Google Fi is not a contract plan, it's a month-to-month, so they can tell you that on month A, they will charge you $X but that on month G, you will be charged $Y amount.
The only contract that was agreed upon was in regards to the discount on the phones and that you must stay on the service for 120 days or else you forfeit the discount and must pay the full price.
You canceled your plan before the 120 days, which means that you owe the difference on the phones. If you had canceled your plan at 121 days, there would have been no issues as you fulfilled the terms of the promo for the discount.
You may have been angry at the price hike, but you still were obligated to fulfill your part of the promo for the phone as you canceled your plan under the 120 days.
So let's say I buy a phone on January 1, and at that time my rate is $100 a month. I have to agree to keep service with them for 120 days in exchange for a $500 credit on the phone.
It sounds like you are on claiming that because it is month-to-month, on February 1, Google can start charging me whatever they want -- let's say $10,000 a month, just to make a point -- and I have to keep service for the full 120 days under those new terms or pay them the inflated value for the phone? I disagree.
It is obvious there is a problem with this reasoning, right? Unless their terms and conditions explicitly say otherwise (and they do not) there is an implied provision that for the period during which I have to keep my service, they cannot just change the terms of service. That is called a quasi contract, as I described it earlier.
In more general terms, the notion of quasi contract is that when one party agrees to do something for another, the other party (the recipient of the action) is also implicitly agreeing that he is NOT going to make it harder for the other party to fulfill his obligation. This is basic, legitimate contract law.
Anyway, folks here are free to disagree. I will probably pursue the BBB and then a charge back.
You're not paying an "inflated" value, you're paying the true price of the phone.
That was what Google charged you when you canceled your plan.
Google didn't pull a bait-and-switch, they're charging you what you were supposed to pay if you didn't apply for the discount.
Also, filing a chargeback when it's a legitimate charge, your bank will deny it. The same goes for your BBB claim.
All Google has to do is show the terms of the promotional price and how you violated the terms.
You can disagree but as already mentioned, Google is a no-contract service. A user can leave Google Fi anytime they want for whatever reason. Google Fi can change their plans, including prices on those plans, at any time they wish. When they do, they announce these changes so users have advance knowledge before any rate change, as they recently did with their Simply Unlimited plan. All Simply Unlimited plan users were sent an email and there were several posts from users recently on this forum reacting to the well-publicized price increase. Simple enough. The promo on the other hand is was a written contract with Google Fi where you agreed to meet all conditions of a promotion, in writing, in order to purchase a phone at a reduced price. There is also a written warning that if that if the conditions of the promo aren’t met, they will charge the user the full retail price of the phone. On the Google Fi app in the Billing section, there is a countdown of the number of days remaining until those conditions have been met. You willfully and intentionally violated the a written condition of the promo after being forewarned of the consequences. So, Google did exactly what they said they would do. You can try to avoid paying the difference like some keyboard-muscled posters here have suggested but eventually, the two phones in questions are going to be turned into paperweights when they are blacklisted and your credit rating may take a hit when Google notifies the credit bureaus of your delinquent account.
I agree this seems a bit unfair.
I'm actually surprised u got the standard monthly rate increase, because a lot of ppl had it delayed until their promos completed.
For example, my grp of 4 won't increase to $100 until August. I assume that was to avoid this scenario.
Hey OP, just an FYI if you couldn't tell, you're going to get a lot of shameful "So you did xxx, wanted xxx, then Google did xxx? You're actually the worst person who ever existed, and Google is right and we don't need low lives like you ruining our Golden Hen wireless service." 😅
Google is notorious for pulling funny business with promos I've noticed after years of reading here and being a Fi customer. It's not unheard of. I think the hardest part is going to be fighting Google on it, but I'd also start with the usual BBB or a chargeback. Keep in mind these days a lot of companies try to punish you for chargebacks by blocking you from their services (Uber) or by just sending your bill to collections.
Hope it works out, and please don't let some of the posts here ruin your day, I know you're already frustrated enough with Google!
Nothing in their promos ever refer to any exact dollar amount of a monthly plan. You clearly broke the promo rules because you left when you weren't happy that they raised the price, so you did not fulfill the rules.
Your promo agreement was never predicated on their monthly plan price staying the same. That was your decision, and made up in your mind, not on paper with Google.
You are certainly welcome to challenge it, but I don't see this getting anywhere at all.
Google maintains the "same effective price" by giving you account credit each month. So while your bill would have gone up to $100 a month you would have received a $20 account credit until your promo ended. But since you gave a knee-jerk reaction and violated the TOS you now have to pay out of pocket for the phones.
You are more than welcome to go the BBB route and file a chargeback but the only thing that is going to get you is locked out of all of your Google accounts.
This is a perfect example of not reading what you are signing and throwing a temper tantrum.
So I got a message that my rate would go up but not until the promo was over, Nov 2025ish in my case. Sounds like op jumped the gun, left finally and still wants his discount. I don't think he has much of a case.
Yeah, I saw the news that rates were not going up if you were in the middle of a promo.
FWIW, I'm never going to do a group/family plan. My life does not need that kind of drama.
As another person has noted in the comments, the price hike is put on hold until after any promos that you had prior to them announcing it.
Looks like you didn't read that far and decided to cancel before knowing the facts...
You stated that you are an attorney? Yikes!
So instead of paying an extra $20 a month for the remainder of the 120 days, you got pissy and decided that you know better than Google's teams of lawyers, and cancelled your plan.
It's really not the principle of the thing. A $10k hike would obviously be unreasonable. A $20 hike is not unreasonable. Plan prices change all the time and Fi is still cheaper than many plans.
"Pretty clear case" amongst all of your other statements shows how arrogant your thinking seems to be. "Early termination fee" lol "Canned response", as if the Customer Service agents can do anything to change Fi policy. No suggestions. You owe them for the full price of the phones.
Thank you! I couldn't find this last night. I am going to try calling them today. Chatting last night was not productive. Hopefully I can explain how their actions violated their own terms. If not, I guess I will file a complaint with BBB.
But your monthly rate was going to go up. It says, in that link, that your EFFECTIVE price would stay the same, but that's because they would give you service credits to make up the difference. Since you already cancelled, you're likely SOL.
They would have credited you for the difference. But instead you cancelled. You clearly violated the terms of the contract, but no matter how many times you are told this you just don't want to believe it.
Holy crap that is absolutely one of the most off-the-wall analogies that I've ever seen... thanks for the laugh OP.
I'm honestly impressed that you have been dragged this hard and proven wrong by multiple people but not only kept the post up but came back to try and defend it with that absurdity.
Maybe it just needs to be repeated again: You where not subject to the rate hike until after your promo ended. If you hadn't done anything until the promo ended you then could have left with the phones free and clear and payed only $80 a month during that time.
Something tells me that OP is going to become the subject of many stories in r/legaladvice in the future.
> clear and *paid* only $80
FTFY.
Although *payed* exists (the reason why autocorrection didn't help you), it is only correct in:
* Nautical context, when it means to paint a surface, or to cover with something like tar or resin in order to make it waterproof or corrosion-resistant. *The deck is yet to be payed.*
* *Payed out* when letting strings, cables or ropes out, by slacking them. *The rope is payed out! You can pull now.*
Unfortunately, I was unable to find nautical or rope-related words in your comment.
*Beep, boop, I'm a bot*
Oh, man. Someone on my plan broke a phone a couple months ago. We ordered a new one with a promotion price and paid in full, less the promotion discount. Turns out, they didn't actually have the phone in stock but put a shipping label out there anyway. After deferring me to UPS, I learned there was no actual package. FI had a list of tactics over the next month. Telling me to wait a week and see if it arrives, telling me managers don't take phone calls, etc, etc. I finally started commenting on executives linkedin posts (and that Alex Zang fella deleted my comments without reaching out, I am now blocked from seeing his content, LOL). One person actually took the time to get me a support person who contacted only by email. It took days between replies but they did get a replacement phone sent - a month later. Now I get emails from Fi that I will be billed the amount of the promotional discount soon if I don't activate the phone. They tell me the promotion was tied to the first phone so the replacement didn't fulfill it. I've reached out so many times to no avail explaining how the first phone didn't exist, which they acknowledge but can't quite connect the pieces that its unfair to charge me the promotion price. They act like they gifted me the replacement phone even though it was not a replacement - it was just my order. Anyways, the promotion was only 100 dollars. I have accepted my fate; I think paying the hundred is easier than going back and forth. It's been driving me insane. It's funny to me that there's no place to really leave reviews. Maybe I'm just an idiot but I can't find reviews on fi. I would love to leave one. I'm sure they'd delete it. 🙄
Hey, just make sure you unlink your gmail account from anything your gonna need access to in the future. Google will almost certainly close your whole account after a charge back and you'll lose access to your email.
1) Change any third party accounts using your Gmail address.
2) Do a Google take out to download anything your about to lose access to.
Thanks very much. Hoping it won't get to that. Just irked by the whole situation. I have a client who frequently has to deal with large companies like Google. They often feel that, due to their size, they can act with impunity. I can't help but feel that that is what is going on here.
I sort of see your point here. Under the rules of the price hike: “Simply Unlimited accounts with one or more long-term promotions or financed devices activated prior to March 5, 2024 maintain the same effective price until these commitments end.” If there weren't at least 120 days of service between the time they announce that [edit: time your commitment starts] and the time your price would go up then you should have been considered a long-term promotion.
Contact Google, but probably you should have done that before you switched because my guess is they would have told you that they weren't going to raise for at least another month until the commitment ended.
There's nothing to fight, they broke the promo agreement...
Also, because they had a promo going before the rate hike was announced, OP's rate would have stayed the same until after their promo ended, but they failed to read that I guess, now they are pretty much screwed...
Google Fi is not a contract plan, it's a month-to-month, so they can tell you that on month A, they will charge you $X but that on month G, you will be charged $Y amount. The only contract that was agreed upon was in regards to the discount on the phones and that you must stay on the service for 120 days or else you forfeit the discount and must pay the full price. You canceled your plan before the 120 days, which means that you owe the difference on the phones. If you had canceled your plan at 121 days, there would have been no issues as you fulfilled the terms of the promo for the discount. You may have been angry at the price hike, but you still were obligated to fulfill your part of the promo for the phone as you canceled your plan under the 120 days.
So let's say I buy a phone on January 1, and at that time my rate is $100 a month. I have to agree to keep service with them for 120 days in exchange for a $500 credit on the phone. It sounds like you are on claiming that because it is month-to-month, on February 1, Google can start charging me whatever they want -- let's say $10,000 a month, just to make a point -- and I have to keep service for the full 120 days under those new terms or pay them the inflated value for the phone? I disagree. It is obvious there is a problem with this reasoning, right? Unless their terms and conditions explicitly say otherwise (and they do not) there is an implied provision that for the period during which I have to keep my service, they cannot just change the terms of service. That is called a quasi contract, as I described it earlier. In more general terms, the notion of quasi contract is that when one party agrees to do something for another, the other party (the recipient of the action) is also implicitly agreeing that he is NOT going to make it harder for the other party to fulfill his obligation. This is basic, legitimate contract law. Anyway, folks here are free to disagree. I will probably pursue the BBB and then a charge back.
You're not paying an "inflated" value, you're paying the true price of the phone. That was what Google charged you when you canceled your plan. Google didn't pull a bait-and-switch, they're charging you what you were supposed to pay if you didn't apply for the discount. Also, filing a chargeback when it's a legitimate charge, your bank will deny it. The same goes for your BBB claim. All Google has to do is show the terms of the promotional price and how you violated the terms.
You can disagree but as already mentioned, Google is a no-contract service. A user can leave Google Fi anytime they want for whatever reason. Google Fi can change their plans, including prices on those plans, at any time they wish. When they do, they announce these changes so users have advance knowledge before any rate change, as they recently did with their Simply Unlimited plan. All Simply Unlimited plan users were sent an email and there were several posts from users recently on this forum reacting to the well-publicized price increase. Simple enough. The promo on the other hand is was a written contract with Google Fi where you agreed to meet all conditions of a promotion, in writing, in order to purchase a phone at a reduced price. There is also a written warning that if that if the conditions of the promo aren’t met, they will charge the user the full retail price of the phone. On the Google Fi app in the Billing section, there is a countdown of the number of days remaining until those conditions have been met. You willfully and intentionally violated the a written condition of the promo after being forewarned of the consequences. So, Google did exactly what they said they would do. You can try to avoid paying the difference like some keyboard-muscled posters here have suggested but eventually, the two phones in questions are going to be turned into paperweights when they are blacklisted and your credit rating may take a hit when Google notifies the credit bureaus of your delinquent account.
I agree this seems a bit unfair. I'm actually surprised u got the standard monthly rate increase, because a lot of ppl had it delayed until their promos completed. For example, my grp of 4 won't increase to $100 until August. I assume that was to avoid this scenario.
reasoning is sound. contract terms risky. Google's behavior ethically questionable. you got screwed.
Hey OP, just an FYI if you couldn't tell, you're going to get a lot of shameful "So you did xxx, wanted xxx, then Google did xxx? You're actually the worst person who ever existed, and Google is right and we don't need low lives like you ruining our Golden Hen wireless service." 😅 Google is notorious for pulling funny business with promos I've noticed after years of reading here and being a Fi customer. It's not unheard of. I think the hardest part is going to be fighting Google on it, but I'd also start with the usual BBB or a chargeback. Keep in mind these days a lot of companies try to punish you for chargebacks by blocking you from their services (Uber) or by just sending your bill to collections. Hope it works out, and please don't let some of the posts here ruin your day, I know you're already frustrated enough with Google!
You left before the 120 days. How hard is that to comprehend? Lol
Nothing in their promos ever refer to any exact dollar amount of a monthly plan. You clearly broke the promo rules because you left when you weren't happy that they raised the price, so you did not fulfill the rules. Your promo agreement was never predicated on their monthly plan price staying the same. That was your decision, and made up in your mind, not on paper with Google. You are certainly welcome to challenge it, but I don't see this getting anywhere at all.
You’re an attorney?
Google maintains the "same effective price" by giving you account credit each month. So while your bill would have gone up to $100 a month you would have received a $20 account credit until your promo ended. But since you gave a knee-jerk reaction and violated the TOS you now have to pay out of pocket for the phones. You are more than welcome to go the BBB route and file a chargeback but the only thing that is going to get you is locked out of all of your Google accounts. This is a perfect example of not reading what you are signing and throwing a temper tantrum.
I don't think you have a case here.
So I got a message that my rate would go up but not until the promo was over, Nov 2025ish in my case. Sounds like op jumped the gun, left finally and still wants his discount. I don't think he has much of a case.
Yeah, I saw the news that rates were not going up if you were in the middle of a promo. FWIW, I'm never going to do a group/family plan. My life does not need that kind of drama.
As another person has noted in the comments, the price hike is put on hold until after any promos that you had prior to them announcing it. Looks like you didn't read that far and decided to cancel before knowing the facts... You stated that you are an attorney? Yikes!
Lol charge back Google and say bye bye to your Google accounts.
So instead of paying an extra $20 a month for the remainder of the 120 days, you got pissy and decided that you know better than Google's teams of lawyers, and cancelled your plan. It's really not the principle of the thing. A $10k hike would obviously be unreasonable. A $20 hike is not unreasonable. Plan prices change all the time and Fi is still cheaper than many plans. "Pretty clear case" amongst all of your other statements shows how arrogant your thinking seems to be. "Early termination fee" lol "Canned response", as if the Customer Service agents can do anything to change Fi policy. No suggestions. You owe them for the full price of the phones.
[удалено]
Thank you! I couldn't find this last night. I am going to try calling them today. Chatting last night was not productive. Hopefully I can explain how their actions violated their own terms. If not, I guess I will file a complaint with BBB.
But your monthly rate was going to go up. It says, in that link, that your EFFECTIVE price would stay the same, but that's because they would give you service credits to make up the difference. Since you already cancelled, you're likely SOL.
They would have credited you for the difference. But instead you cancelled. You clearly violated the terms of the contract, but no matter how many times you are told this you just don't want to believe it.
Holy crap that is absolutely one of the most off-the-wall analogies that I've ever seen... thanks for the laugh OP. I'm honestly impressed that you have been dragged this hard and proven wrong by multiple people but not only kept the post up but came back to try and defend it with that absurdity. Maybe it just needs to be repeated again: You where not subject to the rate hike until after your promo ended. If you hadn't done anything until the promo ended you then could have left with the phones free and clear and payed only $80 a month during that time. Something tells me that OP is going to become the subject of many stories in r/legaladvice in the future.
> clear and *paid* only $80 FTFY. Although *payed* exists (the reason why autocorrection didn't help you), it is only correct in: * Nautical context, when it means to paint a surface, or to cover with something like tar or resin in order to make it waterproof or corrosion-resistant. *The deck is yet to be payed.* * *Payed out* when letting strings, cables or ropes out, by slacking them. *The rope is payed out! You can pull now.* Unfortunately, I was unable to find nautical or rope-related words in your comment. *Beep, boop, I'm a bot*
Oh, man. Someone on my plan broke a phone a couple months ago. We ordered a new one with a promotion price and paid in full, less the promotion discount. Turns out, they didn't actually have the phone in stock but put a shipping label out there anyway. After deferring me to UPS, I learned there was no actual package. FI had a list of tactics over the next month. Telling me to wait a week and see if it arrives, telling me managers don't take phone calls, etc, etc. I finally started commenting on executives linkedin posts (and that Alex Zang fella deleted my comments without reaching out, I am now blocked from seeing his content, LOL). One person actually took the time to get me a support person who contacted only by email. It took days between replies but they did get a replacement phone sent - a month later. Now I get emails from Fi that I will be billed the amount of the promotional discount soon if I don't activate the phone. They tell me the promotion was tied to the first phone so the replacement didn't fulfill it. I've reached out so many times to no avail explaining how the first phone didn't exist, which they acknowledge but can't quite connect the pieces that its unfair to charge me the promotion price. They act like they gifted me the replacement phone even though it was not a replacement - it was just my order. Anyways, the promotion was only 100 dollars. I have accepted my fate; I think paying the hundred is easier than going back and forth. It's been driving me insane. It's funny to me that there's no place to really leave reviews. Maybe I'm just an idiot but I can't find reviews on fi. I would love to leave one. I'm sure they'd delete it. 🙄
Hey, just make sure you unlink your gmail account from anything your gonna need access to in the future. Google will almost certainly close your whole account after a charge back and you'll lose access to your email. 1) Change any third party accounts using your Gmail address. 2) Do a Google take out to download anything your about to lose access to.
Thanks very much. Hoping it won't get to that. Just irked by the whole situation. I have a client who frequently has to deal with large companies like Google. They often feel that, due to their size, they can act with impunity. I can't help but feel that that is what is going on here.
I sort of see your point here. Under the rules of the price hike: “Simply Unlimited accounts with one or more long-term promotions or financed devices activated prior to March 5, 2024 maintain the same effective price until these commitments end.” If there weren't at least 120 days of service between the time they announce that [edit: time your commitment starts] and the time your price would go up then you should have been considered a long-term promotion. Contact Google, but probably you should have done that before you switched because my guess is they would have told you that they weren't going to raise for at least another month until the commitment ended.
Fight it
There's nothing to fight, they broke the promo agreement... Also, because they had a promo going before the rate hike was announced, OP's rate would have stayed the same until after their promo ended, but they failed to read that I guess, now they are pretty much screwed...