Google's LTE-equipped Chromebook Pixel cost $1,449 at launch in April 2013, but it was advertised as coming with various perks, such as two years of free data from Verizon Wireless.

It was just 100MB a month, a little taste to tempt people into buying pricy data packages. But Verizon apparently only delivered the promised data for about a year before pulling the plug. Computerworld's JR Raphael has the story today, confirming it himself because he bought an LTE-equipped Pixel in April 2013.

One year after purchase, "Pixel LTE owners are discovering their data plans have been disconnected," Raphael wrote today. "The option to pay for data remains, but the free 100MB per month mysteriously vanished just one year into the promised two-year period."

Raphael contacted support at both Google and Verizon but did not get a satisfactory answer.

"Verizon is telling customers that as far as it's concerned, the plans were valid only for one year—and that's why those initiated last spring are now expiring," he wrote. "I called the carrier's customer service line and, after holding for 15 minutes and then talking in circles to an agent for another 10, was able to get through to a supervisor. That person politely told me he wasn't aware of any two-year commitment and that—despite my pointing out official documentation to the contrary—there was nothing he could do to help me."

We contacted Verizon Wireless and Google today to get an explanation but haven't heard back yet.

The Google Play store's listing page for the Chromebook Pixel says now that the "Pixel LTE is currently not eligible for any free Verizon data plans." The free data promise was made to the machine's early buyers, though. A capture of the page from last year said that "LTE connectivity is engineered directly into the machine and includes 100 MB/month of mobile broadband service from Verizon Wireless, free for two years."

A law firm called Block & Leviton is already on the case, saying it wants to get in touch with Pixel owners and that it is investigating "whether Google and/or Verizon violated any state consumer protection laws or breached any duties owed to their customers."