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Comment by MichaelGG | Hacker News Reader

One thing that Amazon does way better than Google is handling out-of-country experiences. With Amazon, I have a US-based account, and no matter where I am (I primarily do not live in the US), _everything works_.

With Google, I'll install an app while in the USA. Then when travelling, I'll get a notification that there's an update available. But when I go to update it, I'm told the app doesn't exist. This is actually a security hole: If I have a buggy app, I can't update while outside the US.

If I sign in with my Google account, nothing changes - I'm still given "local" content. This is why I don't bother with Google Music. I'm not interested in having my files disappear to "not available in your country", despite using a USA credit card and address on my account.

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Interesting - my experiences are quite different. I can order some stuff from Amazon.com (US) from Canada, but many things aren't available. I can't use Amazon Prime (they won't even let me sign up without a US address), and I can't order books for my Amazon Kindle purchased in Dubai (it needs a US address as well).

With Google, however, nearly everything works. I've been using Google Music for some time now, although it isn't officially available in Canada. Same with Google Voice. All I had to do was sign up for both with a VPN for the first use, after which I can access it anywhere through the respective apps in any country with no hassles.

I'm intrigued, I tried to get Google Voice in Canada but was unsuccessful. Did you get a US phone number or you managed to get a Canadian area code?

All you need is to have a US IP address to get it working. But, that requires a VPN (which is sometimes expensive) and you`ll always have to go through it to access the Voice service. That most likely means no access from an Android phone though I'm not sure.

As for the phone number, it's going to be local to whatever adress he put in in the US, there are no Canadian phone numbers for Voice.

What really makes me angry is that Google purchased GrandCentral to get their voice software, then they completely shut Canada off from service and haven`t opened it in years. It's not like GrandCentral didn't get the CRTC approvals required to give service, so what's holding up Google? I'm really mad at them for how all these services only work in the US. There are legal considerations, but you'd think it wouldn't take 3 years to go through these kinds of hurdles when you're freakin' Google!

I was Grandfathered in from GC and was lucky enough to have my Canadian cell number transfer too. I have a Seattle GV number going to BC.

For 403 (Calgary) I believe GV works great.

i suggest you try dell voice :) they are doing exactly the same thing

Huh. Well, in that case, maybe I'll just go to the source and use Fongo then, since that's what Dell Voice uses? No use having an extra layer on top! http://www.fongo.com/

>This is why I don't bother with Google Music. I'm not interested in having my files disappear to "not available in your country"

i think you might be misunderstanding how google music's restrictions work. i have full access to google music without any restrictions just because i signed up while using an American VPN. i've never even accessed google music from outside of Canada, and it all works great.

I understand you cannot purchase music though, correct? It's just a locker service?

Yep, that's the case. You get a "Sorry! Music on Google Play is not available in your country yet." when you try to shop for music.

The rest of Google Music, however, appears to work well once the account is setup by US VPN. Even the Android app works without problems.

Google perpetrated one of the worst offenses I've ever seen in regards to 'regional discrimination'.

Way back when Android was first launching I wanted to order an ADP1. $500 or so and free shipping in the US.

Shipping to anywhere in the world (Russia, China, South Africa, etc) was anywhere from $30-$60. Shipping to Canada was about $280. Half the price of the bloody phone in shipping just to get it across the border, plus duty and tax when I received it.

Needless to say I shipped it to a guy I knew in the states and had it re-shipped for ~$30.

A little looking suggests [1] that the high cost of shipping to Canada was from import fees:

                     Shipping + Import Fees
    Canada            $ 35.75   $ 162.63
    United Kingdom    $ 42.60   $ 85.65
    Hungary           $ 55.72   $ 98.13
    Austria           $ 47.61   $ 96.66
    Germany           $ 42.60   $ 91.71
    France            $ 42.60   $ 95.74
    Spain             $ 47.61   $ 80.32
    Poland            $ 55.72   $ 106.44
    Switzerland       $ 47.61   $ 47.66
    Netherlands       $ 42.59   $ 91.71
    Sweden            $ 47.61   $ 117.07
    Finland           $ 47.61   $ 104.82
    India             $ 47.50   $ 125.21
    Japan             $ 42.06   $ 35.16
    Taiwan            $ 42.06   $ 71.82
    Australia         $ 47.50   $ 55.82
    Singapore         $ 42.06   $ 43.23

No idea why import fees were so high.

[1] http://forum.openhandsetdevelopers.com/android-dev-phone-1-a...

I don't even understand, what are "import fees"? Tariffs?

I keep forgetting that we don't have even remotely free trade, so absurd and economically senseless, sigh.

I had a similar experience while in Japan. Perfect time to use the Google Now currency card, right?

Nope, as soon as I set foot in Japan, the currency card doesn't show up in Google Now. The world is only going to become more and more internationally linked; hopefully Google figures out a better way to manage this than they have so far.

It seems Google has never been able to figure out that people actually travel between countries, which is amazing given how much the Googlers I know move around.

Great example is translations... often various Google properties speak the whatever local language to me, even though I'm logged in. While it has been a while since I've seen GMail in Turkish, this still happens frequently with search.

Two issues here:

1. my Google account knows what language I want to use

2. language !== country. Many countries have multiple official languages, not to mention immigrants etc.

This has been the complete opposite for me in Europe. I have to get a new account on the national Amazon website if I want to avoid paying extra fees for out-of-country delivery. That also screws up Recommendations, doesn't transfer my Wishlists and so on. To make the experience even less enjoyable you cannot change the language of the page and have to translate grind the whole page.

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