Text Messaging Problem

[Captain Crunch]

My best friend (also a VZW customer) lives in Northern Colorado and I live in Western Iowa. Up until yesterday, we could text each other no problem. But now, my texts to her go through only about 1 in 10 times, and hers either come incomplete if they get through at all. I tried sending a voicemail to her and got an automated reply voicemail saying that her number was not a valid mailbox.

I called VZW and they re-provisioned her phone and got a TXT and VMM to her phone ok. She can text people locally just fine, and so can I -- and we can get voice calls through ok too.

Anyone else experiencing any weirdnesses or have any ideas? I wondered if it's a network problem since we both have the identical phone and have been getting TXTs through just fine for many months.

TIA.

[Andy]

What phoens are we talking about?

The problem may have been related only to her account if it worked again after a call to CS.

[Captain Crunch]

Both are LG 8100, I have ver 7 and I think she has ver 6. We were able to exchange intermittent short messages (less than 160 char) a bit ago. I also was able to e-mail to her phone. It's very inconsistent.

I flashed my phone to ver 7 about a month and a half ago with LG Download and it has worked fine. I have PRL Ver 50511, don't know what she has.

Bizarre.

[Andy]

PRL versions won't affect text messaging unless one of you was roaming. So basically you weren't able to exchange messages longer than 160 messages that go through the system as more than one SMS but show up on the phone as one, correct?

[Captain Crunch]

Yes -- you are correct. Even before this, sometimes we would get a big white box with an X inside of it instead of some of the text (although this would happen with other VZW customers that live here near me too). Now, messages just don't go through at all, but it seems that the only ones that do are short. But sometimes even short messages won't get delivered.

[Andy]

Well now we're talking business. Sometimes, maybe one out of a few hundred texts that I send between mine and friends phones that are longer than 160 SMs, hence more than one text, come through with that x instead of the whole message and then about 20 seconds later the phone gets another text with the whole thing in it. I guess maybe this is a problem with Verizon's SMS server or whatever that sometimes pops up? It happens to me once every few weeks so I've never taken much notice in it but I guess it truly is a problem then.

[Captain Crunch]

I'm actually on my second 8100 because I would get the "Message Send Failed -- Retry?" error so friggin often it was insane. And apparently, the texts were going through and I was annoying the hell out of everyone for sending duplicates.

So, when the big white box with an X arrives, I figure I'll get the rest in a few seconds and I usually do. But I don't know what to make of this new scenario.

You mentioned roaming and the PRL version -- my friend did recently move away from the city she works in and may be roaming when we're trying to text. Would *228 fix this or does she need to flash to ver 7, or just ask for a new phone? Weird how something works great and then takes a crap in an instant, but that's technology for ya I guess.

[Andy]

Originally Posted by Captain Crunch

I'm actually on my second 8100 because I would get the "Message Send Failed -- Retry?" error so friggin often it was insane. And apparently, the texts were going through and I was annoying the hell out of everyone for sending duplicates.

So, when the big white box with an X arrives, I figure I'll get the rest in a few seconds and I usually do. But I don't know what to make of this new scenario.

You mentioned roaming and the PRL version -- my friend did recently move away from the city she works in and may be roaming when we're trying to text. Would *228 fix this or does she need to flash to ver 7, or just ask for a new phone? Weird how something works great and then takes a crap in an instant, but that's technology for ya I guess.

If your friend is now on Extended Network, then maybe she should dial *228 option 2 while on the Verizon network just to make sure that she roams on the carrier VZW wants her to roam on, and maybe text messaging capabilities work better, depending on if anything changes, carrier wise, with her PRL. In Western CO, though, I don't think that there is any extended network roaming though with Verizon.
So you are getting the message failed-retry on your 8100 and the messages are truly sending? Funny because that's something that some friends of mine with a variety of phones have been complaining about- My phone doesnt usually have that problem though unless I'm in a weak signal area.

[Captain Crunch]

I'll make sure she does the *228-2 update and see how it goes.

My current 8100 does a bit better than my first one (which I was dying to get -- upgraded from a 6000 and I kept bugging VZW to let me re-up early so I could get my New Every Two discount, but they told me to pound sand). I don't feel that signal strength is anything to brag about with this phone, but I really like most all of the other features. I even thought about a signal booster and decided that I could do better by wearing a tin foil hat than putting one of those pricey stickers on the back of my phone. And I didn't wan't to spend $40 bucks for an additional piece of real hardware to connect to the phone to improve strength.

I have a tower 0.76 miles from my house -- you'd think that I'd have good rx. D'oh!

[Andy]

You have a tower so close to your house and get a bad signal???

My friend has a 8100 and he has problems making/receiving calls in buildings where my phone has 2 or 3 bars of EVDO service and no problems whatsoever.

Keep us updated about SMS problems/experiences.

[Captain Crunch]

Yeah, I can't believe I have signal problems with a tower this close. Oh well.

And thanks for the tips on the SMS problems. I'll post when I have some news.

Ciao!

[Andy]

You're welcome- I didn't really help much, but at least now I can tell my friends that someone else is having the same problems.