I setup a GC account about a week before they switched to Google. I wasn't really looking at using them for anything other then a VM replacement. I like GCs mobile web page for checking your VM. I was going to create a PPC program to interface with the web interface that would automaticly download the VMs to the phone for local playback with a nice non web GUI.
I ditched GC after reciving a call on my home phone from a friend that lives in Hong Kong that told me that when he called my cellphone it rang a few times and then rather then asking him to leave a VM it just poped him into my VM menu without a password or anything. He was able to play my msgs and all. He hung up and called back again and the same thing happened.
When Alltel forwards unanswered calls to another number they also forward the caller ID info from the original caller. Well this friend form HK doesn't ever have and CallerID info so I am guessing that Alltel defaults to your cellphone number if the original caller doesn't have anything to forward. So the GC thinks you are calling from your cellphone to check your VM and puts you directly into the VM without a password.
This is a BIG problem. I emailed GC about this and they never responded.
My guess is YouMail knows about this problem with Alltel so they don't let Alltel users use YouMail.
If Alltel forwards a call that has "unavailable" as there caller ID then they should forward the call as "unavailable" and not substitut your own cellphone number as the caller id.
It's a shame because I was really liking GC. Even if you simply dial in to check your VM using touch tones it still kills Alltel's VM system.
Now that Google has taken over I could see them making a PPC program like I wanted to make. It seams everyone is scrambling to make a iPhone like VM system that is independent of the cell provider. |