Google Voice App On Android Fails, Leaves Customer Upset & $700 In Debt

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Google Voice is perhaps my favorite service from Google, coming in second only to Gmail. My reasons for using Google Voice are plentiful, however a few of the nicer perks include being able to route and answer calls from a number of mobile phones as well as to my computer by way of having Gmail open in a browser window. In addition, the ability to block unwanted callers and screen unknown calls make giving out your telephone number a worry free event.

That being said, everyone has their own personal reasons for using Google Voice, and it looks like one user (Sophie) liked to use Google Voice (on her phone) to make international calls to France. And just to give a little background, when you first install and set up the Google voice app on your Android smartphone it gives you a few options — to use Google Voice for all calls, to use Google Voice only for international calls and to ask before each call is dialed.

Anyway, the long and short of this story, it seems Sophie was using Google Voice on her Android smartphone with T-Mobile. She had been calling France, which when billed by Google Voice should come in at a low 2 cents per minute. And at the end of the month, she was surprised with a $700 phone bill from T-Mobile. Needless to say, with calls going through Google Voice, she should not be getting that bill from the carrier. Well, she should not unless the calls were not being routed properly.

From that point, she received the high bill from T-Mobile, contacted them and did not get the answer she wanted. Basically, T-Mobile said it is not their fault, to which she has taken this stance;

“I asked them to put a note in my file that I am working on solving the problem but that I won’t pay the rest of the bill that I am not responsible for since either Google Voice’s application didn’t work or there was an error on Tmobile’s end.”

So here is the question, is this her fault, her phones fault or maybe the fault of Google. Honestly, in this case there does not seem to be any good answer and while I would hate to be in her position and having to pay the $700 bill — I am note sure this should be the responsibility of T-Mobile.

Bottom line here, if you rely on Google Voice for making calls (especially international) you should do a few things to make sure you are not going to get a killer bill from your carrier at the end of the month.

• First, login into your Google Voice account from time to time and make sure the calls you are making are showing in your history.
• Second, you can also force them to route by dialing though Google Voice. For this you call your Google Voice number, press 2 and then dial the full number you are calling including the country code.

And lastly, in the case of an app update, the Google Voice Android app requires the user to “open Google Voice at least once after upgrading to route calls.” With that, hit the source link below to read the full letter from Sophie, and after, we would love to hear your opinion as to whether or not it is her fault.