Leaving Google Fi • Hacker News Board

Re: Leaving Google Fi

#171

Post by uptownfunk » Mon, May 20, 2019, 4:40 AM UTC

What a world it will be where one-by-one the things that make Google Google are slowly picked off, not by startups, but by other hungrier and ever-expanding firms.

There are no sacred cows.

I repeat, there are no sacred cows.

I am waiting for the day when we will have Amzn Mail, Amzn Phones (I think they already tried this), some type of social media shopping clone hybrid thing that takes on Insta. And for the final nail in the coffin, Amzn Search.

What's shocking is that these companies are the ones with the capital to hire the best and the brightest (alongside say GS and other IBs as well as MBB etc., say what you will, but the folks that work there are actually smart even though they're not engineers). What does this say about future prospects for growth and share prices?

In any case, it's becoming more and more apparent, that no matter how big and bad you are, there's someone as big or as threatening that can come and eat your pie.

Re: Leaving Google Fi

#172

Post by HillaryBriss » Mon, May 20, 2019, 4:42 AM UTC

beckler wrote: post #168

pishpash wrote: post #161

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Google is shit in meatspace. It has been demonstrated too many times. They'd better hope the day that they'll only need to interface with bots arrives soon.

Ironic that a company that specializes in solving hard problems can't tackle an already solved problem.

Google tried to hire additional customer support reps but none of them got past the whiteboard code test

Re: Leaving Google Fi

#173

Post by sexyflanders » Mon, May 20, 2019, 4:43 AM UTC

I feel like this is a case of fool me once same on you, fool me twice shame on me.

Re: Leaving Google Fi

#174

Post by reaperducer » Mon, May 20, 2019, 4:43 AM UTC

ncallaway wrote: post #105

londons_explore wrote: post #86

Earlier quoted context omitted.

You're lucky... Some collections agencies are far more rigorous... They'll come to your house every day at awkward times. They'll ring your grandma and try to tell all your friends you're in debt, etc. If they finally get paid, it won't be $600 - it'll be $600 + $1500 of interest at 55% APR and $1200 of fees for letters, visits, phone calls etc.

Under the FDCPA you have the right to demand no contact with you, your workplace, or your family members. If they willfully violate this non-contact demand, they can be on the hook for $1,000 in statutory damages. They can also be on the hook for disruption they caused at a work-place, or emotional of physical distress. https://www.nolo.com/legal-encyclopedia/damages-fdcpa-violat... If a debt-collector is getting ove…

You can't sue a company that won't give you its name.

When I moved into my current place, a collection agency (agencies?) kept sending people over looking for the deadbeat who lived here previously. They would tell me why they were there but never from what agency so there was no way to preemptively make them stop.

After a few months of telling them that the previous person moved out it died down. But every four or five months another one shows up. Presumably because the debt has been sold to a different company.

This has been going on for five years.

It's great that you know the law. They know it, too.

Re: Leaving Google Fi

#175

Post by winningcontinue » Mon, May 20, 2019, 4:51 AM UTC

mabbo wrote: post #48

This is the difference between Google and Amazon. People have lots of criticism of Amazon, some I even agree with, but working here[0] one of my favorite little cultural things is that customers can and do email Jeff when stupid things happen. And Jeff reads them. Every now and then he'll forward one of them to a senior VP with a simple "?" added to it.[1] That question mark indicates two things: that you have 24 hou…

This Amazon approach reminds me of how Apple used to do it in the final years of Jobs' executive-ship at the company. He'd send terse replies to people who e-mailed and and for large problems he'd float it to his top lieutenants concerning why the experience sucks so much.

Re: Leaving Google Fi

#176

Post by HillaryBriss » Mon, May 20, 2019, 4:52 AM UTC

cletus wrote: post #150

Gibbon1 wrote: post #126

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> Let me repeat that and make it clear: Google simply cannot compete in a low margin business. That reminds me of Intel. The addiction to high margin microprocessors and a captive customer base had two effects. a) Intel doesn't know how to play with customers that have a choice. b) Customers with a choice avoid designing in Intel solutions like the plague. Over the long haul Intel is a much smaller company than they…

> They can't process the ramifications of their business practices on future business opportunities. Here's where that really hurts them (IMHO). Google, as a whole, has a very short attention span. A lot of things at Google began as bottom-up engineering-led projects, the poster child for which is probably GMail. This seems to work really well for things that are engineering problems. I think it works incredibly badl…

> after you finish the first 90% you need to finish the second 90% (I forget who said this).

I don't know who said it either, but I heard an alternate phrasing: "The first 50% of the project takes 90% of the time. But the second 50% takes the other 90% of the time."

Re: Leaving Google Fi

#177

Post by cheerlessbog » Mon, May 20, 2019, 4:55 AM UTC

mellow-lake-day wrote: post #17

I'm pretty happy with Ting. Been with them for several years. Their data isn't cheap but their customer support more than makes up for it. https://ting.com/

Looks like their international roaming is pretty expensive. I guess I just change SIMs

Re: Leaving Google Fi

#178

Post by winningcontinue » Mon, May 20, 2019, 4:57 AM UTC

sbr464 wrote: post #167

hueving wrote: post #157

Earlier quoted context omitted.

The seller is not the customer.

Typically i’d agree, but aren’t they a customer if they are purchasing fulfillment services from Amazon (and paying platform fees)? I think the digital/sharing/on demand/fulfillment economy needs new definitions for these concepts.

Look at their budget. Most of their revenue comes from AWS. So their large AWS clients are their customers. The margins on the retailing e-commerce customers is slim and wasn't profitable on a cashflow basis until recent years. From a financial perspective, they're the people who are going to stock the items and take the risk for products where demand is uncertain. Once more data is collected about their sales, Amazon will use their scale to undercut their e-commerce selling partners. So they are important to their company logistics, just not to the bottom line.

Re: Leaving Google Fi

#179

Post by xs83 » Mon, May 20, 2019, 4:57 AM UTC

I got angry just reading that - Personally I would have started a claim back process from my card provider - you can guarantee that it would have caused something on Google's End once they started getting chargeback notices.

Re: Leaving Google Fi

#180

Post by chrischen » Mon, May 20, 2019, 4:58 AM UTC

ArlenBales wrote: post #30

paxys wrote: post #16

Sounds like a very standard Google experience. To anyone stuck in a similar hell in the future - once the company has demonstrated that they aren't willing to help, there is no point continuing down that road. Escalate it to your credit card provider (with documentation) and they will clear it up pretty quick.

That's the quickest route to having your Google account permanently suspended. (YouTube, Gmail, etc. goodbye)

You would think that if they weren't connected that Google wouldn't ban you across accounts, but I know a person who had their name banned from Uber, so if Google wanted they probably could deny services to you.