I’m still having trouble changing my address with various companies. This time, it’s Google. I get my phone service from Google Fi, a Google-owned MVNO. Ironic, of course, since my phone is de-Googled and runs GrapheneOS and I don’t even use Google for searching. But I was a beta tester when what was then known as Project Fi was just being launched, and it was a fraction of the price with far better customer service than any of the mainstream carriers. They even sent us Christmas presents! I’ve kept it because they’ve given me a great deal and the service works particularly well for my needs, with multiple data-only SIMs and good international roaming.
I had heard that their customer service had become abysmal, but I haven’t needed any customer service since it enshittified. In typical Google fashion, though, it’s impossible to reach a human. Everything is self-service which is fine until you encounter a bug in their system then… good luck.
In this case, when I enter my service address it tells me it isn’t valid. The service address is important because, even though I don’t get cellular service here, there is enough signal to make a 9-1-1 call. But if you can’t get a voice message through for whatever reason, they need to know your calling location. It’s an FCC requirement that all originating numbers have an associated service address for e-911 purposes.
I was surprised when I filed a trouble ticket and got a message back the next day from “Elena” offering to make the change for me if I’d send the address. So I sent the address and “Elena” replied that she was unable to change addresses, but that I could do it myself online. Which address did I want to change? I replied that I wanted to change my service address, and that I had already sent screenshots with the original report showing that trying to change it online didn’t work. She replied by telling me that I can change the address online or through the app. I’d tried both already, of course. She had the screenshots. And now it was becoming obvious that Elena was a lie. It’s some sort of bot. I’d say “AI,” but there’s obviously no intelligence behind the “Elena” persona. Its next suggestion was that I use a different browser — as if the fact that things didn’t work with their own app and the browser I’d used already was somehow my fault for not having the right browser. I tried anyway and got the expected results in four different browsers on two different platforms:
It seems pretty apparent that standard practice among web developers is to validate entered addresses via the US Postal Service and reject any that USPS doesn’t like. That’s fine when asking for a mailing address, but to make the assumption that everyone living in the US has mail service to their home is absurd. Even the Social Security Administration made this mistake. Many others do, too. I get my mail at a PO box because the USPS does not deliver mail where I live and does not consider my street address valid. Conversely, delivery services such as UPS, FedEx, DHL, and others will not deliver parcels to a PO box but have no trouble with my “not valid” street address. Even.. wait for it… Google Maps recognizes my street address as valid. (Apple Maps recognizes it, but will dump you off in the middle of an 80-acre pasture down the road if you follow their directions.) If I add my PO box to the “Service Address,” it gets rejected even if I also include the valid street address — as it should. (Queue image of fire trucks as ambulances converging on the local Post Office.)
Are all web developers so provincial as to believe that the United States Postal Service can validate any location in the country? (Aside: there’s an area a few miles from me that officially does not have a zip code. Think about how many places ask you for a zip code! I’m grateful that I live over the line and at least have a five-digit — thought not a 9-digit — code I can give.)
The other idiot companies that required a valid mailing address in the physical address field (financial companies are the worst, insisting on a physical street address to comply with know-your-customer regulations, but rejecting anything that’s a PO box or doesn’t include a valid mailing address), at least have someone you can call who can usually override the USPS-must-validate requirement. Calling Google — when you can get through at all — just connects you to the same Artificial Idiot they use for email.
—2p