[throwawaybetes]

I recently had my phone repaired by Google - it was not damaged at all, but the screen had started turning black. This is covered by warranty. After I sent it to them they claimed it had a cracked screen - it didn't, so I asked for proof.

They could not send proof, relented, and said that it did not actually need a repair. They also said I had to pay for a new screen anyway as but they would refund it after repair. After a while I paid for their lie, then waited for my phone.

It was returned after a week, but they refunded the money minus tax. I complained, and now, after over 120 correspondences, I do still not have my money back.

I will never get my money back.

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I had not one but two 'under warranty' problems with my Pixel 5 that they acknowledged but because I'm not in the country I bought it in, (and I haven't been back there since COVID began) they wouldn't repair it.

Since one of the problems was with the logic board it was not even really possible for me to pay for a repair in a reasonable way.

I ended up buying a pixel 4a, because I didn't want to switch ecosystem, so went for the cheapest Google phone. Might not be able to avoid giving Google/Apple money, but I can certainly avoid buying the flagship devices.

[fsflover]

You can consider a GNU/Linux phone (Librem 5 or Pinephone) to escape Google. It's not for everyone yet, but the HN audience probably could use one.

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I would definitely consider these phones, but I'm a digital nomad, so having multiple sims (e-sims) is a must, it doesn't look like either support it yet.

It's hard to break free of Android/iOS as well. I can almost guarantee that one or more apps, for example 2FA auth apps like Duo or Okta, wouldn't be usable on the GNU/Linux (I don't really know enough about them to be certain about this statement).

[gnufx]

At least for Duo, you can extract the HOTP secret [1] and use it in any OATH tool, e.g. with the otp extension of pass(1) on GNU/Linux (which uses uses oathtool(1) underneath). You can also do it a more difficult way, e.g. using the Duo app under anbox.

1. https://github.com/simonseo/nyuad-spammer/tree/master/spamme...