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I Can No Longer Recommend Google Fi

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Re: I Can No Longer Recommend Google Fi

#431

Post by NorthOf33rd »

ThrustVectoring wrote: post #76
NorthOf33rd wrote: post #50

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Yep. a few years ago I signed up for a promo where if I spent a certain amount in the app store, I'd get a free chromecast. Never got it. No recourse available. At all. It's really strange that this level of "service" is acceptable.

>No recourse available. You can sue Google in small claims court for the value of the undelivered Chromecast and for the court fees you spent on suing them.

I could, and I probably should, but my time is worth something. For $25 I'd be doing it to make a point, but I'm not sure that point would actually be made.

Re: I Can No Longer Recommend Google Fi

#432

Post by akimball »

kalleboo wrote: post #303
mjevans wrote: post #240

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I believe these issues could be solved by actually taxing corporations and providing the service they clearly so desperately need. An /actual/ (inter)national ID and Identity verification service. One where disputes about identity and authorization can be escalated somewhere that makes sense, to the jurisdictions issuing these IDs. Ideally someone should be able to go to a police station (locally for local IDs, if on…

Sweden has a personal identity number system, with an address/phone database that business can subscribe to. When you're shopping online, you can enter your ID number and it auto-populates your address. When you move, banks and others will automatically pull your new address from the database. The banks then created a digital ID system (BankID) on top of this which is now used by everyone for real ID verification. Yo…

How well served are the unenumerated?

Re: I Can No Longer Recommend Google Fi

#434

Post by akimball »

jpeeler wrote: post #245
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.…

A somewhat similar situation happened to me in that my Google payments account was frozen, supposely due to fraud. This caused me to be unable to buy a new project fi compatible phone or do any other payments, except... My monthly Fi bills continued to be processed as usual. I tried escalating with Fi support and filing a BBB complaint (which at least got looked at, but did not resolve my account standing). Finally,…

Not an improvement.

Re: I Can No Longer Recommend Google Fi

#435

Post by akimball »

mdpopescu wrote: post #249
lvs wrote: post #159

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I agree -- this single point of failure is incredibly scary. There must be a legal mechanism established to ensure consumers are protected. This is an inevitable technological cycle within markets: 1) a technology arises 2) usage spreads across consumers 3) consumers become deeply reliant on it 4) megacorps coalesce dominating market power over it 5) consumers demand protections from the government We have to get to…

I would love to get protection from the government. What company does that? /s

Academi.com will do it, if you are the high bidder.

Re: I Can No Longer Recommend Google Fi

#436

Post by tooop »

AnthonyMouse wrote: post #421
tooop wrote: post #382

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> It is possible to go your entire life without ever doing any of those things, or having any desire to. And as a general rule, it's the people who are of legal age who least care to do them. Also, some countries don't have age restrictions on such things to begin with (or don't enforce them at all). Yes it is possible but you are describing outliers. Which first world country doesn't have age restrictions on alcohol…

> Yes it is possible but you are describing outliers. Which first world country doesn't have age restrictions on alcohol or tobacco? In many parts of the US the restrictions are not actually enforced, or you can prove your age using non-government-issued identification. I also dispute your assertion that people who don't drink or smoke are outliers. The majority of people don't smoke and a large minority don't drink.…

> In the US they leave it at your doorstep so anyone can steal it, because in practice hardly anybody actually steals it. Who is going to risk federal prison or getting shot by the homeowner over a mystery box which is probably just a $25 bulk pack of shampoo?

Nearly 1/3 of of people in USA have experienced package theft and it is only a federal crime if you steal USPS packages not Fedex/DHL/UPS etc.

> That is why they require collateral. If you take out a mortgage they put a lien on the house. If you don't pay, they take the house. If you're on a beach in Argentina with a million dollars in cash in a briefcase, what does the bank care as long as the house sells for more than they're owed?

I can get a personal loan without any kind of collateral as long as i have X income. Credit cards doesn't have collateral as well.

Honestly, i feel that we live in different worlds - i cannot fathom not having an official ID as there are occasions where i must have it (voting, travel, banking as well as government e-services where you can use bank login or your ID card certificate to identify yourself). There isn't a lot of press or reports from Personal Data Watchdog about somebody doing monetary damage from using other people data, in fact our ID numbers (like SSN) in some cases are public knowledge. I am not saying that our system can't be abused but right now i feel like it works just fine and i wouldn't want it any other way.

Re: I Can No Longer Recommend Google Fi

#437

Post by ehsankia »

dhimes wrote: post #404
ehsankia wrote: post #369

Earlier quoted context omitted.

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.

Your parent's point though is that with the free offerings, you're not the customer. Google's advertisers are. With the paid offerings you are the customer and comparing Google's CS to Toyota's or anybody else's is entirely fair.

To which I agree. Fi should and (normally) does have much much better customer support than average free Google products.

Re: I Can No Longer Recommend Google Fi

#438

Post by mcrae »

sandyhatches wrote: post #355
mcrae wrote: post #33

Despite everything else said, I’ve gotta say that there’s no better feeling than touching down in a new place, turning on your phone, and having it just work . No stupid voip apps. No managing prepaid balances. No switching sims. Just direct dial and go. Fi service is incredible for the mobile roaming alone and I’m not quite sure why nobody else can do it. I love it so much and it’s my favorite product. It makes a me…

Yeah, this. We've been out of the US for a year now, works everywhere we've been (except Vietnam, though that worked out okay too because Hangouts has calls/text). Can't imagine having to hassle with a new sim every new country, esp with there being 5 of us.

I've thought about the idea of creating a 'global MVNO'. Like a plan with multiple foreign numbers being bound to one SIM, and being able to roam seamlessly and pay a fixed rate + reasonable usage fees.

For example, someone in finance could have a UK and US number on a single SIM, and easily move back and forth. Or the same for KR and JP or US and MX.

Not sure if there is a large enough market for that.

Re: I Can No Longer Recommend Google Fi

#439

Post by AnthonyMouse »

tooop wrote: post #436
AnthonyMouse wrote: post #421

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> Yes it is possible but you are describing outliers. Which first world country doesn't have age restrictions on alcohol or tobacco? In many parts of the US the restrictions are not actually enforced, or you can prove your age using non-government-issued identification. I also dispute your assertion that people who don't drink or smoke are outliers. The majority of people don't smoke and a large minority don't drink.…

> In the US they leave it at your doorstep so anyone can steal it, because in practice hardly anybody actually steals it. Who is going to risk federal prison or getting shot by the homeowner over a mystery box which is probably just a $25 bulk pack of shampoo? Nearly 1/3 of of people in USA have experienced package theft and it is only a federal crime if you steal USPS packages not Fedex/DHL/UPS etc. > That is why th…

> Nearly 1/3 of of people in USA have experienced package theft and it is only a federal crime if you steal USPS packages not Fedex/DHL/UPS etc.

That statistic is from a survey done by Comcast as a precursor to trying to sell you a home security system. That is not a reliable source.

And stealing a non-USPS package is still a state crime, so the main difference is whose jail you sit in. Unless you manage to steal something which is actually worth a lot of money, or is involved in interstate commerce etc., in which case welcome back to federal prison.

> I can get a personal loan without any kind of collateral as long as i have X income. Credit cards doesn't have collateral as well.

These are small loans, in which case the collateral is your job. They verify where you work, so if you don't pay they know where to find you. The only way to avoid them finding you is to quit your job, which they don't expect to be worth it for you to do over such a modest amount of money. Notice that the interest rates on those kinds of loans are dramatically higher -- because of the risk that they're wrong. If it was really your identity doing most of the work you would expect the interest rates to be much closer to those for loans with more substantial collateral.

> There isn't a lot of press or reports from Personal Data Watchdog about somebody doing monetary damage from using other people data

According to DOJ statistics, more than 17 million people in the US are victims of identity theft per year.

> Honestly, i feel that we live in different worlds - i cannot fathom not having an official ID as there are occasions where i must have it (voting, travel, banking as well as government e-services where you can use bank login or your ID card certificate to identify yourself).

You feel that way because you live in a place where having an official ID is required to do everything. That isn't a law of nature, it's just a law of the place you live. It's completely reasonable to do things a different way.

Re: I Can No Longer Recommend Google Fi

#440

Post by smsm42 »

ploxiln wrote: post #130
ronsor wrote: post #40

Earlier quoted context omitted.

This is a general issue with google. If their system decides it doesn't like you, then you're out of luck. You'll never get them to fix it.

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…

> Basically, if there was customer support that could fix the problem, then skilled scammers can get money and control out of them.

Possibly. Then the question is - what is more important for the company, tolerating some amount of losses but keeping honest customers happy, or minimizing the losses at the cost of innocent people being screwed hard. As an innocent person, I'd prefer the system that leans towards my benefit. Even if it'd cost Google whopping 0.0001% of their revenues.

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