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@reykjavik: ...and I've yet to get a single spam or wrong-number call via Grand Central (and I've been using them since January).
As for me, I find the menu useful. There are people who have legitimate business reasons to get in touch with me but whom I frequently don't want to talk with right away, so being able to send them to voicemail (and optionally listen in on that voicemail while it's being left) is useful. Hard to determine whether I want that without the menu. Also, I sometimes answer calls from my home phone, which doesn't have Caller ID; with Grand Central, I know who it is that's calling anyhow.
It may not work for you, but that's not to say it isn't a good idea.
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GrandCentral has improved IMHO. I like the idea of white and black lists. I give my GC number to people I don't necessarily want calling me. Important people still have direct access to my cell phone.
Also, no one should be depending on a beta program.
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GrandCentral is an incredible service and certainly not analogous to communism. I use it myself and I would imagine one week is more than sufficient notice to get notice out to everyone that you have changed numbers. It's just a change of number, it happened before when land lines and cell=phones and everyone kept up. Jeez.
Finally, it is an incredibly poweful service that is free (I use it to make Canada/US calls for local prices for example). I can't even see how their business is sustainable. In my book, that earns them a lot of leeway in what they can or cannot do before I get ticked off.
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I was not one the \"lucky\" few who got that email. I use my GC number every day but it wouldn't be that big of a problem to let people who I've told that it is changing. I've done it multiple times before with a cellphone.
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Folks... it's a BETA... if you're putting your \"production-needs\" phone number on a beta service then you are a fool.
Beta implies that they think it's working up to snuff, but certainly aren't willing to commit to it, and significant downtimes or radical changes are all distinct possibilities.
If you're not willing to accept those sorts of conditions, you shouldn't be using a \"beta\" of a product in the first place.
This sounds like AT&T/Ma Bell behind the scenes messing with google. I bet they're screwing up google's service intentionally so that they can't make a play in the field. Maybe it's the same thing that is going on with Skype?
Yeah! Those people whose numbers were changed should get a full refund! Oh wait.
@shiwsup: If you are a GC user check out the features page at ([www.grandcentral.com]). If you have the incoming call menu activated, press 3 to listen in the the voicemail message. If you want to jump into the call while the caller is leaving a message press *.
@shiwsup: You mean what, how do you turn off the menu? Let me log into the settings and look...
...hrm. Maybe when I was first poking around I misread the option to turn off call screening as turning off the menu.
Okay, that's an annoying lack of functionality -- I'd at least like to be able to disable that for specific callers or groups.
Here's why they can't turn off the screening...if its ringing multiple phones, the first to answer will get connected! Lame if my cell phone is out of juice or out of range, it will answer immediately everytime and then all my calls will be directly connected to my cellphone voicemail. Exactly what GrandCentral is trying to avoid.
Also, Beta users shouldn't be shocked with beta things...oh, I don't know, such as testing quality with different settings, partners, etc. That email seemed pretty reasonable and at least you got ANY warning. More than the Sunrocket guys who got turned OFF. I've been a happy, make that ecstatic, user since February and I've never had a problem, never paid a dime, and didn't receive or have any friends receive the email you mention. Maybe in this case it really did only affect a few people.:)
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I've blogged about the larger Enterprise 2.0 implications of this situation over at ZDNet:
Take a look!
Michael Krigsman
[projectfailures.com]
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@mkrigsman: Why can't you just post it here?
Oh, right. You want people to look at your ads. And push your stupid site.
I had GrandCentral for a week, got tons of spam calls and wrong number calls and canceled a few days later. Also, when you get a call, each time, a pre-recorded voice asks you what to do - I can't think of anything more annoying than picking up a phone, saying \"hello?\" and having a recorded womans voice talking while you're phone is ringing in the background.
Grandcentral = Communism: Great concept, doesn't quite work in real life.