I lifted my credit freeze with Experian through the weekend (which leaves me flapping in the wind security-wise but Google can’t be bothered to use the special “per vendor” PIN you can get), so maybe tomorrow there will be a different result. I created an account there (Experian) to correct the employer info but decided against it. Still it gave me a different phone number to try that might actually let me talk to a (gasp) human being and I can get some non-generic-bullshit answer.
BTW, fun fact, upon closer inspection they didn’t even have Freightliner spelled right. It reads Feightliner in my credit report. AWESOME.
At least I can get the 50 bucks off deal starting tomorrow if I don’t get it resolved.
I don’t suppose they have something similarly sweet as the 5a subscription deal with the 6 or 6 Pro, eh? (half of whose features would be lost on me anyway, I’m also not terribly demanding a cell phone user-- I still think it’s pretty miraculous to have a little internet-connected computer in one’s pocket, but then I’m 60, not 16, for which youngsters this is old hat).
Canuck
3435
Oh nice try! You’re not going to get me to bite. Well, I might have when it was $280 but they weren’t shipping it to Canada. Now it’s $299 plus $30 for shipping along with a message that Canadian buyers have to pay taxes and if we don’t agree, don’t buy. But they don’t actually charge the tax so I suspect what they mean is that we would have to pay the tariff, which would probably end up being more than taxes as we’d get screwed over by having to pay the customs broker’s fees as well.
Welp, Google’s fi store seems to have me blacklisted for some reason that I can’t fathom. I’ve confirmed the temporary freeze lift is in place, that my credit report looks fine, signed out of my account in Chrome, deleted all Google cookies, closed and re-opened the browser etc. but the damned store won’t let me get the deal.
Hell, even though the main Google Fi page says the Black Friday deals are live, I don’t even see the supposed 50 bucks off the price of the 5a with 5G.
It’s impossible to speak to a person at Experian, like, at all. I suppose I could see if I could “be a Karen” with the Google Fi CSR and ask to speak to a supervisor but it seems a whole of trouble to go through, and they’d probably tell me to fuck off.
Bringing this back to Android, version 12 in this case, is it just me, or does it conserve battery life better than 11 did? It does seem to on my 3a XL anyway.
lordkosc
3439
Yep the battery magics have somehow fixed my Pixel 3, and I get a full day of use out of it again. Sort of made me pause on getting a Pixel 5a5g or Pixel 6. As its working fine now.
morlac
3440
This just reinforces my decision to move to a Pixel from 8 years of Samsungs and their degrading performance.
Papageno
3441
Beware if you’re trying to take advantage of the “3 months of Google Fi on us” deal for new customers with purchase of a 5a with 5G and try to use two years of interest free financing instead of paying up front (this is distinct from the subscription deal, which still eludes me because of reasons only the Google Gods know):
I tried to take advantage of that just a bit ago (and especially lifted my credit freeze temporarily at all three bureaus to try this), but it turns out it takes 7 to 10 days to hear back. What?? Is this 1970 or something? I’m not going to leave my credit reports flapping in the wind for 10 days, that’s insane. I wanted to order the thing today, you know, before the heat death of the universe.
So I’m now waiting for customer support chat to let me know if my transaction is currently “in limbo” and will affect things if I try to start over and just pay up front for the darn phone.
EDIT: This is effing bananas. The CSR at some point basically says “this financing is with a credit card account with Sinchrony Bank” which I knew before the process, but then she also adds “approval takes 7-10 days” which is nowhere mentioned in the fine print ahead of time. Nor does the last window give you a chance to back out and say, naaah, cancel the credit check because that’s bullshit. GRRRRR. Instead you’re just left hanging. Google store doesn’t send you an order number that you can cancel, nothing. And since you’ve requested the damn credit card, there seems to be no way to cancel the credit check.
Welp I moved back to my Samsung Note10. The Titan Pocket was a fun experiment but in the end I just fell out of love with it. It was really sudden too. Like one moment I was fine with it, the next I was like, “Why am I doing this to myself?” It’s a shame really. It’s a very solid device, it just asks me to make too many concessions.
@BrianRubin I figured you might. You give up a lot to be able to have a physical keyboard.
In other news I ended up buying the 5a with 5G, paying up front. There was the $50 off Black Friday special plus three months of Fi thrown in at the top tier of service, so I figure I’m getting the phone at half price since I won’t have to pay for cell service those months (currently I’m paying 80 per month with T-Mo, for frankly more than I need). My brother says Fi isn’t too bad and I remember a colleague at work who swore by it. Now of course we’ll see how smoothly the number porting goes. Let’s hope it’s not a “fecal presentation.”
Really looking forward to waterproofing and double the storage. I was chafing at having only 64 GB.
Who knows what’s going to happen with that credit application from my previous post. It’s not like it let me finish ordering the phone anyway (plus by the time they get around to doing the credit check again, unless they do it before Monday, they’ll come up dry, thus no deal). That has no way of dinging my credit, right?
Canuck
3445
Lol. You posted literally just last week how much you loved it! It’s a phone for a different age I guess. Want to sell it to me and get some of your money back? I’ve always wanted to try one of these keyboard devices as I’ve never had one, but i suspect the lack of nostalgia would mean I’d bounce off it even faster than you.
Nah I’m gonna keep it if you don’t mind.
And yeah, the switch happened in my brain really suddenly.
morlac
3447
Slide out keyboard on my LG one from 10 years ago only one I’ve ever liked. Makes for a thicker phone.
God back in the day I wanted a Helio Ocean so badly because it had both a slide out keyboard AND keypad.
Fi is fine I was on it for just over 4 years, but MINT has won my wallet.
I had a Blackberry Q10. It was a company phone and it was handy for me to have a physical keyboard as the phone was primarily used for email and Blackberry messages. In my retirement, the Q10’s physical keyboard was no longer so useful, and made the screen much smaller. I switched to a Samsung S6. I miss having a physical keyboard but not enough to give up the screen real estate.
When I canceled my family’s fi service, my timing sucked and I ended up with $53 credit in my fi account. I can’t see any way to use that credit toward the 5a deal (I don’t see any way to buy a phone through my fi account). Am I missing something obvious, or is that $53 destined to just sit there until some day I reactivate fi service?
Anyone have experiences with Play Pass and if so, is it any good? Got an email from Google about getting three free months of that too with my phone purchase.
Per the description it’s sounds like a “games/apps pass” during a given period, for one to try a bunch of stuff out.
@gruntled As to your question, I don’t suppose they could just refund it to whatever card you were using to pay your ongoing bill with?
Yeah - after a while digging around the black hole that is fi support, it looks like after about 60 days they will get around to refunding my credit card. At least I didn’t need to call (yet).
