It's been a bad week or so for VOIP users.

First, the Skype network was down for the count, leaving millions all over the world scrambling for their cell phones because their PCs couldn't make phone calls.

Now it seems more than 400 customers experienced a disturbance in the force that is Google's GrandCentral VOIP service, which the search vendor bought in July to let users integrate their phone numbers and voice mailboxes into one account, which can be accessed from the Web. 

According to a Monday blog post from GrandCentral co-founder Craig Walker, one of GrandCentral's carriers dropped coverage in 15 local areas, which left the VOIP provider scrambling to port numbers over to another carrier.

Exactly 434 numbers didn't make the jump. Walker said GrandCentral e-mailed users to tell them that "we had to change their numbers to another one in the same area code and we automatically added these numbers to their accounts."

GrandCentral also let users choose alternative numbers more to their liking. Annoyed GrandCentral customer Troy Schneider linked to the letter in his blog.

Walker and Co. did the right thing. But this bit of bad luck harms the Google property's image a bit because GrandCentral's pledge is "one number for life." Clearly, that wasn't the case here.

However, GrandCentral isn't backing down from its, ahem, calling card. A Google spokesperson told me Tuesday the company is committed to providing "one number for life" that users can count on.

The Skype and GrandCentral gaffes are in no way related, but that doesn't mean the outages don't put a damper on VOIP, which clearly has some challenges before becoming mainstream.

But this issue is a royal pain for Google, which is already smarting this week from blowing the way it discontinued its download-to-own/download-to-rent video feature.

And people wonder why Yahoo leapfrogged Google in the ASCI customer satisfaction poll. It's times like these that make you wonder if no news is good news.