOVERNMENT.

Google has set up a service that is usable/payable by their own rules.

This is something we (U.S.) take as verboten as a private business. They can discriminate on any reason except as dictated as against governance(race/age/religion/etc).

If you've been detected by google as "fraudulent" by google, then there is zero recourse for you. Goodbye to your google account.

If the U.S. government is not going to do anything about this (it has not shown any interest in this type of problem) then YOU need to be proactive. Be ready to change services to the private businesses that you interact with AND/OR speak with your representatives of your government.

Re: I Can No Longer Recommend Google Fi

#362

Post by chisleu »

bduerst wrote: post #176
chisleu wrote: post #164

It routinely cost me so much in data that it was cheaper to get a Verizon unlimited data plan. That was the end of it for me.

What is Verizon billing you? Verizon's "unlimited" plan is capped 22 GB and slows you down after. You get true unlimited data with Fi at $60 + $20 per line.

When did they start that? I was paying $10/GB plus $20/mo. Also Google Fi slows data after 15GB... https://fi.google.com/about/plan/

My Verizon plan is under $70 w/ the taxes/fees.

Re: I Can No Longer Recommend Google Fi

#363

Post by daurnimator »

logifail wrote: post #344
toomuchtodo wrote: post #252

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Passport number along with cryptographic authentication similar to Estonia’s ID card. I believe this satisfies the need for authentication of all citizens at a global scope.

Except: when you renew a passport, don't you get a new passport number?

why is that a problem? a well oiled practice for revocation in case of compromise sounds like a good thing to me.

Re: I Can No Longer Recommend Google Fi

#364

Post by mattnewton »

slenk wrote: post #253
toomuchtodo wrote: post #251

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Yes. You’ll want to force a port from Google to AT&T or Verizon, and then back to T-Mobile if that’s who you want to end up with. If your port is delayed or denied, file a complaint with the FCC, as this starts the regulatory review clock ticking.

Does that clock still tick with the government shutdown?

IANAL but I assume so. It’s just the enforcement that would wait.

Re: I Can No Longer Recommend Google Fi

#365

Post by antichaos »

Google Fi's international data service used to be great. Now it's completely dysfunctional in countries such as Croatia, China, etc, and very spotty in Austria, Iceland, Philippines, Ecuador, northern Japan etc. I can no longer rely on Fi when I travel abroad.

Re: I Can No Longer Recommend Google Fi

#366

Post by Ambroos »

fencepost wrote: post #281
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…

I had something similar happen with Uber early on, but it was as simple as the card I had in the account expiring. I'm pretty sure I'd never even actually used the service but had signed up as a "just in case" when I was going to be in an area where it made sense. For whatever reason when I tried to use it rather than saying that the card had expired they locked my account. By then some of the "fish rots from the hea…

I recently moved abroad and tried to change my phone number in my Uber account. Uber wouldn't let me because it said there was a driver account associated (there wasn't). Their support told me to delete the driver account, but since there wasn't one I was greeted with the driver sign-up that I couldn't complete.

After talking to their support again they deleted my account so I could recreate it.

And then my email, new phone number and old phone number were all marked as in use, yet I could not log in. Over the course of a month it took FIVE emails from my end explaining the situation, with screenshots, each of which was responded to with an "it should be ok now, try again". Only the very last time when I stressed in the email that they really had to escalate it because I had to ask the same question repeatedly without it ever being fixed, they took their time and actually fixed it after a bit over a week.

I know support is hard, especially at scale, but damn Uber that was just baaaaaad.

Re: I Can No Longer Recommend Google Fi

#367

Post by ehsankia »

013a wrote: post #57
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.

They also have Google One now for 2$ a month.

Re: I Can No Longer Recommend Google Fi

#368

Post by pishpash »

MyNameIsFred wrote: post #333
gameswithgo wrote: post #284

Earlier quoted context omitted.

>it's an unsolvable fraud/scammer problem. credit card companies and traditional banks and credit unions handle it fine. >Too many people, scams and fraud become big problems. if the solution to fraud is un-fixable account freezes, you have not actually solved anything. It is fraud itself.

They most certainly do not "handle it just fine". They are highly scammable, they know it, and it's "solved" my moving as much of the burden and repercussions onto the consumer as possible. I've had my identity stolen, and both my wife and I have been mistaken for somebody else. There ARE way to move past this condition (inline with Google Pay, apparently), but it's just done via trust. Or apathy. Or acceptable risk.…

How is the Google way not even more so "moving as much of the burden and repercussions onto the consumer as possible"? They let fraudsters kill your accounts just so they don't have to take any liability or staff humans.

I've said this and will say it again, Google doesn't know how to deal with humans. They've failed in every endeavor where humans have to be in the loop.

Re: I Can No Longer Recommend Google Fi

#369

Post by ehsankia »

wpietri wrote: post #213
rroblak wrote: post #100

Google is, fundamentally, an engineering company. Despite their size and breadth, they still don't understand customer support. Their approach is to use software to solve problems, and they insist on doing so even when it's clear that software isn't up to the task. Unfortunately, customer support is a hard problem. Despite all of the advances in NLP, I still abhor automated customer support systems when I have a comp…

I don't think engineering is the problem here. As an example, Toyota, a very engineering-driven company, is also famous for customer focus. I think the problem is that Google is mostly about selling users' eyeballs to their real customers, advertisers. That's not a business of making individual users happy; it's essentially statistical in nature. With a search engine, if something works for 80 or 90% of people, that'…

it costs $xxK to buy a car. It costs 0$ to use Gmail, Drive, Youtube, etc. These two are not gonna have the same level of customer support. Fi is a paid service, and I do expect it to have a better support (which in my own experience, they do), but to compare Google as a whole to Toyota doesn't seem fair.
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