A horrifying Google Fi experience and my take-aways

I want to share a step-by-step failed user experience that I had with Google Fi, and explain why I think there a multiple missed opportunity on Google Fi side that can its users experience tremendously better.

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.?

Side note: I also just purchased and activated a Google Pixel 7 Pro around that time frame inside the US.

Take-away No.1: if a service provider flags its customer for incorrect usage, it might want to have automatic follow-up process to verify if such accusation is accurate. I expect a company like Google to be smart enough and accurate enough in dealing with this. I was wrong.

Take-away No.2: don't suspend your user so light-heartedly and cold-heartedly if you were not 100% sure about your accusation, especially someone who has 7 lines with you and has been a loyal customer for more than 2 years. Just don't do it, especially without making suitable effort to outreach.

After landing in Brazil this Monday morning, I realized that I wasn't able to obtain data. I opened the Google Fi app and found the customer service number of Google and called. Call No.1 here.

Google support needs to send me a "push notification" over the air to authorize this support on my service, and as you can imagine, it requires me to have data to receive that push. I don't have it.?

Take-away No.3: always have a backup plan of any "single point of failure" process. For example, don't ask people to use data to authorize a service when they are calling to report that they don't have data access. A fallback "text" verification would be nice here.

After asking nearly a dozen people at the airport (since I don't speak Portuguese, and most of them don't speak English, it was quite challenging), I found a free Wi-Fi spot and got myself back online. That's where I spent the next 1.5h at.?

This time around, I called Google again, and was instructed to turn off-and-on the service, restart the phone and etc., with the promise that they will call me back in a bit to confirm whether this fixes the problem. They never call me back.

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.5: when designing a service-interrupting process, please please please do think about the real-life implications and have corresponding support resources and measures in place, to avoid absolute disastrous experience from the customers side.

I ended up using the free Wi-Fi to call myself a Uber, and set destination to my friend's place, while asked him to get me a pre-paid card with data with his CPF (Brazilian SSN equivalent), and wait for me by the street upon my arrival.

And guess what, 2 days later, on Wednesday morning, my Google Fi roaming suspension was lifted, and I can use it for international data again.

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?

I expect you to do better #Google but this has really let me down. I used to be a Product Manager at Google and this was not what I was trained to treat product and customer experience. What happened to you in the past 10 years?