We'd like to remind Forumites to please avoid political debate on the Forum. This is to keep it a safe and useful space for MoneySaving discussions. Threads that are - or become - political in nature may be removed in line with the Forum’s rules. Thank you for your understanding.
We're aware that dates on the Forum are not currently showing correctly. Please bear with us while we get this fixed, and see Site feedback for updates.

Delayed mobile phone messages

Greatgimp
Greatgimp Posts: 1,055 Forumite
Part of the Furniture 500 Posts Academoney Grad Name Dropper
Somebody sent me a text message to do a job this evening. The message was sent at 4.29 and I received the message at 7.35. Although I replied immediately, I was too late as the customer had by that time made alternative arrangements.

Could I have done anything to avoid this 3 hour delay?

Is it my phone at fault - should it be replaced?

Is there a phone guaranteed to get messages received/sent promptly?

I cannot change my location (village) or network (payg O2).

Comments

  • Fire_Fox
    Fire_Fox Posts: 26,026 Forumite
    Part of the Furniture 10,000 Posts Name Dropper Combo Breaker
    Can your customers e-mail you? If so get a phone that will pick up e-mails, I am no techno-whiz but I am sure you could set the right phone up to text you when you have an e-mail or e-mail you when you have a text for back up.
    Declutterbug-in-progress.⭐️⭐️⭐️ ⭐️⭐️
  • Greatgimp
    Greatgimp Posts: 1,055 Forumite
    Part of the Furniture 500 Posts Academoney Grad Name Dropper
    Most of my customers are in advanced years and I applaud them to want to tackle mobile phones and send texts. I fear they may not have the equipment or nous to send an email. Good idea though.
  • ceh209
    ceh209 Posts: 877 Forumite
    Part of the Furniture 500 Posts Name Dropper
    A call to O2 might be worth it to see if there's a problem - my bf had a similar problem on Orange and when he rang they said the 3G in his area wasn't working properly, he had to switch his phone back to the old (2G?) system only, and then it was fine.
    Excuse any mis-spelt replies, there's probably a cat sat on the keyboard
  • gjchester
    gjchester Posts: 5,741 Forumite
    Greatgimp wrote: »
    Is it my phone at fault - should it be replaced?

    Is there a phone guaranteed to get messages received/sent promptly?

    SMS was originally planned as a small scale extra add on to the GSM protocol. Going back many people's phones didn;t even have the ability to text, and there was no charges for a text. It also used to be that you could not send a text from one network to another.

    As it's a add on rather than a primary function, and it uses data channels that are normally is use when the phone is in a call, it's not guaranateed the messages will be sent ot recieved or even when they'll arrive, most are instant, some can take days for no apparant reason.
  • shandypants5
    shandypants5 Posts: 2,124 Forumite
    Part of the Furniture 1,000 Posts Combo Breaker
    I have had txts arrive a few days late on a very few occasions.
    I am on O2 too.
    “Careful. We don't want to learn from this.”
  • Jon_01
    Jon_01 Posts: 5,901 Forumite
    Part of the Furniture 1,000 Posts Name Dropper
    I believe the delivery time for sms's have never been changed since the early days of mobiles and stands at 24 hours. All kinds of things can have a baring on how long they take to arrive. . .
This discussion has been closed.
Meet your Ambassadors

🚀 Getting Started

Hi new member!

Our Getting Started Guide will help you get the most out of the Forum

Categories

  • All Categories
  • 348.4K Banking & Borrowing
  • 252.1K Reduce Debt & Boost Income
  • 452.4K Spending & Discounts
  • 241K Work, Benefits & Business
  • 617.3K Mortgages, Homes & Bills
  • 175.7K Life & Family
  • 254.2K Travel & Transport
  • 1.5M Hobbies & Leisure
  • 16K Discuss & Feedback
  • 15.1K Coronavirus Support Boards

Is this how you want to be seen?

We see you are using a default avatar. It takes only a few seconds to pick a picture.