What I do is get it from a brick and mortar store, like Best Buy, or even order from them. I'll avoid buying from Google directly like the plague. I am aware they share some information, but just not paying Google directly feels good to me.

And about their customer service, honor where honor is due, they are awesome at that. When I was leaving Fi, not even a single attempt to keep me there, no questions, just a fully helpful individual helping me port out.