Fuck You, Google Fi
Take your time machine way back to 2018, when we were already preparing for our original 20/20 trip. Some friends of ours who traveled internationally fairly often for races had suggested this new cell phone service from Google. They said it was less expensive, worked pretty well, and the best part was that it worked the same in almost every country as if you were still at home.
By this point I was already falling out of love with Apple and iPhones. And nobody has really ever loved AT&T, amiright? So I figured we should give it a shot and see how it worked before we went around the world.
We did just that, and it did work great. Not that it was perfect service at all times, but especially in Colorado, we haven't found any cell phone company that can always handle the ups and downs of mountain living. It was at least as good as AT&T had been, and we knew from friends that the other cell phone companies were usually much worse.
I have loved almost all the Google products for years, with the calendar being one exception as it relates to travel. (Seriously, can anyone make a reasonable argument why I would need to know what time it is in Colorado for an appointment I'm at in New York? I will never understand why that is the default.)
Along with cell phone service, for pretty much 100% of what I needed relating to internet and phones, I was using Google products. For the most part I was happy with this and usually still am, but the number one reason I switched to Google Fi was for the international usage. I sang its praises and had quite a few friends switch over on my recommendation.
When COVID shut everything down and it became apparent that we weren't going anywhere, I went ahead and stuck with Google Fi to wait it all out. In that time we added a line for Sagan and also kept recommending the service to friends and strangers if international travel came up in conversation.
As time went on and I was able to start replanning our trip, I factored Google Fi into our travels every step of the way. We chose countries based on coverage, which is pretty easy because they cover over 200 countries. We increased our phone bill to include unlimited data, knowing that there would be stretches where we would need to use our phones and tethering as our primary internet on the road. Google continued to remind us that they had our back and that we wouldn't be charged extra for international data. They advertise it all over their website and encourage people to get out there and explore.
About a week before we left, our friend who has been a digital nomad with his family for years, gave us some scary news. He said that he knew of a lot of Google Fi users who were starting to get their services cut off when they were traveling overseas. This guy definitely knows his stuff, so we never questioned him, but it was a total shock to us.
We quickly googled (haha) to see what he was referring to. We did find lots of mentions from nomadic families about this being a problem. It seemed to be a relatively new problem but one that was increasing rapidly.
Mike even called in to speak with a human about it. At that point we were too close to our departure date to change phone companies, but he was trying to find out what the actual rules are. Most importantly, he was trying to see what we could do to prevent being cut off and/or when we should expect problems.
The call was not helpful at all. He was told that, yes, you might get cut off at some point but no, there's no way to know when or why it would happen. Fan-fucking-tastic.
Still, we'd only read about it happening to Fi users after 4-6 months or so. And the idea behind it is that they don't want people signing up in the U.S. and then living overseas long-term. I can understand that, at least.
It's not that we thought that we were totally in the clear, but surely they'd see that we're not living anywhere. Less than three weeks in any one spot is hardly a permanent move. And we hoped that we'd not have to think about it for at least 3-4 months.
But no.
Not even two months in, we got the dreaded message telling us we'd be cut off in 30 days.
Not two billing cycles in after FIFTY billing cycles in a row of us paying in full, on time. They say that we're using our phones “predominantly” outside of the U.S. Google, do you want to explain to me how less than 4% of our time as loyal customers is “predominantly” anything?
I went immediately to their customer service chat, where they have carefully trained their employees to shrug their shoulders and give you a sympathetic-looking face while they say, “Sorry, there's simply nothing we can do. It's the algorithms. We humans have no control.”
Well, fuck that. Humans program this shit. Somebody created those algorithms, and they can damn well un-create them. Using the “whoopsie, we've got robot overlords now” excuse is pathetic and evil. So much for your “don't be evil” campaign.
My family is like a walking advertisement for what good Google can do in this world to bring people together. We use their maps and translators and flight trackers and EVERYTHING to share this big world with our kids. When we're in a museum, and one of the kids asks about a painting, we Google it to turn it into a teachable moment. My homeschool curriculum is on my Google Drive account. We are living the life that Google tells us it wants us to live.
But now we've got just a few weeks left to figure out what we'll do for the second half of our trip. Google says they'll “let” us continue to be customers when we get back, as long as we keep them in the meantime. If not, then too bad for us.
Now, if we keep them, that means we can't get another service in the meantime, right? And they don't offer any option that just costs more for us to stick with Fi internationally. And I doubt any of the other providers are going to let us sign up from overseas either. We can still use wifi, but we've discovered that at least most of Europe has spotty, slow wifi at best.
Basically, Fi has fucked us between a rock and a hard place. Two analogies in one, it's so frustrating.
I could write even more details about how and why I think this is incredibly unfair, but my reality right now is that I'm typing this on my cell phone while I still have a signal. (Hell yes, I'm gonna use my “unlimited” data while I can. Gonna stream porn all night while I sleep, just for the hell of it.) But for now, I just urge you to share this info with friends who are using Fi, thinking of signing up, and especially for anyone who dares to travel the world. I'd direct you/them to the Fi terms of service, but they're so vague you won't have any more clear info after reading them anyway. Just know that Google's upbeat messages of “we've got you covered!” are great until they're not, and that moment of “not” will come quickly and are 100% unchangeable.
If anyone has suggestions for alternatives, both for our travel and after we're home, let me know. I'm pissed that I'm stuck giving them one more penny for now.
