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====== Info on Activating the Fi Phone, Tracking your Promo Discount, Completing the Promo and Pause/Cancel Fi Service after 120 days ====== added on 12/11/23 by hpham_53
* Activating the Fi S23 phone
When you get the phone:
1. The SIM is already installed in the phone, although the phone box is sealed.
2. Turn on the phone, connect it to WiFi and log into the same Google account that was used to purchase the phone.
3. Download and install the Fi app from Google Play Store.
4. Leave WiFi ON. Run the Fi app. It will insist that you turn Data ON. Go ahead and turn Data ON. It might use a few MB of Data before switching to WiFi. If FI charges you for that Data at all, it will be 1-3 cents added to the 2nd bill.
5. Go through the activation process with the app which will port in your number to Fi.
6. Your phone should be working on Fi then.
* Tracking Your Promo Discount
Log into your Fi account on the web site. There's a countdown in your Billing-->Fi Savings-->In Progress that shows how many more days your Fi service has to remain active. About 24 hrs after you activated the Fi SIM, the In Progress Tracker should show a checklist with entries like: Bought a phone, Got a discount, Activated the SIM, Stay xxx more days on Fi. Make sure the "Activate the SIM" entry is checkmarked and it shows 120 days to go. Then for a few days after that, keep checking the In Progress to make sure the countdown is decreasing each day. The countdown is updated at the same time each day (around the time of day that you activated the Fi SIM).
* How to Verify that your S23 promo was Earned
There's a countdown in your Billing-->Fi Savings-->In Progress that shows how many more days your Fi service has to remain active. The countdown will never say zero day. On the 120th day, it will stay at "1 more day". On the morning of the 121st day, the countdown should say "Stayed (past tense) active on Fi for 120 days in a row". Then later in the day, the In Progress column disappears, and the promo discount gets moved to the Earned column. At that time or later, it's safe to Cancel or Pause your Fi service.
You can use this Date Calculator: https://www.timeanddate
Enter your activation date as the Start Date, select Add 121 days and it'll show the date when it's safe to cancel/pause your Fi service.
* How to Cancel your Fi service
In your Fi account, click on Account-->Your Plan, scroll down until you see "Leave Google Fi". Click on that and follow the on-screen instructions. You'll have the options to Let Go your Fi phone number, or Transfer To Another Provider. (There used to be an option to port it back to Google Voice, but I think it's no longer available). If you choose to let go your Fi number, your Fi service will be cancelled IMMEDIATELY. If you choose to port out, your Fi service will remain active until your Fi number has been ported out to another provider.
* How to Pause your Fi service
In your Fi account, click on Account-->Your Plan, scroll down until you see "Pause Service". Click on that and follow the on-screen instructions. Your Fi service will be paused and Automatically Resumed after 90 days, unless you cancel it before 90 days are up. Once it's Resumed, you can leave it Active, or Cancel it, or Pause again (I don't know how many times you can Pause). If you have a lot of remaining referral Fi credit (which is not refundable), you can choose Pause instead of Cancel to wait and see if there will be new Fi promotions in the future to use up your Fi credit.
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I don't want to get into that big argument again, just wanted to point out the info for whoever that wanted to know the answer.
At the beginning of the Wiki in that thread, I posted info on how to check on the status of your promo, when to cancel your Fi service and how to do it.
https://slickdeals.net/f/16418272-google-fi-512gb-samsung-galaxy-s23-ultra-smartphone-pre-order-600-...
I don't want to get into that big argument again, just wanted to point out the info for whoever that wanted to know the answer.
At the beginning of the Wiki in that thread, I posted info on how to check on the status of your promo, when to cancel your Fi service and how to do it.
"The phone comes unlocked and can be used with any compatible providers on Day 1. HOWEVER, there's a requirement that you have to keep its Fi line active for 120 days. So, you can activate the phone with Fi then remove the Fi SIM and stash it away (do NOT use that Fi SIM in another phone) and use the phone with a physical SIM of another provider. You can also keep using the physical Fi SIM in the phone and use its eSIM with another provider."
I'd like to do this, but porting a Google Voice number sounds too risky. I'm wondering if I could just buy a cheap Tracfone instead? Also, what do you mean that "you can keep using the physical Fi SIM..." if it's being removed and stored? Are you talking about after the 120 days? I appreciate your help.
"Remain active and in good standing on the qualifying device for 120 consecutive days. Pausing, changing, or suspending the account will void the promotion."
what is the cheapest monthly service?
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Years ago - about a year into using fi w/a la carte data, I downloaded google's podcast app, subscribed to a buch of podcasts, and "downloaded" the episodes while on wifi figuring the app would I don't know, play back the local version of the files regardless of the network status. A month later, the bill was double because apparently the app just streams episode files when possible, regardless of the local file being present, and I unwittingly chewed through A LOT of data. I put on my most aggrieved Karen suit and jumped into a chat with the Fi customer service, wrote a couple of sentences about what happened with a screenshot of the app's data usage and less than a minute later I was out of chat with an apology and a credit for the app's data on my next bill. Their customer service is fine. But anything that relies on these universal accounts are going to be risky.
* If you're a new customer, or a previous Fi user but don't have an ACTIVE Fi number, you'll have to port-in a number.
* If you have an ACTIVE Fi number, and that phone is not under another promotion , then you can buy the S23 with discount and at activation your current Fi number will be transferred to the S23.
If you can find info on a Fi site/page that says the Fi SIM has to stay in the Fi phone for the entire 120 days, please post it.
To clarify my previous answer...After activating the physical Fi SIM , you have several options:
1. Keep the Fi SIM in place, and use the eSIM with another provider.
2. Remove the Fi SIM and store it away, then use the physical SIM of another provider.
3. Ask Fi support to transfer service from the physical Fi SIM to the S23's eSIM, then use the physical SIM of another provider.
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