This sounds very familiar to me. About two years ago I wanted to switch to google fi. Ordered a phone online, which I paid on full for, then waited. The phone never arrived, when talking to google it was very similar to the article's situation. The only "solution" they offered was to (after a month!) refund me (which it would take 2 weeks to go through) when they could confirm with FedEx the package was not delivered (which I had already done, but it would take them days to do), and then I could buy a phone again. But they just wouldn't send me another phone. So I would be forced to wait almost 2 months to get the product and service they had initially promised to deliver in 3 days.

I ended up having to call my bank to get a refund. It was a very frustrating experience and I really wanted to like Google fi.