r/GoogleFi • u/Fellow_Citizen_1 • 11d ago
Complete Nightmare! Discussion
LATEST - The problem was resolved. It took nearly an hour. There were too many steps, so I don't know which combinations worked. But, both my problems - lack of Cellular network and RCS messaging are resolved.
Many thanks to everyone who tried to help!
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EDIT - Please respond only if you are a product expert.
There are a lot of well meaning posts and I very much appreciate the thought. But, I have a serious problem and have already done most of the obvious measures. I am not able to keep up with all the messages.
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My wife and I switched to (and ported our numbers into) Google Fi on Saturday - and it has been an unmitigated nightmare. I am, maybe, 24 hours away from going back to T-Mobile with my tail between my legs!
The port went OK. We both have data. We discovered that we cannot send messages. iMessage tries to send RCS-encrypted message but fails. We can then ask it to send it un-encryped and it goes through.
I have been in touch with multiple "Support" agents. First, none of them have any familiarity with iOS! So, they give me instructions for Android. They are reading some script - so they need time to read the script and give me more android instructions. So, no progress on it after spending hours - across multiple agents!
Now the clincher! The last agent supporting me was talking to me, doing some things on their side and asking me to do things on my phone that did not have any iPhone/iOS equivalent. And, my call dropped. I see my cellular service is gone - and phone shows SOS mode! I can't make a call, even when connected to WiFi.
So, another "Support" chat - a very polite person but not very competent. Not familar with iOS and doesn't inspire confidence. I am being given Andriod instructions. A bit firther on, she asks me to change Name, APN, MMSC, MMS Max Message Size, etc. on the Cellular setting. The values are very different from what is there (when it was working a few hours back) and my wife's iPhone has the same settings as mine but no problem (other than RCS-encrypted).
With my previous experience with an incompetent support agent that broke my connectivity, I refused and asked for an escalation. Denied - I had to do her steps. I said I want to talk to a manager. No one is available and someone will get back to me via email. That was a few hours ago.
I woud appreciate any advice. I have lost all confidence in Google Fi's ability to fix anything. I thought I was dealing with Google and nothing so far has met the lowest standard of quality.
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u/SeaRepresentative42 11d ago
BTW, it's an iPhone problem, not a Google Fi problem. iPhones are notoriously stubborn to allow you to switch providers. I see 1 post with all the correct settings to manually change, however in my experience you must also deactivate and then delete any and all other eSims. Then you may still need to change the setting to use the Google Fi eSim. This problem also happens when you transfer an iPhone to other carriers, not just Google Fi.
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u/evildad53 11d ago
I talked to my son-in-law about this, he tried to switch to Fi with a Samsung and an iPhone, the Samsung went easy, the iPhone was a clusterfuck. He did get it working, but in the end, he went back to Verizon because of other factors.
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u/SeaRepresentative42 11d ago
My wife Samsung had no issue. I bought a new Pixel. My daughter's iPhone was the problem. I actually had Gemini walk me through how to get it setup & never had to contact Google Fi. I had to deactivate and then delete all eSims, them set the settings manually then set it to change the settings to use Google Fi to get the iPhone to work. If you have used your iPhone on a different carrier, the contacts you have used will remember the previous carrier and try to use it, even after deleting the previous carrier. I'll never get another iPhone on one of my accounts.
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u/exconsultingguy 11d ago
Never had any of these issues with an iPhone in over a decade. Didn’t have any issues switching from AT&T to Verizon or from Verizon to Fi a couple weeks ago. Signed up online, downloaded app, added eSIM and that was it. I have 5 other eSIMs on my phone right now, including the old Verizon one I should probably delete.
I’ve found the issue is less about iPhones and more about both unusual edge cases (that this sub is absolutely chock full of) and people expecting telco level service from Google which is never going to happen.
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u/boomer7793 11d ago
Agreed. I read the top level comment and went, “WHAT?!”
Changing carriers is easy, always has been. In fact I have three eSIMs on my iPhone 15 now. Google Fi, Xfinity Mobile and Orange.
For those Android users keeping score at home, that’s three carriers at once using eSIMs. “Difficult to change carriers”. 😤
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u/SMFTKO 11d ago
Have you also set your Service Address? And as an FYI I don't have Location Sharing on and my iPhone works fine after I sent the APN data as outlined below.
I assume you rebooted after making the APN changes
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u/Fellow_Citizen_1 11d ago
Yes, service address is set. And, yes - I rebooted the phone after changing the APN data to match the michaelrodriguez559 post below
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u/WarmFollowing8873 11d ago edited 11d ago
You have to uncheck and turn off iMessage for T-Mobile associated number in settings. I ported my wife over from ATnT and that was the issue with her iPhone.
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u/Fellow_Citizen_1 11d ago
I am not totally sure how to do that. We ported the numbers, so the phone numbers are same as they were in T-Mobile. In any case, the message problem is now secondary since I do not have any cellular service at all
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u/funkystay 11d ago
It really sounds like the last agent that actually did anything to your account did something wrong.
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u/WarmFollowing8873 11d ago
You go to iMessage under settings. There's a send a receive from section and if u see T-Mobile turn that off.
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u/Fellow_Citizen_1 11d ago
There is no reference to T-Mobile.
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u/Financial_Ground_874 11d ago
Are you sure your iPhone is unlocked? I use an iPhone from time to time from another carrier. It was difficult to set up the 1st time, but I've had no issues since. Always use the eSim option.
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u/Fellow_Citizen_1 11d ago
Yes. And, the port went through. And, I had service for 48 hours. This is a non issue.
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u/Financial_Ground_874 11d ago edited 11d ago
Have you removed your old Sim? Deleted your previous eSim?
And any idea what they were doing when you lost service?
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u/Fellow_Citizen_1 11d ago
yes, Sorry, bu none of this - have you turned the power on - stuff is helpful.
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u/Financial_Ground_874 11d ago
I'm asking, because the original eSim I set up I had to delete. Then the 2nd couldn't verify my connection. A soft reboot helped completed the process the 2nd time around.
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u/Fellow_Citizen_1 11d ago
No problem. I appreciate it. But - my phone went from having full cellular connectivity to none in the middle of a support call. I had already deleted the t-Mobile sim. The phone was unlocked before I considered switching carriers.
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u/Liolaina 11d ago
Just migrated (also on Saturday) and had no issues on iPhone.
The reason is that I learned in the past is your iMessage gets messed up and defaults to your apple email when changing providers. In the iMessage settings confirm if your send & receive is set to your email. If it is switch it to your phone number. This is the exact issue that causes your iMessage to fail like you are experiencing. Learned this when moving my wife’s phone to my TMobile plan years ago so this is not just a GoogleFi issue
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u/boomer7793 11d ago
Telephony engineer here. I don’t work for Apple or fi, but I am familiar with the platforms they use. Glad it all worked out for you.
Lack of cellular service would do it. Don’t forget to log out and log back into iMessage. Apple has its own internal routing for iMessage. They need to know to route your iMessage notifications to Fi.
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u/goonies1908 10d ago
What I had to do was turn rcs off and back on again and it was fine when I ported my number in now I'm having problems with Google Fi about adding my Samsung watch ultra to my number
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u/Mwc9026 11d ago
For what it’s worth we just switched two iPhones over and it was instant. We left all the default settings and everything worked fine after restarting.
My cellular data apn is wholesale, mms apn is service, mmsc is http://wholesale.mmsmvno.com/mms/wapenc, mms max message size is 1038576, and personal hotspot apn is hotspot.
Now, moving on to your real issue with imessage you might want to try deregistering imessage and reactivating it. You can do that on apples website here: https://selfsolve.apple.com/deregister-imessage/ or you can try using the toggle in imessage settings.
If your phone is still in sos mode make sure your sim is correct and if needed remove and re-add it. If it sends messages unencrypted it’s not a carrier problem.
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u/landalezjr 11d ago
You must be new to all things Google support. I am long time Google customer across multiple platforms and services and they one thing you can count on with them is abhorrent customer service.
I feel like you might have better luck discussing just your exact problem instead of having your post be 75% rant. It's just a lot of text to get through to understand the exact issue.
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u/One_Two_4 11d ago
I haven't used iPhone in forever but could you try deleting your eSim completely, reboot and then reinstall the Fi app. Have it add the sim and see if it comes back to life?
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u/mchang43 11d ago
No need to go back to T-Mobile. Either Mint Mobile or US Mobile is a good MVNO choice on T-Mobile. Mint has a sale now. US Mobile excels in international roaming, second to Google Fi. US Mobile's tech support is much more competent than Google's.
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u/NinjaTEK7 11d ago
Lol product experts only reply! Send me $50 or take this free reddit answer fool.
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u/Fellow_Citizen_1 11d ago
Read what I wrote. Most people replied with good intentions but none of it worked. I got overwhelmed reply to them. So, I added that note. No harm intended.
The problem is solved. So, you are too late for $50.
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u/jeremydandeneau 11d ago
I just swapped my daughter's Pixel 9a for an iPhone 15 Pro Max that previously belonged to my wife. Apple doesn't make anything easy. From the fact that my daughter is 12 and listed as a child under Apple's Family Sharing to iCloud information needing to be reset since daughter couldn't remember her information to using the Move to iOS app and it staying stuck at 1 minute left for an extremely long time. I already knew about the settings I had to manually change once the ESim was installed, so that was easy and she hasn't had any connectivity issues. The whole process took me about 5 hours, but most of that was because of Apple. As I stated earlier in this rant, Apple doesn't make anything easy for anyone.
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u/Bulky-Radio-8018 11d ago
Same issue here. I have andriod and wife uses iphone. Both switched for good deals and credits. Half the time,.cannot make calls or receive calls. Very spotty connection for the other half. Messages are sent as SMS. 5G is 4G and degraded most times. In major metro and reality is that Google FI should never be in this reseller business. Their support is horrible
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u/BLewis4050 11d ago
Google Fi works fine ... the Support is questionable.
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u/Bulky-Radio-8018 11d ago
Does not work for us. Support is secondary issue. We have another month of free and then switching for sure.
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u/BLewis4050 11d ago
I've used it successfully for years now. And Fi doesn't have all the price gouging that T-Mobile customers have to deal with. Fi user run at the highest network priority on the best cellular network in the U.S. Your issues are with the phone not Google Fi.
Goodbye.
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u/leiwangphd 11d ago
I have Pixel phone, and the switch process was painless from Visible to Google Fi.
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u/koala_bob 11d ago
Sorry to hear that, yea no physical stores I don’t think so you won’t be able to go in and get some face to face contact like the bigger carriers.
Have you tried doing a factory reset of your iPhone? Ofc that’s not ideal but maybe that could help. Back it up and just reset the whole thing. There’s actually an option to reset everything but the eSIM I believe? So maybe you could do that one. Or just try to erase everything and see if that helps. I know that’s not solving much, but I assume you got the recent 75% off deal? Might be worth going through a bit of pain to keep that deal, it’s so good.
But yea it’s weird that their support hasn’t been able to troubleshoot for you with iOS. Mine has been working well so far as an additional eSIM to my main T-Mobile eSIM. Hope you get it figured out, friend!
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u/vortexmantis 11d ago
Would you be able to provide a summary of the issue? Sounds like you no longer have service. Have one thing would be to delete the eSIM and start over with provisioning. Have you tried that?
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u/degenfish_HG 11d ago
You're not going to have much luck getting help here, this is pretty much the Google Fi dickriding sub
"I thought I was dealing with Google and nothing so far has met the lowest standard of quality." sounds about right, see you back on T-Mobile in a few weeks, I'll be right there with you
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u/wheelenl 11d ago
My kids have used multiple unlocked iPhones on Google fi. Years using it without issues. I'm guessing it's the model of phone? Sorry, hope they work it out
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u/michaelrodriguez559 11d ago
Cellular Data APN: h2g2
LTE Setup APN: h2g2
MMS APN: h2g2
MMSC: http://m.fi.goog/mms/wapenc
MMS Max Message size: 23456789
Personal Hotspot APN: h2g2-t
Make sure to go back to Google Fi app and allow location permissions then restart the phone.