14 DAY TRIAL // If you happen to like the Pixel/Pixel XL smartphone, but not as much as to keep it as your daily driver, then under no circumstances should you try reselling it after having bought it from the Google Play store.
Apparently, more than 200 accounts have been banned by Google for trying to resell one of the two Pixel phones.
The decision comes after deal monitoring website Dan's Deals started receiving emails from people who had bought the Pixel/Pixel XL phone and then resold them to a retailer in New Hampshire.
It's true that the retailer paid them back with a small profit, before selling the same Pixel smartphones to other people, but Google found out and suspended those Pixel buyers' accounts indefinitely.
Upon inquiring if these reports have any truth in them, the aforementioned site has been provided with an official statement from a Google spokesperson. Here is what the company had to say about the whole issue:
“We identified a scheme in which consumers were asked to purchase Pixel devices on behalf of a reseller, who then marked-up the cost of those devices in order to resell them to other customers. We prohibit the commercial resale of devices purchased through Project Fi or the Google Store so everyone has an equal opportunity to purchase devices at a fair price.
Many of the accounts suspended were created for the sole purpose of this scheme. After investigating the situation, we are restoring access to genuine accounts for customers who are locked out of many Google services they rely on.”
So, if your account has been banned recently and you don't know why, this could be one of the reasons. If you feel that it doesn't apply to you, then you'll probably want to get in touch with Google or wait for the search giant to restore access to your account.
UPDATE: Google has decided to re-enable the accounts of those banned for reselling their Pixel phones, but stated that repeated violations might get their accounts suspended permanently:
“Hello Google user,
Your Google Account was suspended as part of our fraud prevention efforts, based on violations of our Terms of Service and Terms of Sale for Devices. After reviewing your appeal, we are re-enabling your account.
Google takes violations of our terms very seriously, and we ask that you review relevant terms and product policies to ensure that you understand them. Repeated violations of our terms may lead to account termination.”