This post is NOT directed at people who took advantage yesterday’s travel gift card deal or who tried to do so. This post is directed at people who bought a phone from Google Fi earlier, e.g. on a Black Friday / Cyber Monday deal.
A few readers commented about the bad feeling when buying a Pixel from Google on Black Friday or Cyber Monday, only to see the incredible travel gift card promotion which Google Fi put out yesterday, and seeing as they lost by buying the Black Friday deal.
- [Today Only] Google Fi: Get a Full Gift Card Rebate on Phone Purchase (up to $999), or get a $200 Fi Credit for Signing up with your Own Phone
- Google Fi Scrambles to Change Offer Terms on Free $999 Phone Deal
Reader Austin tells us that Google Fi chat was willing to ‘match’ yesterday’s deal with a Google Fi credit.
If you bought a Fi phone on Black Friday/Cyber Monday, Fi is doing a “price protection” fix to basically match this promo. It’s actually slightly better than the (now expired) GC promo as it’s bill credit instead of gift cards. I was able to do this today, 11/29, after finally getting through to support on chat. YMMV of course.
I had bought the Pixel 3 for $599 w/ $200 bill credit. They (supposedly) manually added a $399 bill credit to my account, making the net cost $0 (~$50 of tax). Bill credits are more valuable to me than gift cards, so I’m pretty happy with this! Assuming it all actually works, of course.
And reader Gurav was able to get the same match as well. It might be rep dependent, not sure that there’s a real official policy of price protection, but certainly can’t hurt to reach out and ask for a Fi credit as a match. The reps probably have a lot of leeway in giving out Fi credit, and may be able to do that match for you.
It’s never too late, join google fi with a referal, you can still get $20 credits and 10 free data-only sim cards, this is the referal: [removed. Follow the rules]
Google Fi customer service is an absolute disaster. After hours and hours of waiting, and multiple attempts over the course of three days to even get through, I finally reached someone, and after nearly an hour of amateurish “assistance”, they said they would have to have a manager call me back. Google Fi makes Comcast’s customer service look like Amazon. Without a promotion of significant value, no one should deal with Google Fi.
seems its not a YMMV
https://support.google.com/fi/thread/658451?hl=en
Seems like Google is giving credits automatically … here’s their most recent blog post:
Price Protection for Black Friday Promotion 9 Replies
Hi everyone,
For those of you that purchased a device as a part of our Black Friday promotion (on fi.google.com: November 23rd – November 27th; or on store.google.com: November 22rd – November 27th) and attempted to contact us on November 28th to receive price protection– this will be honored (even if you weren’t able to speak with Fi support directly), so long as you satisfy the terms of the Travel on Fi promotion. Therefore, you do not need to contact us to receive price protection. We will be sending out an email to all applicable customers (with the full terms) within the next week confirming this.
https://support.google.com/fi/thread/658451?hl=en
Just chatted, rep said I am eligible for the Travel with Fi promo as part of price protection because I ordered between 11/24 and 11/28. Said I will get gift card after fulfilling terms. I’m not waiting months to find out that’s a load of BS so I pushed for Fi credits (and because credits are better), like my “friend” has gotten. He said he’ll get back to me via email.
His email now says “I have mentioned your case with the higher team about the credits that you were mentioning. The higher team would review the case and issue the credits accordingly to your Fi account.”
We shall see…
Just got off the phone with Fi support, after waiting 30+ minutes. Fi only doing ‘price protection’ for people who called/chatted/contacted them on the day of the travel credit promo. For those who got through to them on that day, congrats! For me and other, just be thankful we got a good deal on the phone anyways and understand this is just the ‘nature of the game.’
I emailed them the day of the deal in order to be matched, since I bought mine on BF. Still no response.
Same here
Sucks to be SL twice in a row (or thrice). Bought the Pixel 3 on BF, was too busy on the day of the gift card deal and by the time i thought to see how i could take advantage it was shut down, tried to contact chat yday night but it was a shitshow – started out being number 100 around 9pm ET, was number 20 at about 12.45am!!!! I couldnt hold on any longer and had to go to bed (this ruined by morning, woke up at 8am, just getting to work at 10am – fortunately work is flexible today).
Now i read that they may not price match/protect anymore. Oh well. Thats the game
Spoke to a nice CSR after a 1-hour wait on hold. I meet the first requirement by buying a Pixel 3 XL 128G within the Black Friday / Cyber Monday timeframe, but my email to Google to inquire about promotion price protection was not on by November 28th by 11:59 PM PST. My email was at 1:09 AM PST on November 29 so I am out of luck.
I let her know I was disappointed and asked for an RMA for the Pixel 3 XL to see if she suddenly changed her tune, but she just started to tell me the procedure and asked if she should begin. I told her I would sleep on it, but the reality is I will keep the phone as my Pixel XL is on life support.
Being a night owl has its cost – early bird gets the worm. In this case, the worm was an additional $600 Google Fi statement credit on top of the $200 credit I got from the original promotion.
if you want to have a family plan on google fi does each additional user cost another 20 dollars for unlimited talk and text adn 10/gb all in the same account? i want to get my kids dumb phones under google fis plan NOT smartphones would it be able to be activated with google fi?
Additional lines are $15 for talk and text.
What kind of phone are you looking at adding to Fi for just talk/text? I’d like to get my mother on my plan, but a smart phone would confuse her too much. She still has a flip phone!