Much like I woke up earlier this week and found my Google Pixel XL had been reported stolen by Project Fi and blacklisted from working on T-Mobile’s network, I woke up this morning to find out that it was magically working again! OK, let’s face it, there was nothing magical about it.

As you can see from the ESN checks above, all is not perfect, yet, but I can access the network on my carrier now and make calls and texts again.

What is somewhat incredible about this is that I have gotten zero feedback from Google support or Project Fi support as to what the actual problem is/was. Make no doubt about it, Google’s Project Fi was the entity that blacklisted my phone to begin with, although they never came right out and admitted it. This Pixel XL was purchased from Project Fi originally, paid for in full, and then sold again, privately through Swappa. This phone has been working fine for six months. At first I suspected, since Google support told me it was a stolen phone, that it was in fact a stolen phone. But that is not the case. While Project Fi has not explained this to me, it has explained this to others with the same Pixel blacklisting issue which has plagued many people this week. It seems that since this phone was still “attached” to the original Google account that fully purchased it, and since it was now being used on my personal Google account, Google Fi decided it was time to start blacklisting these phones. Of course now it looks like it is moving back on this position.

I wanted a Pixel XL, but Google was not able to keep these phones in stock, so I bought one, using Swappa, from another individual. Yes, there is risk associated with that, but I did buy from a very trusted seller on Swappa that is what I would call a “phone nerd” that liked to use devices for several months, then move on to the next best thing. Obviously, Google knows I have been using this Pixel XL for a month, and certainly has the ability to reach out to me, or at least warn me if it is going to brick the phone, but nothing, nada a word from Google or Project Fi.

These are the last two communications I have gotten from Project Fi. And keep in mind, these are the last communications I got from Google/Project Fi support after getting numerous conflicting answers previously. The first quote below via email, the second through its Pixel community forum.

We currently do not have additional information and are waiting for our engineers to provide us with details. As soon as we hear back from them, we’ll be sure to update you.

Thank you for sharing this with us on the Forum. Our team is aware and we are working to restore access to impacted devices.

I have been over Project Fi’s terms and conditions and you could interpret those in a couple different ways as to whether or not the transfer of the phone was “legal.” But the fact of the matter is that Google created a tremendous amount of hype around these phones and simply failed to deliver in terms of delivery on all that hype. To punish the exact demographic that was excited about its new phones is simply a bad decision. Google support through this has been laughable when it comes to getting a correct answer. While Project Fi’s support has in fact “fixed” the issue, its charming support has been tremendously lacking on correct information about what is truly happening.

The Pixel XL is the best phone I have ever used. I already bought another one from Google, but that was when Google had explained to me the phone was stolen. I accepted it was stolen, accepted responsibility for that, and moved on. Had I know that Project Fi was in fact blacklisting these phones, for whatever uncommunicated reason, I would have not bought another Pixel phone. “Fool me once…shame on you…fool me twice, shame on me,” does not quite fit here due to Google and Project Fi support being less than truthful about the entire situation.

The full saga timeline is outlined in these previous news posts, here, here, here, here, and here.

Ongoing Discussion

Source: [H]ardOCP – Google Pixel XL Un-Blacklisted by Project Fi