Google asks Canadian Pixel 4a trade-in buyers to be phone-less for a week

Yet another gaffe from Google.

What you need to know

• Google is experiencing yet another logistics blunder with its Pixel line.
• The company is asking Canadians Pixel 4a buyers to send it their trade-in devices a week before their new phone will be shipped, leaving them phone-less for a week.
• Not doing so will decrease the trade-in value of the old device.

Canadian buyers of the Pixel 4a are in line to be the victims of a teenager’s worst nightmare: a week without a smartphone. As numerous reports from the Great White North show, Google has already shipped out trade-in kits for some would-be buyers of its latest smartphone, the Pixel 4a.

The only problem is, some of the kits arrived as early as August 3, and they expire in 30 days, which in this Redditor’s case (via Android Police) means the trade-in device must be sent to Google by September 3. Yet, their new phone won’t actually be shipped by Google until at least September 10, meaning that in order to abide by Google’s terms, they would need to stay without a phone for a week.

Failing to provide the trade-in device to Google within the allotted 30 days would result in its value deprecating, and Google’s representatives have, thus far, refused to offer any solutions beyond promises to “do their best” to ship the phone earlier.

Several other buyers have also reported the same issues on the Reddit thread. One possible solution seems to be cancelling and re-starting the trade-in process so that a new trade-in kit that lines up with the shipping date for the Pixel 4a is sent out.

We’ll update this article if Google makes a statement to address the obvious blunder.

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