In typical San Francisco fashion there was an “accident” on the way to and from my meeting today. On the way there, it was being tended to by first responders, on the way back I saw the whole thing happen. Now, as I was trying to provide first aid and assess the severity of the injuries, I was also attempting to call 911. (I don’t want to hear anything about triage protocol from anyone). When trying to call 911, my phone just kept saying that it could not make the call as dialed. I tried a bunch of different ways, and different numbers.

Luckily someone else showed up within 2 minutes, and as I was making sure everyone was stable, they called. What if they hadn’t got there though? What if I was by myself or my fiance got attacked walking home from the store? The hypotheticals are endless.

So what happened? Well I was using Google Voice on my phone, which is over the internet, thus at my domicile where there is very little service, I could still get calls and texts. When my account got disabled Google shut down my Google Voice number but Sprint still tries to forward calls. I now have to get with Sprint customer support and get them to quit forwarding. Another thing Google doesn’t tell you will happen.

The lesson here folks, be careful how much you rely on technology.

Tweet