Background: A while back I bought a Google Pixel and opened a Google Fi line. Google Fi had a promotion where buying a Pixel + opening a Google Fi line would get you close to $1000 in credit. But after I bought it, the credit never arrived, so I contacted Google customer service. After going back and forth for several hours, we finally discovered that they had recorded the pickup contact email on my order as my purchasing email. Their terms require the Google Fi email and purchasing email to be the same, so they determined I didn't qualify for the promotion. So I went back and forth with Google customer service for several more hours—they asked me to provide the order email, then asked me to send them an email from the contact email. After several hours of this, I was still thinking, the facts here are so clear, this should be resolved quickly. Little did I know that was just the beginning of the nightmare.
After I sent the email, customer service replied that the purchasing email and the Google Fi line email didn't match, so I didn't qualify for the promotion. I was stunned—the facts were just too clear. They could still reject me? So I went back and forth with customer service for several more hours, and no matter what, they just repeated one line: your email doesn't match, so we can't give you this promotion. I asked to escalate to a manager so a higher-level agent could handle it. Over the next few days, Google customer service sent me one message a day with no progress whatsoever—from start to finish they just repeated one line: we see in our system that your email doesn't match, so you don't qualify for this promotion. Sorry, there's nothing we can do. At this point I was getting a bit resigned. I knew Google customer service was crap, but the degree of crap still exceeded my expectations. I asked Gemini what to do in this situation, and Gemini started by warning me: whatever you do, don't file an Amex dispute—once you dispute, we'll immediately ban your account. I laughed at that point. Gemini offered me one path: go to Reddit and hold a cyber court session, saying Google employees regularly scan Reddit posts, and Google's own employees have higher permissions than outsourced customer service. Well, Reddit was packed with Google Fi promotion-denial cyber court posts. Of course, the result from Reddit customer service was the same: email doesn't match, you don't qualify for this promotion.
Then ChatGPT offered me another path: file an FCC complaint. After I filed it, Google customer service's tone softened a bit, and then with a charitable attitude they gave me a solution: why don't you open another line, and then we'll add this promotion for you. That really made me laugh. Then I went back and forth with Google customer service for several more days. If it weren't for AI helping me write emails, I probably would have given up already. After several more days of back and forth, Google customer service finally gave me another solution, meaning: you originally didn't qualify, but we're making an exception—we'll allow you to return the phone and place a new order. Customer service also accidentally copied me on their internal ticket reply: the internal ticket said "if all else fails, let's just manually add this promo for the customer," while the earlier customer service had sworn to me that they had no authority to manually add this promotion.
At this point I'm completely speechless with Google. I can't be bothered to go back and forth with them anymore—I'm just waiting for the FCC complaint result. Once the FCC complaint result comes out, I'll come back and update my fellow forum members.
Related link: Don't blindly trust airline/bank phone numbers that come up in Google search—the ones at the top may be scams
From the description, the root of the problem is that Google's internal system conflated the pickup contact email with the purchasing email, which caused the promotion eligibility determination to go wrong. Customer service repeatedly went only by the system's result and did not address an obvious factual error—this kind of rigid process is more troublesome than a single agent's poor attitude. After the FCC complaint, their attitude softened, which shows that regulatory pressure is effective, but the final solution still had the user place a new order, shifting the cost onto the consumer. When the follow-up results come out, it would be best to clarify whether Google acknowledges that the system record was wrong, and whether there is any compensation for the time and hassle.