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Google banned me from Google Voice

dannyguo.com

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Re: Google banned me from Google Voice

#51

Post by larme »

superkuh wrote: post #40
larme wrote: post #18

Try jmp.chat, you can use an XMPP client to receive phone calls and sms. I use the following services: - phone number: jmp.chat and a textnow number as backup - email: fastmail - search: kagi - map: apple map

I tried kagi for a while. Did you ever notice that kagi image search is just a wrapper around google image search? The results are exactly the same, just in a slightly randomized order.

I didn't use google's image search for a long time so I don't know that. But I think kagi pays to use google's data as one of their source. So it's possible the image search results are the same. However the different order/ranking is what separated kagi and google.

Re: Google banned me from Google Voice

#52

Post by umaar »

throwaway313373 wrote: post #35
umaar wrote: post #22

Was the number used to sign up for, and receive communications from credit card companies? Is the ban related to signing up for +100 cards? https://www.dannyguo.com/blog/my-credit-and-debit-card-colle...

Is it a violation of any of the policies?

I imagine it's not, but can also see automated systems flagging the number as being the recipient of messages for over a hundred different financial institutions.

Re: Google banned me from Google Voice

#53

Post by rmonvfer »

oreoftw wrote: post #4

The author should consider himself lucky. Just one google service has been suspended. I got my account banned for no reason and lost access to more than 10 years worth of emails, documents, single sign ons to different apps, etc. Only invoking GDPR and the ownership of a domain name allowed me to regain access and restore email service. Without GDPR I would've got nothing at all.

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

Re: Google banned me from Google Voice

#54

Post by freedomben »

transcriptase wrote: post #36

I’m getting sick of the “take no responsibility for human or computer mistakes by creating automated processes where fixing the mistake manually can’t be done or hurts a KPI”. FedEx lost my package. Apparently there’s no process to flag it missing without being able to physically scan the missing item (???). It’s permanently marked as “out for delivery”, so all of their systems tell you everything is fine and activel…

Yeah, this is especially maddening because drivers are just people, and people can easily make mistakes (or in some cases, straight up steal the package).

And even if it does eventually get straightened out, it will be weeks and weeks until you get the replacement (or original). This has happened to me with very time sensitive things where I paid for expedited shipping. Well the re-shipment went out via slow-boat ground, and they wouldn't send it out until the original was fully returned to sender. And ... no refund on the expedited shipping.

Re: Google banned me from Google Voice

#55

Post by michaelt »

peterfisher wrote: post #33

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.

From the article:

> And I directly pay Google by subscribing to Google One, YouTube Premium, and Google Workspace (just for my custom domain email).

[...]

> I subscribe to a Google One plan. I knew that one of the more understated benefits is the ability to get live support from an actual person, [...] When I brought the conversation back to the Google Voice suspension, they were unable to access the ticket that was created when I submitted my appeal.

Re: Google banned me from Google Voice

#56

Post by jtbayly »

lotsofpulp wrote: post #38
jtbayly wrote: post #25

Earlier quoted context omitted.

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…

Sorry, I should not have assumed that Google voice numbers provided for free are portable. Or at least not immediately released back to the pool of available numbers. It is a free service, so I expected to not have any right to it. I also feel like my only use for phone numbers for many years has been identity verification. If I lost access to it, I could be reached via multiple other communications avenues, but I ca…

That’s certainly a wise expectation, but that doesn’t make it right that the company can do that, whether you pay them or not. The fact that the FCC recognizes your right to the phone number you’ve been using (regardless of payment) is instructive.

Edited to add: from other comments, the FCC requiring them to release the number might actually be wrong. It’s possible that it is just Google being wise themselves to avoid trouble.

Re: Google banned me from Google Voice

#57

Post by stronglikedan »

Slightly OT, but since it was mentioned in the article, only slightly:

> A silver lining is that with the new line, I was able to get a new iPhone 15 for almost free after bill credits.

No, you just got free financing on the phone. If you compare their contract plan rates to their prepaid plan rates, you're paying more over the course of your contract for the same plan.

Re: Google banned me from Google Voice

#58

Post by gpspake »

Life pro tip (I believe that everyone should do this):

- Buy a domain and set up a custom email that represents you like firstname@firstlast.com - you own this domain and email address and no company, with the exception of your registrar maybe, has any control over it or authority to take it from you.

- Set up a dummy gmail/proton/whatever acct with a random address - this address will never be used or exposed publicly but it will represent your online email hosting acct.

- Forward your custom email address to the email provider address and configure the web client to send from your custom address.

- set your provider email account up in a local client like outlook that allows you to create a local backup.

- continue watching your previous account and updating your accounts to your new lifetime address. At some point, you should be getting minimal emails to the old account, then you can forward it to your new one.

The idea here is that you've decoupled your identity (your email address) from your webmail provider (gmail)

So google inexplicably cuts your access. Now what?

No problem. You have a local backup of all your emails in outlook. You repeat the process with a different service like proton (or a new gmail acct) with a new dummy email. Then you set the new acct up in outlook and drag all of the emails from your old acct in to the new one you haven't missed a beat. You're still sending and receiving emails to/from the same address and you can access all your historical emails in the new hosting acct because you migrated/synced them all over locally in outlook.

Losing access to your email identity is arguably one of the most catastrophic scenarios you can think of in terms of being online. This guards against that about as much as possible. It doesn't cover other services like voice and stuff but you can follow similar strategies for things like documents and files.

Re: Google banned me from Google Voice

#59

Post by toast0 »

lazyeye wrote: post #19

And at the end of all that he still doesnt know why he was banned. And this was a paying customer. What a truly despicable company google is.

> And this was a paying customer.

This doesn't really matter to Google; they offer uniform service regardless of means. Maybe if you're a big advertiser it helps; but as a paid GSuite customer, I got no real help when I asked either --- yes, someone answered the phone, but they can't even put in a feature request; and when my employer was acquired and wanted to integrate the two GSuites, that's not possible either; my employer had a small number of accounts so sure, ignore them, but the acquirer is large enough that I would have expected support requests to result in at least a roadmap entry.

The only reliable way to get support from Google is to have an employee champion your issue.

Re: Google banned me from Google Voice

#60

Post by add-sub-mul-div »

freedomben wrote: post #45
add-sub-mul-div wrote: post #41

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.

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.

I've never had a bad customer service experience with a phone company, cable company, etc. I believe others have, but I'd rather take my chances not being an outlier customer service anecdote with them than rely on Google where customer service isn't an option period.
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