3 ms·

Yea, I've had a google voice number that I have used sporadically for my business for a few years and suddenly my account was just banned without any obvious re

Yea, I've had a google voice number that I have used sporadically for my business for a few years and suddenly my account was just banned without any obvious reason. It was obvious to me that it was some bot gone wild on their end and was clearly a mistake. I tried contacting Google about it for months with no response. It was a number I actually needed for something important but was never able to recover it. I would have happily paid a monthly fee for the service if it meant I could at least get a response from a support email (ironically there's no number for google voice support). I even tried pleading with my adwords manager where I was spending a ton of money every month and she said she didn't known how to help.

creeble 10y ago
Ug, that pretty much terrifies me. I have a google voice number that I've used (for free) since it was Grand Central, and rely on it pretty heavily. Anybvody else seeing GV random revokes? I wonder what would happen if I tried a port-out for this number.
- jliptzin 10y ago
  This right here is the quicksand you stand on with Google's free products. Starts out pretty innocuous. Hey, check out this cool new free phone product called Google Voice. You check it out, it's cool, don't really know how it might be useful but you play around with it and maybe use it for a side project or as a toy. Eventually, maybe years later, you find it may be very useful to your business. Great! You roll it out, slowly more and more things depend on it as you incorporate it more deeply into your services. Then suddenly, like a turkey on Thanksgiving Day, you're permanently cut off from your account without warning and without recourse. Now you're in a state worse off than had you never signed up for the service to begin with.
- raisedbyninjas 10y ago
  Google Voice numbers can be ported to Project-Fi. Porting to another carrier would almost certainly be more successful from that service.
fencepost 10y ago
This is why I won't rely on Google Voice for anything important - if they won't make it a paid service with some additional features, that means it's a cost center that could go away at any time. Heck, I'd happily pay for Google Voice with the addition of fax capabilities (even if it was receive-only), particularly since my online faxing service was bought out by eFax (feh) and at the next renewal will jack up from $15/year to $85/year (bye!). I'd happily pay multiples of how much I was previously paying to be an actual /customer/ who gets that kind of services.
- amyjess 10y ago
  > if they won't make it a paid service with some additional features, that means it's a cost center that could go away at any time Project Fi is a paid version of Google Voice with additional features. I doubt Voice will go away before Fi does.

creeble 10y ago

Ug, that pretty much terrifies me. I have a google voice number that I've used (for free) since it was Grand Central, and rely on it pretty heavily. Anybvody else seeing GV random revokes? I wonder what would happen if I tried a port-out for this number.

jliptzin 10y ago
This right here is the quicksand you stand on with Google's free products. Starts out pretty innocuous. Hey, check out this cool new free phone product called Google Voice. You check it out, it's cool, don't really know how it might be useful but you play around with it and maybe use it for a side project or as a toy. Eventually, maybe years later, you find it may be very useful to your business. Great! You roll it out, slowly more and more things depend on it as you incorporate it more deeply into your services. Then suddenly, like a turkey on Thanksgiving Day, you're permanently cut off from your account without warning and without recourse. Now you're in a state worse off than had you never signed up for the service to begin with.
raisedbyninjas 10y ago
Google Voice numbers can be ported to Project-Fi. Porting to another carrier would almost certainly be more successful from that service.

fencepost 10y ago

This is why I won't rely on Google Voice for anything important - if they won't make it a paid service with some additional features, that means it's a cost center that could go away at any time. Heck, I'd happily pay for Google Voice with the addition of fax capabilities (even if it was receive-only), particularly since my online faxing service was bought out by eFax (feh) and at the next renewal will jack up from $15/year to $85/year (bye!). I'd happily pay multiples of how much I was previously paying to be an actual /customer/ who gets that kind of services.

amyjess 10y ago
> if they won't make it a paid service with some additional features, that means it's a cost center that could go away at any time Project Fi is a paid version of Google Voice with additional features. I doubt Voice will go away before Fi does.