Talk:Pixel 4a Battery Performance Program

since the article states "While there is widespread speculation about a battery manufacturing fault", I suggest adding pics from "https://old.reddit.com/r/Pixel4a/comments/1hxyp6z/certainly_seems_battery_defectrelated_vs_planned/" as further motivation for such speculation. Google doesn't normally require such special "box for defective lithium ion batteries" to mail-in phones for repairs (some users said in the comments this might just be good practice and business as usual when sending phones for repair but it's really not), so the reasoning for doing it this time around seems clear enough to me and would add very strong evidence to this speculation. Samsung sent out a very similar box (https://www.cultofmac.com/wp-content/uploads/2016/10/Note-7-return-kit.png) when the note 7 thing happened.

I'd also maybe add a seventh point in "Criticism by Community" about users reporting their battery percentage indicator stop working entirely, and in point 3. imo it should be made more clear that a payoneer account with full personal info (including social security number) must be created by the user (potential security/privacy issue), I know there's already the "account fees" part but in the way it's written it's not clear the user has to make a proper account in the first place.

Maybe I should've made this edit myself, but english isn't my native language, I don't think i'm very good at writing formally in cases like this, and just didn't feel comfortable messing with other people's excellent work.

Wow, I was not aware of the pics from the first one. In that case, whether this is actually a battery fault or just planned obsolescence still seems to be anyone's game at this point. Neither look good for Google. I'll reword that paragraph then to be more neutral.

As for the percentage indicator, I read a lot of people saying it stopped working, then started working again, which to me indicates that the indicator just paused while the battery drained under the newly implemented limit. I don't find that noteworthy enough to include, I guess.

Thank you for your suggestions, I'll get to editing soon. ZenithHelix (talk) 18:32, 19 January 2025 (UTC)

I implemented the edits. ZenithHelix (talk) 19:59, 19 January 2025 (UTC)

On another note, I wish there was a wiki-appropriate way to talk about how weird Google Support has been throughout this, but none of those things were said "officially" and many reports just come from users recounting what they talked about (I feel like I'm already on thin ice with all the Reddit posts I'm sourcing from). There was that one post that asked Google Support about turning in their phone for cash and them saying that the phone would be worth *less money* if they installed the new software update (again, unconfirmed, someone just said this). I also talked to them at one point and they told me my device would be considered impacted if it had worse battery performance AFTER the update, despite the compensation form being live based on the IMEI before the update was ever rolled out. It is probably just that the Support Team doesn't have a very clear understanding of the issue, but it's interesting that if that is the case, a lot of the misinformation has been coming directly from Google. ZenithHelix (talk) 19:59, 19 January 2025 (UTC)

> but none of those things were said "officially" and many reports just come from users recounting what they talked about
Maybe you could ask those users to provide a copy of the support conversation? Google support gives you the option to send you a copy of the whole chat log at the end of each support request

21/01/25 - Anonymous user again here

10 days ago, I asked iFixit support whether the batteries they are currently selling are some sort of newer batch that isn't affected by this problem or not
their response: sorry for the late reply, it took us a while to figure this one out, "The issue is with the device itself and not the batteries, We suggest you go through Google to see if your device is impacted"
this means two things:
A. this "replace your battery" thingy doesn't make any sense, as the issue is with the device's construction (like samsung figured out in the end with the note 7)
or (more likely imo)
B. Google's communication keeps being vague and misleading, even to its parts providers
the fact that iFixit has no idea if the batteries they are currently selling, or recently sold, are affected by a problem makes Google look pretty bad here, I was expecting them to have contacted iFixit already on the sixth of january but nope, I am giving them the news
this whole situation keeps getting more and more absurd

Dear Anon, that's an insane revelation. I'm trying to think whether there's somehow a mysterious third option we're missing that isn't planned obsolescence OR a manufacturing fault. Because your point A is absolutely correct, the battery replacement angle makes no sense in this case. I get if there's a hazard, Google wouldn't just plain say that, but why would they not just tell iFixit something like "oh, the Pixel 4a's batteries are just old, these are newer replacements". What do they mean there's a problem with the device?! There's no way to read this other than "Yeah, there's a problem with the device. We made a problem, with the update, on purpose.". I think this is worth adding to the article, if you can source it somehow. ZenithHelix (talk) 18:50, 21 January 2025 (UTC)

https://www.reddit.com/r/Pixel4a/comments/1i6ei4x/the_pixel_discount_does_stack_with_the_sale/ . Okay, you know what? Maybe Google REALLY ARE just this inept at public relations. Updating the article to include it... ZenithHelix (talk) 19:01, 21 January 2025 (UTC)

> I think this is worth adding to the article, if you can source it somehow.

I honestly don't know if I'm allowed to provide a screenshot of the support conversation, maybe it's ok as long as the name of the support agent isn't included? I don't want to cause trouble to the iFixit support guy

maybe I should've asked if he was okay with this in the reply I sent him hours ago, but it's too late now I think, let me know if I'm just overthinking this and providing a copy of the email isn't that big of a deal