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Google banned me from Google Voice

dannyguo.com

141–150 of 152 posts

Re: Google banned me from Google Voice

#141
post #136

Earlier quoted context omitted.

>I'm impressed that you are able to keep track of so many things over an extended period, considering that apparently 3.5 hours are long enough for you to forget a question that you asked. >Let's recap. Let's not. >In fact many people do sometimes forget to do those other things. But those other things are all easy to correct with little or no negative consequences when they forget so the penalty is small for not dev…

Well then, if your failure to understand HeatrayEnjoyer's comment is not due to overlooking the word "before" and not due to forgetting they were answering a question you asked, what is the explanation?

This thread weirds me out because not paying a domain has the effect of first receiving alerts and then not receiving mails anymore. People who manage to miss both probably didn't need the address in the first place.

Re: Google banned me from Google Voice

#142
post #103

This is actually fairly terrifying, I have used google voice for around 15 years myself (since acquisition), and use it as my main inbound line for multiple numbers actually. After verizon screwed me too circa 2009, I treat cell phones like burners, and really only use GVoice as my main inbound. It is all my mfa, sms, professional identity number, etc, and has always been solid as such as I use it with a paid gsuite…

Oh hey, I've seen people like you. and it prompted me, several years ago, to do something similar with Voip.ms. My "one number" was ported from a telco, and has lived at this paid service, with customer support, for over six years now. One side affect of this is, because it started out as a telco number, on't blackball it like they might other VoIP numbers. Now all my SMS OTPs, real SMS, MMS, and transcribed voicemai…

I ported my cell number to Google Voice about 8 years ago when I moved out of the US, and it’s always been detected as a VOIP number and annoyingly blocked by services that block those. I ended up getting a cheap prepaid cell plan with voice/sms over WiFi support the last time I was in the US just to have a number to use for SMS verifications and anything else that blocks VOIP numbers. I wonder if the service you’re using is doing something different than GV or you just got lucky with the VOIP detection.

Edit: Just took a look and their pricing is very reasonable. I’ve been de-Googling my life over the past year specifically out of fear of what happened in TFA as I realized I was relying way too heavily on them and I have zero trust left in Google. I didn’t port my GV number to the cell provider because it works for most things and it’s more convenient. This looks like a solid option and would only cost me a dollar or so a month at the amount I use that number.

Re: Google banned me from Google Voice

#143
post #11

> Maybe I should actually try to vote with my wallet and switch to that iPhone, move my files from Google Drive to iCloud or Dropbox, and migrate to Fastmail. But I know Google can afford to simply not care. Companies will quite literally treat you like dirt and people continue to use them. I understand there are certain things you're locked into (I very much use android despite google; not like there's much choice i…

Also, even if switching away doesn't send a message to Google. Why would you rely on products that you consider a risk? I didn't switch away from Google because I thought it was a huge financial blow, but because I didn't want to have anything important to me deleted with no notice.

Re: Google banned me from Google Voice

#144

My strategy for this class of issue is paying Google. I pay for Google Apps (now rebranded to workspace). I have so much of my life tied up into the Google Ecosystem I see no problem paying per month for their services. This also provides me a number to call when shit doesn't work.

They also ban people that pay them.

Re: Google banned me from Google Voice

#145
post #77

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Could you provide a little bit of detail about how you did that? Just in case…

Find google data protection officer email. State your request to get the data with a mention of escalation to the Irish Data Protection Officer if no action is taken within a reasonable timeframe. This has magically unbanned me in less than two days. In contrast to two months of tweeting, emailing support, nagging my google eng friends and even support folks via linkedin.

Are you an Irish citizen? Or can anyone contact the Irish DPO because Google is “based” there for taxes or whatever? I’m wondering if I can use this as a US citizen.

Re: Google banned me from Google Voice

#146
post #137

Yet another Google account/service-banning horror story. For this reason, I proactively migrated off Gmail earlier this year to Fastmail. Very happy that I did. The only important thing I have left on Google now is 15 years of Location History. I'm still figuring out where to move that to.

I didn't even know Google had this feature until people complained about it tracking you by default. I've always used OsmAnd for navigation and had automatic trip recording turned on as a gimmick, on rare occasions it would be interesting to look back where I went wrong and got rerouted or where the new road runs exactly to put it on OpenStreetMap. Now, with also some ten years of history, it actually makes for an ex…

Thanks for the tip about OsmAnd! Google maps is one of the last Google services I use because for some reason Apple Maps doesn’t support directions/navigation in the country I live in even though it has full maps and even traffic. Just installed the iOS app and while it does look like the UI will take a little getting used to, this looks like a solid option!

Re: Google banned me from Google Voice

#148
post #77

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Find google data protection officer email. State your request to get the data with a mention of escalation to the Irish Data Protection Officer if no action is taken within a reasonable timeframe. This has magically unbanned me in less than two days. In contrast to two months of tweeting, emailing support, nagging my google eng friends and even support folks via linkedin.

Are you an Irish citizen? Or can anyone contact the Irish DPO because Google is “based” there for taxes or whatever? I’m wondering if I can use this as a US citizen.

Not an Irish citizen or a resident. Everyone residing in the EU(including EEA) enjoys GDPR protection.

I don't know how stringent the geo check for claims is, but as soon as you become an EEA resident you can invoke GDPR.

I would recommend to ask Google’s DPO anyway.

Re: Google banned me from Google Voice

#149
post #137

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I didn't even know Google had this feature until people complained about it tracking you by default. I've always used OsmAnd for navigation and had automatic trip recording turned on as a gimmick, on rare occasions it would be interesting to look back where I went wrong and got rerouted or where the new road runs exactly to put it on OpenStreetMap. Now, with also some ten years of history, it actually makes for an ex…

Thanks for the tip about OsmAnd! Google maps is one of the last Google services I use because for some reason Apple Maps doesn’t support directions/navigation in the country I live in even though it has full maps and even traffic. Just installed the iOS app and while it does look like the UI will take a little getting used to, this looks like a solid option!

Oh, on iOS the app is quite different afaik (and, when I last used it, much more limited). I somehow was expecting an Android device, sorry. There may be better options for iOS (though my impression is that most FOSS mobile things happen on Android)

Re: Google banned me from Google Voice

#150

Earlier quoted context omitted.

It's so absurd that we used to complain about customer service from phone companies etc. and fled them for tech companies whose business models are defined by being scaled so high that customer service is impossible for them to offer.

business models are defined by being scaled so high that customer service is impossible for them to offer. It's not impossible. The people at Google choose not to have customer service in order to maximize profits, rather than do the right thing. Google has enough money to provide customer service. Customer service isn't going to bankrupt Google.

Google has a deep rooted cultural aversion to providing customer service. It's part of their corporate DNA and it permeates everything they do.

I get better support from AWS spending $15 a month on my personal account than I get from GCP at work, spending half a million dollars a year.

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