This is one thing nice about Google Fi, Sim swap attacks aren't possible. Your phone number with Fi what is tied to your Google account, the only way to get a Fi phone number on a new phone is to sign into the Google account. So if you protect your account with good 2FA, your number is safer than any cell phone company (at least in the US).
> I’ve been fiercely evangelical about Project Fi since Google launched their cell phone service a few years ago. ... I think it’s important to update y’all about some recent experiences and research, along with why I am withdrawing my endorsement.
> ...
> Previously, whenever I had issues with my Pixel 2 or prior Fi-enabled devices, the third-party support center was phenomenal. I’ve had them help me with hardware issues, system issues, a phone that just wouldn’t connect to WiFi, or tethering that didn’t work when it was supposed to — every interaction was great, and resulted in the problem being solved.
> Since November, this has not been the case. My calls and chats to support have gone nowhere, and the once-great support staff have been replaced (or supplemented) by random people using generic scripts. I’m sure the awesome trouble-shooters are still there, but the sampling I’ve seen doesn’t suggest pervasive competency.
EDIT: Actually there is another, possibly more serious issue with Google Fi mentioned in the article:
> If you can’t use Google Payments, you can’t pay for Google Fi
> ...
> Getting this fixed is actually impossible, and I say that as someone who really, truly, loves solving problems and has made a living off getting phone agents to want to help me.
> We have submitted copies of his ID four times, my ID twice, multiple photos of credit cards, and various credit card statements. We’ve talked to agents and supervisors at Google Payments and Google Fi. No one is empowered to do anything, and even a well-intentioned agent doesn’t get the same answer from the "security department" twice.
> I’ve since found hundreds of comments and Reddit threads from people having similar experiences, with almost zero positive conclusions.
> The only suggestion of a solution we’ve been given is that he abandon both his email address and phone number of the past twenty years and start fresh.
The Fi team cares a long about these kinds of issues and does what they can to solve them. I cannot comment on specific cases, but as someone that works on Payments @ Google, I've seen the Fi team advocate for their users a lot to get things running smoothly. They deeply care about good experiences and do what they can to make sure that's the case.
Sadly, things sometimes go wrong, and it becomes a learning experience to make it better for users in the future.
Sadly, I've experienced the same steep drop in Google support of late (twice in the past week in fact) working with G Suite support agents.
Just yesterday, I was helping a client troubleshoot a week-long issue with Drive File Stream ("Can't reach Google Drive") that remains unresolved for three of their users. Despite repeated phone calls and a promised callback from a "Drive engineer", the issue persists. We've eliminated suspected culprits by testing on other computers and networks.
Tech support from large players like Google, Microsoft, and Rackspace, even when paid, has declined precipitously in recent years.
Transparency is hard for some reason at large companies. I think it's a mixture of wanting to maintain an image, plus complexity of systems that don't always make it easy to get information to end-users about issues.
For your Drive FS issue, I assume you're on Windows? I have no clue if this is backend or client, but watch for a new version: https://support.google.com/a/answer/7577057
Maybe that will fix your issues. I'm not sure how to check your Drive FS client version sadly.
> For your Drive FS issue, I assume you're on Windows? I have no clue if this is backend or client, but watch for a new version: https://support.google.com/a/answer/7577057 Maybe that will fix your issues.
Thank you. Yes, they're Windows clients. We've tried downloading the latest version (as of yesterday) on completely new Windows 7 and 10 machines on a completely separate network and still have the same issue for the same 3 users every time. The other users don't have any problem with File Stream. We've checked and rechecked all of the settings available to us via the G Suite Admin Dashboard.
Google is not a consumer company. If your account is banned you will loose access to your Fi service with little to no chance to recover it. Cases of google abuse are well documented and numerous, appeal process is non existing and overall relying on Fi is just creating another vulnerability vector.
This is one thing nice about Google Fi, Sim swap attacks aren't possible. Your phone number with Fi what is tied to your Google account, the only way to get a Fi phone number on a new phone is to sign into the Google account. So if you protect your account with good 2FA, your number is safer than any cell phone company (at least in the US).