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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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Note: If you activate on the last 3-4 days of each month, the Billing Cycle does NOT start 2 days later. Fi has some strange schedules for those days.
Note: If you activate on the last 3-4 days of each month, the Billing Cycle does NOT start 2 days later. Fi has some strange schedules for those days.
Can't rep you more than once in a short period of time.
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.
I sent you a Private Message.
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I need to immediately port my T-Mobile number to Fi when activating the phone, right? So before I even start the activation process, I need to call T-Mobile to get the transfer PINs before starting this process, right?
Ideally, I'd like to set up the phones, transfer/install all apps, then port the number a few days later. This would require activating a new phone number on Fi, which seems to violate the terms of the promotional credit, right?
Here are the two bullet points from the promotional terms...
It doesn't specifically call out that these two steps must be done within a specified time nor immediately upon activation. Just simply "within 30 days of shipment."
It doesn't specifically call out that these two steps must be done within a specified time nor immediately upon activation. Just simply "within 30 days of shipment."
The port-in will take place when you activate the Fi SIM. The reason for it to say "You have 30 days to port-in..." is that you have 30 days from ship date to activate the SIM (and port-in takes place at activation). But don't wait until the 30th day to activate the Fi SIM because if there's a problem with port-in and it takes a few days to straighten out then you'll blow your promotion discount.
You can set up the phone, installing apps, etc before activating the Fi SIM (by not running the Fi app until you're ready to activate).
The port-in will take place when you activate the Fi SIM. The reason for it to say "You have 30 days to port-in..." is that you have 30 days from ship date to activate the SIM (and port-in takes place at activation). But don't wait until the 30th day to activate the Fi SIM because if there's a problem with port-in and it takes a few days to straighten out then you'll blow your promotion discount.
You can set up the phone, installing apps, etc before activating the Fi SIM (by not running the Fi app until you're ready to activate).
When I bought the phones, it did give me the option to "get a new number" or "transfer". I chose the former during the process because it did say you can change the option later. When I log into my Google Fi account via browser, I do see the option to "Prepare for number transfer" as well as the text "Your number will only transfer when you choose to activate Google Fi on your phone. Until then, you'll still be able to use calling, texting, and data with your current provider." I suppose I need to do this for each family member's account on the website, or can I do it in the Google Fi app on each individual phone when activating?
So as long as I don't open the Google Fi app, I'm good to go with setting up the new phones and transferring everything from our old phones without risking accidental activation/porting, right?
So as long as I don't open the Google Fi app, I'm good to go with setting up the new phones and transferring everything from our old phones without risking accidental activation/porting, right?
I won't hold my breath.
1. I see it says offer valid once per group member, what does that mean?
2. Can I get 2 phones on one Google Fi account, or do I need 2 different Fi accounts?
3. Something I did not like from last year was that I had to sign into the phone with the Fi account that I used to sign up, rather than my wife's gmail account. Is that still the case, or can I just sign into the phone with my kid's gmail accounts?
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1. I see it says offer valid once per group member, what does that mean?
2. Can I get 2 phones on one Google Fi account, or do I need 2 different Fi accounts?
3. Something I did not like from last year was that I had to sign into the phone with the Fi account that I used to sign up, rather than my wife's gmail account. Is that still the case, or can I just sign into the phone with my kid's gmail accounts?
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3. On each phone, you will need to sign into the Fi app with the Fi account that ordered the phone to activate the phone. After the phone has been activated, you can uninstall the Fi app, then sign into the phone with whichever Google account that you want to use. The Fi app is needed to activate the phone, and to manage the Fi account, but you can manage the Fi account using the web site. I always uninstalled the Fi app after activating the phone.
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