Delay in receiving TXT msgs

[allendog]

Hi,
My husband sent me a TXT msg at 3.30pm Sat, and didn't reach my mob till approx. 9pm. The mob service provider is O2, and this had occurred a few times. Had this happened to anyone here? Would it be due to my mob left off for some time and then switched on 1 or 2 hours after the msg was sent to my mob?
Thanks,
Allendog

 

[Humpback]

Would it be due to my mob left off for some time and then switched on 1 or 2 hours after the msg was sent to my mob?

Possibly this, or due to you being out of coverage at the time delivery is first tried. Basically this will cause the message to go back into a queue.

Not knowing much about it, I do know that when I go out of coverage, or have phone turned off for a while, I reckon I can "force" messages to my phone by sending myself one message. If there are any more waiting for me, I'll get them straight away then.

 

[Cahir]

Happens all the time between my (vodafone) phone and my boyfriends (O2) phone. Usually only a delay of 10 mins or so but sometimes a delay of 3 or 4 hours.

 

[RainyDay]

There is no guaranteed service level for sending/receiving texts.

 

[bond-007]

There is no guaranteed service level for sending/receiving texts.

That's why their T&C's say it should not be used for emergency communication.

 

[podgerodge]

This is happening to me recently as well - sometimes over a day later that I receive a text.

It does not matter whether service levels are guaranteed or not, nor whether they state that they are not for emergency communication.

What does matter is that O2 provide a reasonable service that works according to reasonable levels of customer expectation.

I'm surprised that AAM users are writing this thread away simply because O2 have legally covered it. Surely more constructive advice could be given!

Allendog, like myself I guess, should contact O2 and complain that text delays such as this are not good enough. And ask them for a rebate when our texts are not received within a reasonable period.

 

[GreatDane]

That's why their T&C's say it should not be used for emergency communication.

All well and good, but if their bloomin' service was better we'd not have to rely on text messages some times now would we

Anyway, if they charge for the service then they are under some responsibility to provide a reliable service are they not ?

Regards

G>
[broken link removed]

 

[ClubMan]

I'm surprised that AAM users are writing this thread away simply because O2 have legally covered it. Surely more constructive advice could be given!

Nobody wrote the thread off as far as I can see - Rainyday merely pointed out that service levels are not guaranteed with SMS which is a factual point relevant to the discussion in hand and does not imply any value judgement on the validity of the issue raised.

 

[RainyDay]

Anyway, if they charge for the service then they are under some responsibility to provide a reliable service are they not ?

So define 'reliable'?

 

[zag]

I reckon that SMS queueing and delivery works along similar lines to email delivery & queueing - try to deliver once and if it fails put it in a retry queue and move on to deliver other messages.

If your phone is within range when a message is due for delivery then it gets delivered, otherwise it goes back into a queue. It would not make sense for the queue to constantly try to deliver messages to a phone which was out of range a short time ago. Constantly trying to deliver these messages will only delay delivery of new messages as they are added to the received.

From my experience with Meteor (and poor to non-existent signal where I work) I find the best way to force delivery is to turn my phone off and then back on - this seems to de-queue any messages for me within a minute or so.

Previously, Meteors SMS performance used to be totally unreliable - I would get messages up to 48 hours late, but for the last year or so they seem to be pretty fast.

z

 

[podgerodge]

So define 'reliable'?

Dependable. If your normal experience is that texts can be sent and received within a few minutes, a move from this to a few hours or over a day is Unreliable. No matter what their terms and conditions say.

If your phone is within range when a message is due for delivery then it gets delivered

The problem I'm having with O2 is that I AM in range (or at least have a strong signal - same thing?) and it's not getting delivered.

 

[RainyDay]

Dependable. If your normal experience is that texts can be sent and received within a few minutes, a move from this to a few hours or over a day is Unreliable. No matter what their terms and conditions say.

All depends on your POV - they might well say that the normal service guarantee is one day, but they will endevour to beat this where possible.

 

[ClubMan]

Can anybody quote the Ts&Cs of an SMS agreement just so we know what's guaranteed or not?

 

[Humpback]

Can anybody quote the Ts&Cs of an SMS agreement just so we know what's guaranteed or not?

All you get on Vodafone for example is this -



"Whilst Vodafone will make every effort to ensure that all text messages are delivered, the Customer shall be liable for all Charges in respect of any text messages that are not delivered."

Nothing about SLA's or guaranteeing delivery. I know from problems before that they specifically don't come close to saying that they'll deliver MMS messages - within their own network, to any other Irish network, and definitely not to foreign networks.

Only come back is to get a refund if you send something and it doesn't go through.

 

[GreatDane]

Hi Ronan

Cheers for that, I imagine the other mobile operators also charge regardless of the text message being delivered or not ... Rip off ??? (eh, I think so !)


Zag

I suspect your right my friend, but sadly, I don't like the system much

So define 'reliable'?

Eh, are you serious ?
Why not ask how long is a peice of string while your at it

Dependable. If your normal experience is that texts can be sent and received within a few minutes, a move from this to a few hours or over a day is Unreliable. No matter what their terms and conditions say...

Yup, I agree.
There should be a minimum delivery period (assuming the other parties phone is on, tracking on text messages is handy for keeping an eye on this btw ) or else no charge. How can we be asked to pay for an unreliable service ?

All depends on your POV - they might well say that the normal service guarantee is one day, but they will endevour to beat this where possible.

But the point is, they have not specificed a "normal service guarantee" from the looks of things, have they ?

As such, I dont think its unreasonable to expdct the operators to continue to perform at previous, accepted levels, do you, Rainyday ? (out of interest, do you use text message and if so, are you satisfied with service & reliability, I dont think you've expressed a personal opinion so far ?)

Cheers

G>
http://www.rpoints.com/newbie

 

[Observer]

The odd thing, from a technical point of view, is that text messaging was never deliberately designed as a "feature" of the mobile phone system. Rather it was intended as an internal signalling channel for the passing of system messages. The assumption was that failed messages would be repeated if the desired system response was nor forthcoming. Therefore guaranteed delivery was not built into the system. Little was it suspected that "texting" would take off and become a sellable service in its own right......