Not receiving texts from Spark contacts

Forums › Spark New Zealand (including Skinny and BigPipe) › Not receiving texts from Spark contacts

tempohouse

10 posts

Wannabe Geek

#188980 12-Dec-2015 14:22

Hi all, long time lurker, first time poster. Thanks for all the useful and informative comments in these forums.

I have an odd issue with my partner's mobile phone, where she's stopped receiving texts from 3 or 4 (possibly up to 6) people in her contacts list. She can send texts to these people, but she hasn't received any texts from them since approximately the 19th of November.

All of these users are with Spark.

My partner is with Vodafone. She's called Vodafone support and they claim the issue's not with them, and report that they can see texts coming in from the affected people until the 19th, and then nothing more in their system after that date.

One of her affected friends has called Spark support and they claim the issue's not with them, and suggested there may be a problem with my partner's phone.

My partner has an iPhone 5. I've swapped her SIM into a reset and fresh iPhone 6, and we still have the same problem so we can rule the device out.

Here's the rest of the facts we know:

1. All the users we're missing texts from are with Spark
2. Apple iMessage is unaffected, ie: we still get iMessages from people on Spark
3. We can still send texts to Spark customers
4. The users we're not getting texts from don't receive any error or 'not delivered' messages on their devices. It just looks like the text was sent.
5. Neither my partner nor her affected friends have changed their devices - ie: we haven't got that weird 'Android to Apple / SMS to iMessage' thing going on.

We're at a bit of a loss here, and not sure how to proceed. Any help or advice would be greatly appreciated. I'm more than happy to answer any questions.

Thanks for your time, Craig

johnr

19282 posts

Uber Geek
Inactive user

#1449201 12-Dec-2015 15:00

Hi @tempohouse Turn off imessage and try again and on the A party (sending side) are they going via imessage or a normal SMS?

John

tempohouse

10 posts

Wannabe Geek

#1449276 12-Dec-2015 17:58

Thanks for your response John. We've already tried 'no iMessage' via putting the SIM into a different fresh iPhone and not configuring any Apple stuff on it.

The sending side problem seems to be entirely around SMS. Friends on Spark sending iMessages are coming through fine, but those sending SMSes are not getting through.

Thanks again. Any ideas?

scuwp

3886 posts

Uber Geek

#1449334 12-Dec-2015 19:38

Are your friends all using iPhones? I am thinking it's an issue with iMessage/SMS switching on their side. It's a common problem normally rectified by de-registering and re-registering with iMessage.

Lazy is such an ugly word, I prefer to call it selective participation

tempohouse

10 posts

Wannabe Geek

#1449374 12-Dec-2015 20:25

Thanks @scuwp. Have just checked this with my partner and all the people she's missing texts from are on non Apple phones. I think they're all Android, haven't seen any Windows phones among them.
What gets me about this is that the sender doesn't get any error message or notification of delivery problems - to the sender everything looks fine.

Thanks for your time, Craig

gregmcc

2147 posts

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#1449380 12-Dec-2015 20:47

It seems like you've done everything you can to prove it's not your handset, it does seem like a network fault, but which one, they are both playing the blame game here, although VF have confirmed the loss of incoming texts around 19th, so it may be a spark problem.

This is where it gets sticky, you have no relationship with spark only with VF.

my suggestion.

1) get you friends to document 3 instances of them sending texts and not arriving at you (time/date)
2) you documents your instances of not receiving the texts.

This is the tough bit, you will have to write a letter to VF with this information, telling them of the fault with the examples and required them to sort it out, buck passing will not do as they are the ones with the relationship with spark to pass along text messages so they will be the ones following this up with spark until it is resolved, request a fault ticket, and keep any details of who you speak to and what they will be doing to resolve this.

set a time frame for it to be resolved and make it known that you want to know what the fault was so that they just don't come back with "we have fixed it" but it's not really fixed

coffeebaron

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#1449401 12-Dec-2015 22:11

Check you haven't accidentally blacklisted or blocked those numbers.
Also I believe it is the A party's (sender side) who is responsible for troubleshooting the issue. So get those who are sending the texts to log a fault.

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johnr

19282 posts

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Inactive user

#1449432 12-Dec-2015 22:46

@gregmcc You are incorrect in this case the A party here is Spark and they control the routing / sending and the customers (A party) are paying Spark for the sending / routing of the SMS not Vodafone, We can only deliver what is getting passed to our network

Spark been the A party network should be investigating the issue and check SMS routing tables and then if Spark believe it 's an issue on the Vodafone side then they provide evidence that the SMS are leaving the network and getting passed to Vodafone via the NOC

@tempohouse I would not take the advice been offered above, flow here is A party (Spark) to B party (Vodafone) fault checking starts on A party network --> B party

John

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johnr

19282 posts

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#1449434 12-Dec-2015 22:49

coffeebaron: Check you haven't accidentally blacklisted or blocked those numbers.
Also I believe it is the A party's (sender side) who is responsible for troubleshooting the issue. So get those who are sending the texts to log a fault.

The techs can see the SMS stopped been passed to Vodafone on the 19th so can't be Vodafone blacklist, Even if the numbers were in the blacklist table we would still see the SMS getting sent to trash not to deliver

tempohouse

10 posts

Wannabe Geek

#1449559 13-Dec-2015 09:33

Thanks @johnr and @coffeebaron and @gregmcc

Yes, we have not blacklisted any of those numbers.

Yes, the problem is that we don't have a relationship with Spark. The three affected numbers belong to:
(a) 70+ Auntie with non-smart phone
(b) 70+ Mother-in-law with non-smart phone
(c) 20something friend with Samsung smart phone

(a) was interested at first and rang Spark but got frustrated when she spoke to "a robot" who didn't understand her query - so gave up. My partner rang Spark and explained the whole background to a Spark representative and said "Can you please call your customer - she has tried to resolve this but she wants to talk to a real person". Spark said "I can't share any of our customer's details with you" and my partner said "I'm not asking you to share her information - just call your own customer and say "I understand you are sending texts to your niece but she is not receiving them"" My partner left it with Spark to resolve with her Auntie but still no luck.

(b) has no capability to understand technology and could not explain what is happening if she called Spark.

(c) telephoned Spark and was told it was my partner's phone's fault.

So, yes, we really need Spark to look into this - but we don't have a relationship with Spark. My partner cannot take either of the 70+ ladies into a Spark shop as they live in different cities. My partner is seeing friend (c) today and is hoping to take her to a Spark shop (if they can find one in Wellington that is open today).

Failing that, is there anyone from Spark on this forum who is willing to help us look into this from their end?

Thanks everyone for your time and input.

johnr

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#1449570 13-Dec-2015 09:52

@tempohouse I am happy to help from the VodafoneNZ side, I have worked on the SMS kit for a number of years,

I can easily confirm if the SMS has reached the Vodafone / Spark interconnect point with a few examples times / dates

John

johnr

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#1449571 13-Dec-2015 10:01

@tempohouse Someone in Spark needs to check the SMS routing table for the B party number (on Vodafone) and make sure it's pointing towards Vodafone

tempohouse

10 posts

Wannabe Geek

#1488172 9-Feb-2016 16:19

Hi all, sorry - very belated update to this one. Both @gregmcc and @johnr were correct in the end: we had to lean on Vodafone to take the issue up with Spark on our behalf, and Spark had to do some work around their routing tables to allow the texts to come through.

All is well now, and my partner is back to texting (and receiving) like a mad thing to all and sundry. Many thanks to @johnr and @gregmcc, and to everybody who helped or lent an ear here :)

Cheers, Craig