Some messages are not able to be delivered by people sending them to me

[flong]

I've been with Public Mobile for over 2 years and never had an issue until this week.

A few people I know have sent me screen shots of messages that were not able to be delivered to my phone this week.

I noticed there are many others in the Community with the same issue, but I didn't see any resolutions. Any ideas?

[darlicious]

@flong 

Well said. Pm is lucky to have forgiving customers like yourself.....good customer service ca overcome almost anything but bad customer will lose a customer before they ever become one.

[flong]

I just have to say something about your comment.

The problem was never my phone or on my end. The issue was triggered by my SIM card going in and out of a few other phones one day, which inadvertently means Public Mobile may have had something to do with it, though it looks like some kind of glitch with Google servers were to blame.

It is Public Mobile's responsibility to work with the customer to find out why their service doesn't work. It's not my responsibility, although unlike most customers, I am more than willing to troubleshoot myself and with this community. If Public Mobile had taken the time initially it could have been solved pretty quickly; the guy I talked to from Telus was very well informed and knew how things worked. But it took them over two weeks to get back to me in any meaningful way, by which time I had stumbled on the solution myself. During that time the most meaningful response was "...like I said before is not a problem on our part or with your SIM card. Take care,   Raluca_B" It was THIS process that made me want to "run off to the competition." This is a response from a representative who couldn't possibly care less if the customer switched to another provider, and I'm pretty sure I would have been right to do so at that point.

All I did was suggest Public Mobile do something/anything. Never once did I insinuate that it was Public Mobile's fault this happened. But it is their fault it took over two weeks to get back to me.

Yes I almost ran to the competition, and rightly so.

Though I'm glad it got figured out and I'm still here. The guy I talked to from higher up was awesome, and the reason I didn't switch even after I'd figured out the issue.

I'm looking forward to being here a while longer.

[softech]

@flong  Glad that it is finally working .. this Mystery of the Month finally solved!!

and think positive.. because of this issue, you have been participating in the community this month and you likely will get $1 or $2 Community reward for the next cycle.!!

[darlicious]

@flong 

Well that must be a relief having finally gotten to the bottom of it...and a big thanks to the telus guy for being able to put the dots together so that the fix that you stumbled upon could be linked to where the problem originated.

Its funny how a sim card when put in another phone will pick up and transfer a little piece of information to your phone. I gave my sim to a friend to test their phone and low and behold when I powered my phone back up it asked for my sim lock pin?!! I had the phone for over 3 years and never seen that screen....luckily the default pin# worked but now everytime my phone reboots I get that screen and have to enter the pin #.

One of the phones you had tested your sim card in probably had chat features turned on and combined with a buggy googles update in June your sim card came home with a hitchhiker on board that settled into your google messages app. Clearing your cache, uninstalling the updates and getting the latest version solved it so that when you did enable chat features all those messages came in that were stuck in purgatory with no where go.....

It certainly fits the bill of a self solution and I'm sure an oracle will come along and mark it so....and I will be filing it for future reference. I'm sure you are looking forward to $2 in loyalty rewards showing up after your next renewal too! (I just had mine tick over from $1 to $2.)😃

[Anonymous]

 @flong : It's one of those stories like with computer support ie. what did you change or what did you do. We did not know all of the back story. It's what I always kind of instinctively do when something goes wrong with tech out of the blue...hands off..stop.. think...what did I do.. and replay it back.

And here you were ready to run off to the competition when it was something else entirely...not Telus, not PM...but all too willing to lay blame.

Great update. Great finding or figuring out the problem. Glad to hear it's all good now.

[flong]

Okay. So here's what happened. I cleared the cache of the Google Messages app and uninstalled all updates. Restarted my phone and then updated to the latest version. When I opened the app again it asked if I would like to enable "Chat Features", which I've never enabled before, but I figured I'd just do it to see if that did anything. Suddenly all the messages people have been sending flooded my phone. Then I started sending and receiving messages with it enabled, which I assume uses wifi/data instead of SMS technology, so I switched it off again. And it appears (for now) that it's working again as it has been for years.
Around that time Telus got ahold of me and we figured out that it's likely when I had switched out my SIM card to test out a few phones two weeks ago, one of them had caused an error with my "Chat Features" on the Google servers somehow. And for some reason when my SIM card ended up back in my phone it somehow triggered the functionality issue with some people not being able to send me messages. Who the heck knows why or how this happened, and why with specifically those contacts. @esjliv had mentioned something about this earlier today, and I hadn't even had time to really read into it, but that was the right direction for sure.
So the problem wasn't my phone, because when I put my SIM card into my old backup phone people still couldn't send messages to me. I also know it wasn't the SIM card because I went out and bought a new SIM card and nothing changed. I knew it had something to do with testing those phones out using my SIM card because the problem started that day.
tl;dr: Solution was to uninstall Google Messages app, reinstall, enable Chat Features and then disable Chat Features.
Thank you to Telus for finally getting back to me...even though I stumbled on the solution already, he was super helpful and was able to explain a few things in detail. And thank you to the ones who provides great suggestions and encouragement especially @darlicious and @esjliv

[darlicious]

@flong 

You have gotten a message from the top so you are finally going to get the customer service and technical assistance you should have gotten from the very beginning.....not nearly two weeks later. But thank you for keeping the faith with pm rather than nearly jumping ship......

@J_PM 

Thank you for flagging this so @flong finally gets the customer support they should have had all along. I hope pm appreciates how close they came to losing a customer and demonstrates how much they appreciate customer loyalty....or perhaps in this case blind faith!😁

[flong]

Hey! Thanks so much for the detailed reply.

At this point I've tried pretty much everything I can imagine on my end. Also you'd mentioned trying a different phone, and I did, but it was the same using that phone, some contacts still couldn't send me messages. Also I tried a SIM swap last night, but that didn't work either, some contacts still weren't able to send messages. So it is crystal clear the issue is not on my end as previously suggested.

At this point, my message to PM is: if there is a nuclear option, pick the nuclear option.

[softech]

@J_PM   is this a known issue at the moment?   there were couple threads about unable to get incoming calls and text and they all have to open ticket with mod to have mod reset something on their account on the system.

[J_PM]

Hi @flong 

We apologize for the inconvenience. I've flagged this issue with the broader team to determine the best way to troubleshoot the issue you are having with your messages not being received. 

Jade 

[esjliv]

---

@flong wrote:

I tried a SIM swap. Nothing changed, those contacts who are only able to send me a portion of messages (or none at all) are still having it happen the same.

It's time for PM to completely reset my account. Let's get serious here. It's been two weeks now.

---

@flong oh boy, not a great experience -sorry to hear it!

It has been weeks, so maybe you tried these things already, but in case you did not, try one or more of the below:

• *turn off your phone, leave off for a minutes, then reboot
• *removing your SIM for a few minutes, then reinserting it
• *go into airplane mode for a few minutes, then going back to regular mode
• *reset network settings
• *ensure you have the latest software on your device
• *uninstall and reinstall your message app

Have you gotten a new phone lately or made any changes?

IF android -

Disable your Chat Features: 

1. Open Messages
2. Tap More options > Settings > Chat features
3. Turn Enable chat features off

Also, if the people you are having issues receiving texts from have their Chat Features ON, this can affected delivery to you as well. Since these texts use WIFI for transmission.

**CAN YOU Try your SIM into another phone and see if the issue persists? This would help identify whether this is a device or account issue.

IF the issue still happens in another phone with basic trouble shooting above - submit another ticket to MODS to check account.

[flong]

I tried a SIM swap. Nothing changed, those contacts who are only able to send me a portion of messages (or none at all) are still having it happen the same.

Switching phones didn't work, switching SIM cards didn't work. The problem is obviously not on my end.

It's time for PM to completely reset my account. Let's get serious here. It's been two weeks now.

[darlicious]

@flong 

Before you jump ship to a ship infested with rats that you just can't see give this leaky boat one more opportunity to right the ship. At anytime did the moderators say they reset your account or reprovisioned your sim card? If they have not done this then the issue has not been resolved and the response by the last moderator is exceptionally poor customer service. 

Regardless of whether or not  the reset/ reprovisioning has been perfomed without success pm and the moderagors should always be striving to keep you a happy and satisfied customer. They have failed miserably in this aspect and management like @J_PM  should not be pleased that the only people trying to resolve your issue and keep you as a customer is the community. Good customer service can make up for the worst of failings.....I have always thought that this was pm's most redeeming factor.

I am also want to help save you from a provider with some of the worst customer service I have personally recieved and is well documented in CCTS complaints. (rogers/fido/chatr)

I suggest you send a new private message to the moderator team asking for an account reset and sim card reprovisioning and some proper troubleshooting of your issue. Response times are well under an hour but you also need to give them the attention necessary to troubleshoot the problem.

[Anonymous]

 @flong : Those hand-offs are terrible. Did you keep the ticket thread title throughout all back and forths? Sometimes the moderator system leaves much to be desired. Sorry you've had this experience.

[flong]

You're right, the note suggests I hadn't been in contact with them, but I certainly have been daily. I think part of the problem is that I'd talked to different people every time I sent a PM and maybe things got lost...it certainly appeared things got lost as I ended up repeating myself a few times during the last few days.

[Anonymous]

 @flong : Their note suggests you hadn't replied to them in private messaging. Hopefully you weren't attempting to reply in email...you need to converse in private messaging only. If customers don't reply then they drop the ticket/support request.

[flong]

Here's the answer I just got after inquiring again:

"I verified the ticket and my team tried to contact you, but with you didn't answered and the ticket was suspended. But like I said before is not a problem on our part or with your SIM card. Take care,   Raluca_B"

I'd gone through all the steps asked of me for the last week and a half and nothing worked.

I'd asked if we could try a different SIM card, but I guess the answer is no.

Signing up with Chatr tomorrow morning.

[flong]

All of that sounds good, and there's been a support ticket submitted for the last several days, but I haven't heard anything much since then. Nobody on their end has suggested a new SIM card or suggested anything else. I'm sad to go, but I need text messaging to work. I'm giving it until Thursday morning before switching to Chatr, I think that'll be a week and a half since I started reporting it here. That's more than enough time to have any kind of movement on this. Hopefully they see this and do something.

I like routing for the underdog, and I like playing less for service, and I'm also proud to have referred at least 6 people here since joining two and a half years ago. But people have to be able to send me text messages. I don't think that's asking much. Hoping there's some movement on this asap.

[darlicious]

@flong 

You won't get an answer tonight but you can private message or submit a support ticket to get a reply from the moderators in the morning. You can ask them to reset your account and reprovision your sim card. This may be related to the sim card not being able to keep a steady connection between your phone and the the network.

If it continues or returns ( like it sounds like that has already occurred) after they both reset your account and reprovision the sim card then your sim card is failing. Document  this with the moderators and go purchase a new sim card. Save the reciept. Perform a sim swap in your account and submit a copy of your reciept to the moderators for a credit on your account for the sim card replacement.

Have you toggled airplane mode on/ off? That will give you a brand new connection to the network in case your connection is poor. Is this only affecting incoming messages?

[flong]

Update: I'm still having people tell me their messages aren't sending to me. I've never had this issue until this week, and apparently it's not improving. Obviously having only some messages isn't going to work, and as of right now the plan is to switch to Chatr by Monday.

Is there a Mod or someone who can let me know if this is the only option?

Thanks!

[flong]

Thanks so much for the replies.

It seemed to be a period of a couple days where some regular text messages from some contacts weren't being able to be delivered and just hung on their phones. Messages of all types seem to be working again, and nobody changed any settings. Seems like it must have been on PM's end.

[Anonymous]

 @Yummy : Or have dual-SIM and set one up as MMS-only. 🙂 Get the MMS notification and then turn on data for that SIM and it will only get the MMS. Nothing else.

[Yummy]

Plain SMS (texting) should always go through unless cell provider has issue.

But MMS (multimedia messaging system) meaning pictures and similar even though they are sent through the same app (on Android) require mobile data to be ON. Not WiFi! Real DATA on mobile phone.

That is why I always say to sender - you want to to send me picture/video - use Viber.

[darlicious]

@flong 

Do those screenshots show light blue chat bubbles or dark blue chat bubbles? If they are dark blue they are RCS messaging sent over data. You or your contact(s) may have accidently turned on RCS ( chat ) features in their/ your phone. ( I have done this accidently 3 times now when my phone gets a pop up to enable the feature.) Go into your text app settings to turn this off.

[Anonymous]

 @flong : Would you be willing to share the first 6 digits of your number?