Over the years, Google Fi has had several customer service issues, but the level just reached a higher level. Many customers who have purchased phones with financing plans are charged the full price of their devices, which takes them out of the hundreds of dollars and incurs additional costs such as overdraft fees. Google says that he is aware of the problem and that he is working on a fix.

From the content of the reports we saw, only customers who bought Pixel 3 and 3 XL phones from Fi via the recent half-off promotion seem to be concerned. (Or, at least, these are the only people to give up their purchases.) However, with the little information provided by Google support representatives on the subject, it is possible that older purchases or different devices are also concerned.

In particular, some customers claim to have received no notification of the billing error, save the charges on their account. This cost can reach $ 500 for the Pixel 3 XL and more for those who have purchased multiple devices through the promotion. For those who have purchased via a debit card on a tight budget, Google's actions could be disabling.

The statement provided by a Google Fi representative from the Fi community.

The Google Fi subsite is in the middle of a merge, as is the thread behind Google's Fi community. Some say that Google's billing issues have resulted in overdraft and other fees, which could probably not be reimbursed in the case of a simple refund. Some report that they were able to obtain manual refunds from Fi technical support representatives, although in some cases Google did not refund the erroneous fee tax. Others fear that the detection of fraud by their bank, which cancels the fees in some cases, causes the blocking of their account, because Google and Fi absolutely do that to customers.

At the time of writing this article, the problem has occurred almost a day and, according to the thread and the corresponding reports, the problem has not yet been solved. Maybe Google will finally be able to solve its problem tomorrow when banks open their doors – although it will have a lot to do in terms of reimbursement of fees such as overdraft fees incurred via its (huge) fault.

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  • James Miller,
  • Ryan Cormier,
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