I've been a Google Fi customer continuously since December 2016!   That's just a year and a half after they launched. Back then they were Project Fi. It felt very experimental and new.  I loved the Pixel devices, and I loved the ability to use Wi-Fi bandwidth -- in a time before unlimited plans.

I've watched this service grow and change over the years.  I started with the original Pixel, then I upgraded to the Pixel 2, Pixel 3, and Pixel 4.  I loved their excitement and the promotions they had to get their customer base onto the latest Pixel phones.  I happily snapped them up with the hefty discounts they would provide. 

Fast forward six years!  I grew from 1 line of service to 5 lines across my family members.  For Christmas 2021, I decided to upgrade my teenager to a Pixel 5a.  This would be a significant upgrade from his smashed and barely functioning Motorola.   Hey, he smashed the Motorola, so he's had to limp along on it for several months.

On December 18, 2021, I ordered a Pixel 5a with expedited shipping.  It was scheduled to arrive on December 22nd or 23rd. Just in time for Christmas. Or so I thought.

We had a good snowstorm in the Pacific Northwest after Christmas.  But while the package was scheduled to arrive, weather was exceedingly normal for this time of year.

Christmas came and went.  I had to put a card under the tree for my son with a picture of what his present would be.

It's now been a month while I wait for the phone to arrive.  Every day the shipper updates the status at about 6 PM to "delayed," and updates the new delivery date to the following day.  Very frustrating.  Here's today's status: same as it ever was.

After weeks of this, I realize that I will likely be billed for the $100 promotion I was issued because I hadn't activated the device I never received within 30 days of it being shipped!

I wrote to Google Fi customer support.  I was told that they were following up with the shipper.  I communicated that I did not want to pay for the $100 fee on top of the insult having paid for expedited shipping.  They said nothing in response to that.

After a week, I hadn't heard from Suraj.  I called their customer support number (1-844-825-5234) on January 18th.  At this point, I requested a refund for the device.  They stated that since I had started my support ticket with Suraj, that I would have to follow up with that email thread.  So, I did, immediately:

Suraj wrote back the next day telling me to have continued patience.

What would happen next??!?  You guessed it, the machine kept churning, no way of stopping it:

The update in their customer portal was even more bruising:

That brings us to today, January 20th, 2022. I called OnTrac to get a package update. They asked if I talked to the shipper. I said I had, and they hadn't given any expectation on delivery.  The surprisingly friendly agent stated that due to weather events, that they had a tremendous backlog of shipments.

I sent another email to the Google Fi support alias.  Suraj is out of the office.  Swathi is encouraging me to be patient.

Would you be patient?  I wasn't:

I don't blame Suraj and Swathi for the Google Fi team's lack of organization in handing lost shipments.  It seems that this scenario would be at the very core of business for an online cellular service provider, however.  

I expect and get better service from online retailers like Amazon.  It's very disappointing that Google/Alphabet doesn't have the same commitment to their Fi service.