A horrifying Google Fi experience and my take-aways

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Background story: I spent 3 weeks in Asia and Brazil between Jan/Feb 2023. I received an email saying that my International Data Roaming will be suspended since I use my Google Fi "predominately outside of the US" in mid-April. I didn't bother to deal with it as I was clearly not using it "predominately outside of the US", and I was clearly inside the US when that happened. I called again, this time around, support person told me that they need some time to look into my account and asked me to hold, while assuring me that if the connection is interrupted, they will call me back. After several "give me 5 more min", unfortunately the call was dropped. Again, they never call me back. Take-away No.4: don't commit to "call customer back" if it won't be executed. I was left hanging for a long time waiting for the call back, as I don't want to proactively restart a new session and go through the first several steps of the service request over and over again, only to realize that call back may never come. I moved to a spot where I have more stable cell reception while still have access to that free Wi-Fi, and made the call again. This is the last call I had with them, and it lasted almost 1h, with lots of info collection, "hold when I check" waits, and "let me talk to my superior" holds. At the end of the day, the result was "the best way is to return to the US and call us again, and we should be able to resume your data roaming then". Well, what a suggestion. I double and triple checked with the support person (his name is Joseph), and urged him to check with his superior (who's name is Kevin) to see if there's way to lift this ban, even temporarily for 4 days during this trip to Brazil, and the answer was always "No we can't. Let me know if there's anything else I can help you with" Take-away No.6: I honestly don't know what to say now. If it is possible to lift this suspension, why telling me that going back to the US is the only way at the first place. Also if it is possible to lift this, why can't it be done on the spot, instead of waiting for 2 days. Last but not least, Google Fi didn't send me any confirmation of the lifted suspension, not through email, nor text, nor call. I had to find out about it myself. There were a lot of emotions that went into this situation. Landing in a foreign country without speaking the local language, finding out that the service from the trusted Google Fi, which highlights "seamless International data roaming" refused to work, and found out that it won't until after the trip, almost destroys the whole trip plan. Luckily I didn't schedule too many business meetings on Monday and had time to deal with the situation. Yet what if that wasn't the case?

This just happened to me. Minutes to go they just told me I had no service for the next 12 days of my trip until I got back to the US. I received notice earlier today that I had 29 days left to use my international data. My husband has used almost no data but his Google Fi is not working either. Nice way to leave people in a foreign country where they don't speak the language. Can't access their train or plane tickets, get directions. Really a safe plan, Google Fi! My husband is 70 years old...we paid more for this plan then country sims cards to have seamless coverage. Now we have used to much of our unlimited data, lol, so they turned our service off. Obviously not unlimited. But they still took my money for the month of service, to turn it off midway through the month!

Just fallen victim of the same, but in my case I received no warning. Phone just stopped working. The funny thing is, they state in terms of service that you need to spend the MAJORITY of the time in the USA. I spent the first 5 months in the USA. I have been traveling for 3. Last time I checked 5>3 therefore I believe I have spent the majority of the year in the USA so far. I’m surprised nobody has sued them yet.

Google Fi operates on T-Mobile's network in the US and on their parent company, Telekom's network in Germany. I received three months of international service in Europe on two occasions, with one month in the US in between, before my service was disconnected after approximately three months. It is possible that T-Mobile, relying on other non-parent service providers, received earlier shutdown notices than I did in Europe. I'm curious if anyone had longer service durations in Europe compared to Asia. On the Pixel 6, you can use two SIM cards. Start by setting up an eSIM with your Google Fi account before leaving the US. Then, purchase a physical SIM card from a reliable seller in the country you're visiting and physically insert it into your phone. This setup allows you to switch between the two SIM cards for data, texting, and phone calls as needed.