Hacker News Board Hacker News, browsed like a classic message board
Live data from Hacker News

Google banned me from Google Voice

dannyguo.com

Post reply on HN
Print view View original

91–100 of 152 posts

Re: Google banned me from Google Voice

#91

Post by trog »

Is there a simple small claims court approach to this that would serve as a more convoluted way to actually access support from Google and other large companies?

I feel like if this happened to me I wouldn't even try getting in touch with Google support, having had enough experience myself and read enough of these stories to know it would be a frustrating waste of time.

But if there was a legal hack to do it that forced them to reply and cost them more money, even if it cost me some, it might be worth it in cases where the downsides (like losing your phone number of 15 years!!) are so high.

Re: Google banned me from Google Voice

#92

Post by thfuran »

thatsnotmepls wrote: post #86
ffsm8 wrote: post #83

Earlier quoted context omitted.

While rare, there have been cases of people losing their paid-for domains too - because a company wanted them and had a lawyer convince the registrar that it should really be theirs (obviously exaggerating), or because the registrar made an error and accidentally put it back on the market etc. These cases are super rare though, Google users getting rekt are much more frequent, that's for sure!

People forgetting to renew happens frequently too. Now what's more rare, Google banning someone for no reason or a person forgetting to renew and losing its domain?

I think there's a significant base rate difference.

Re: Google banned me from Google Voice

#93

Post by mdaniel »

CharlesW wrote: post #23
kuczmama wrote: post #10

I have been using Google voice for 10+ years, and it's always been something that concerns me. I've been worried about Google either banning me or dropping the service. Does anyone know of a good alternative, I'm happy to pay for something but the main thing is it needs to be able to work from the browser like Google voice.

One option is to buy an Ooma ($80) and port your number to it ($40). The my.ooma.com site isn't responsive, but otherwise works fine on mobile.

I had never heard of them, but FWIW their "simplysafe competitor" says it comes with phone service, so that one-stop-shopping may interest this audience https://www.ooma.com/home-security/diy-security-system/#:~:t...

ed: however, unlike Google Voice it does not appear this service supports SMS/MMS so it's for sure not a one-to-one replacement :(

It _seems_ that Asterisk supports SMS, but from the wording I can't tell if they mean only in Europe or what https://docs.asterisk.org/Configuration/Applications/Short-M...

Re: Google banned me from Google Voice

#94

Post by kylehotchkiss »

This is why I export my emails to my laptop on a regular basis with GYB (https://github.com/GAM-team/got-your-back) even though I am a paying Google for Business customer.

The real controversy here however is the dependency on a US phone number for securely transacting in so many ways. Carriers barely can hold onto a number for you with SIM swaps and there is no such concept as "owning" a phone number

Re: Google banned me from Google Voice

#95

Post by kylehotchkiss »

andrewinardeer wrote: post #81

This guy is lucky they only banned his Google Voice account. Years ago I lost an entire Yahoo! account with paid hosting for my side gig at the time along with years emails because I apparently broke their ToS by asking a question deemed inappropriate on Yahoo! Answers.

> inappropriate on Yahoo! Answers.

How can ANY question have been too inappropriate for Yahoo! Answers? That was a true treasure of the web RIP Am I Gregnant?

Re: Google banned me from Google Voice

#96

Post by tech234a »

dzhiurgis wrote: post #84
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…

2 weeks is not enough. People frequently go away for months.

Google Voice deletes your phone number after 3 months of inactivity. Years ago it was longer, about 9 months IIRC.

Re: Google banned me from Google Voice

#97

Post by BenjiWiebe »

ein0p wrote: post #29

Folks, do not use Voice for anything critical. It has all the hallmarks of a "destaffed" project - no significant updates in years, nobody even bothers to rename it every 6 months. For all we know it's a purely volunteer effort at Google, like Reader was shortly before it got canned. I only use it in the cases where I need to leave a phone number and I know I'll get spammed.

The Android app actually started getting updates again sometime in the last couple of years, including a complete re-do of the GUI.

Re: Google banned me from Google Voice

#98

Post by nobody9999 »

elmerfud wrote: post #12
ToucanLoucan wrote: post #3

Earlier quoted context omitted.

[flagged]

Power shifts back and forth all the time and despite whether they have an R or a D beside their name how they view a particular issue seems to be very fluid on their political beliefs of the moment. Also considering that 80% of the government is reelected at the federal level every two years. If the people cared it would change. Politicians primary goal is to continue to remain in power the problem is that the people…

>Even outside of that the FTC is fully empowered to implement the protections that are needed right now without congresses involvement or the president.

You do realize that the FTC chairman serves at the pleasure of the President, right? As such, the new President (or more likely his Heritage Foundation lapdogs) will decide what the FTC can and cannot do.

If it's within the executive branch, the head of that branch (who is that again?) has broad authority to do whatever they want, and Congress' (given that a "veto-proof" majority on any bill is so unlikely as to be impossible) and/or the populace's only recourse is through the Federal courts -- assuming you have the time and money to pay for lawyers and wait for your appeal to be denied by SCOTUS, then you're done.

So good luck with that. You're gonna need it.

Re: Google banned me from Google Voice

#99

Post by WheelsAtLarge »

gpspake wrote: post #58

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 public…

This is great until you lose control of your domain because you forgot to pay it or whatever. What then? Whoever owns your domain owns your email address. It's a good solution but it's got its faults too.

Re: Google banned me from Google Voice

#100

Post by nobody9999 »

WheelsAtLarge wrote: post #99
gpspake wrote: post #58

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 public…

This is great until you lose control of your domain because you forgot to pay it or whatever. What then? Whoever owns your domain owns your email address. It's a good solution but it's got its faults too.

>This is great until you lose control of your domain because you forgot to pay it or whatever. What then? Whoever owns your domain owns your email address. It's a good solution but it's got its faults too.

Yeah, this is great until you lose control of your home because you forgot to pay the mortgage or whatever. What then? The bank owns your home. So, obviously, you should never buy a home with a loan, right? A mortgage is a good solution, but its got its faults too.

Post reply on HN