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Google banned me from Google Voice

dannyguo.com

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Re: Google banned me from Google Voice

#41

Post by add-sub-mul-div »

jtbayly wrote: post #13

He should be more mad, in my opinion. It’s ludicrous that Google can simply kill your phone number and nobody bats an eye. It’s such a fundamental part of life at this point. At the minimum, users should get a “We are no longer willing to provide you service. You have two weeks before service will end. Please switch your number to another provider if you want to keep it.” Other than non-payment, are there other phone…

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.

Re: Google banned me from Google Voice

#42

Post by lazyeye »

sbuttgereit wrote: post #9

Not to address the author of the article specifically, but only all readers generally.... I would suggest that the moment you chose to have a critical dependency on someone else's services, it becomes incumbent on you to have a disaster recovery plan should that service suddenly become unavailable to you. How formal or intense such a plan is may depend on if you're an individual or a small/mid-sized business that's t…

Google is unique in how badly they treat their customers.

Would any other provider take away your number without explanation, nor allow you to talk to a human?

At a minimum, Google needs to be regulated.

Re: Google banned me from Google Voice

#43

Post by reaperducer »

jtbayly wrote: post #13

He should be more mad, in my opinion. It’s ludicrous that Google can simply kill your phone number and nobody bats an eye. It’s such a fundamental part of life at this point. At the minimum, users should get a “We are no longer willing to provide you service. You have two weeks before service will end. Please switch your number to another provider if you want to keep it.” Other than non-payment, are there other phone…

It’s ludicrous that Google can simply kill your phone number and nobody bats an eye. It’s such a fundamental part of life at this point.

People today laugh at "Ma Bell," but at least you could go to a local office and sit at a desk in front of someone who could actually fix your problem, no matter how ludicrous it was.

I once lived in a four-story apartment building. When I moved from the second floor to the fourth floor, I called to have my phone transferred. The person on the phone said there is no fourth floor in my building. This wasn't a new-build. It was over 100 years old, and was converted into apartments decades earlier. But the woman on the phone couldn't do anything because the computer said there were only two floors.

I walked down to my local Bell office, and sat down at one of those battleship green desk with a woman and told her my story. She said, "Oh, yeah! I know that building. I drive by it every day. Is it nice inside?" Then she pushed some buttons on the computer, and the next day a guy with a gold-and-blue striped hardhat showed up and rewired the punchboard.

You can't even call Google for help with Google Voice, let alone talk to someone who knows your neighborhood.

Re: Google banned me from Google Voice

#45

Post by freedomben »

add-sub-mul-div wrote: post #41
jtbayly wrote: post #13

He should be more mad, in my opinion. It’s ludicrous that Google can simply kill your phone number and nobody bats an eye. It’s such a fundamental part of life at this point. At the minimum, users should get a “We are no longer willing to provide you service. You have two weeks before service will end. Please switch your number to another provider if you want to keep it.” Other than non-payment, are there other phone…

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.

I don't know, after getting screwed by AT&T who kept sending me bill after bill long after I had left, and dealing with their could-not-care-less human customer service, I think I'd have a really hard time deciding which I'd prefer. I think the evilness level is going to be very dependent on each situation.

Re: Google banned me from Google Voice

#46

Post by dansimau »

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.

Re: Google banned me from Google Voice

#47

Post by pixl97 »

sbuttgereit wrote: post #9

Not to address the author of the article specifically, but only all readers generally.... I would suggest that the moment you chose to have a critical dependency on someone else's services, it becomes incumbent on you to have a disaster recovery plan should that service suddenly become unavailable to you. How formal or intense such a plan is may depend on if you're an individual or a small/mid-sized business that's t…

Yet this is a somewhat backwards way to think if you want society to work. You don't put in 6 hours a day in your own garden to ensure backup food exists, right? Instead we set up systems of regulation and production to ensure we can Instead focus on our own specialization.

Re: Google banned me from Google Voice

#49

Post by runjake »

jtbayly wrote: post #25
lotsofpulp wrote: post #15

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> It’s ludicrous that Google can simply kill your phone number and nobody bats an eye. It is Google’s phone number. What is ludicrous is not having a federal US identity verification API such that phone numbers are not the end all be all. Or that if the US government wants to use phone numbers for identity verification, they enact legislation to provide legal protections from losing it. But I think leaders like the e…

It’s actually not Google’s phone number, as evidenced by the fact that he could have gone to the FCC and gotten it back if Google refused to release it to him. Edited to add: Also, it’s not true that phone numbers are only so important because of identity verification. That is one reason, but solving that doesn’t let my children’s school call me if Google shuts my number down, just to give one example. Edited to add…

> It’s actually not Google’s phone number

IANAL, but according to the Reddit post mentioned in this thread, the number isn't yours:

"Consumer Google Voice is not a FCC-regulated Local Exchange Carrier, and you have no explicit nor implied rights to the indefinite use of Google Voice telephone numbers."

"If you want to port the number out of the suspended service, you can file a FCC Consumer Complaint, asking for the number to be unlocked for porting out. These complaints get reviewed by Google's legal department. FCC complaints will NOT get your Google Voice service restored, as there is no regulation requiring Google to offer free service."

https://old.reddit.com/r/Googlevoice/comments/17n4zl2/google...

Re: Google banned me from Google Voice

#50

Post by reaperducer »

add-sub-mul-div wrote: post #41
jtbayly wrote: post #13

He should be more mad, in my opinion. It’s ludicrous that Google can simply kill your phone number and nobody bats an eye. It’s such a fundamental part of life at this point. At the minimum, users should get a “We are no longer willing to provide you service. You have two weeks before service will end. Please switch your number to another provider if you want to keep it.” Other than non-payment, are there other phone…

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.

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