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Hibino

166 posts

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#261304 20-Nov-2019 13:06
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Today I got a unhappy customer who has a EFTPOS machine(from Payment Express, they supply wireless EFTPOS machine with Spark SIM) that can not take any payment, and they are not able to reach me since my mobile number goes to voice mail(which I didn't receive texts regarding the new voice mail)... Unlucky that their shop is not too far away from my place so they got me at last :-( That's when I found that my mobile shows a good signal but can not dial or receive any phone calls,  just like what happened last year(https://www.geekzone.co.nz/forums.asp?forumid=39&topicid=243173).

 

 

 

So I checked Spark website, this time the website does mention a maintenance in my area which says "Halfway Bush (between 20th November 2019 at 09:00 and 21st November 2019 at 18:00, up to 3 hours)". I am wondering for such maintenance affecting large(well, Dunedin is small compare to Auckland) area, is it possible that Spark can broadcast a SMS before the maintenance starts and another one when it finishes, so people that do have business rely on mobile network can prepared for this outage? It will be even better to have a better timeframe when it happens/ends, since from what I read from the sentence, it could happen anytime in a 2 days frame, which should only take no more than 3 hours but now it is more than 5 hours and my mobile still can't make any phone calls, and I guess the shop owner who has to shuts the door is more frustrate than me.

 

 

 

BTW, the SMS broadcast to mobile devices connected to a certain cell tower is possible right?


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hio77
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  #2357932 20-Nov-2019 13:18
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Fair Question, i'll Pass it along for feedback.





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Any comments made are personal opinion and do not reflect directly on the position my current or past employers may have.

 

 




Linux
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  #2357943 20-Nov-2019 13:31
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@Hibino This would cause many complaints of SPAM SMS and takes quite a bit of planning!


Hibino

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  #2357953 20-Nov-2019 13:38
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hio77:

 

Fair Question, i'll Pass it along for feedback.

 

 

Thank you.

 

 

 

Linux:

 

@Hibino This would cause many complaints of SPAM SMS and takes quite a bit of planning!

 

 

Spark does send SMS when data usage is over 80% and over 100%, I do feel a SMS says "you will not have network for the next X hours from now" is more important than "please be careful with your data usage" right?




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  #2357956 20-Nov-2019 13:44
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Hibino:

 

hio77:

 

Fair Question, i'll Pass it along for feedback.

 

 

Thank you.

 

 

 

Linux:

 

@Hibino This would cause many complaints of SPAM SMS and takes quite a bit of planning!

 

 

Spark does send SMS when data usage is over 80% and over 100%, I do feel a SMS says "you will not have network for the next X hours from now" is more important than "please be careful with your data usage" right?

 

 

@Hibino Data usage warning SMS is very different to planned work (I know it does not seem logical) But carriers need to be very careful


dt

dt
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  #2357994 20-Nov-2019 14:39
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Hibino:

 

Today I got a unhappy customer who has a EFTPOS machine(from Payment Express, they supply wireless EFTPOS machine with Spark SIM)

 

 

 

 

A bit OT but is the customer mobile? just if they are in a fixed location and have internet, most eftpos machines these days can tunnel out over the internet.. you might be able to connect it up in a way that it can go out over the internet as primary and 3g as backup? would cover you off if either service is unavailable.. some food for thought anyways 

 

 

 

back on OT, if its possible, what youre saying does make sense to me though.. send out a courtesy sms to users connected to a cell site that's going into maintenance.. im sure the people that would appreciate it would far out weigh the people that would grumble about it 


hio77
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  #2357999 20-Nov-2019 14:52
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Hibino:

 

Linux:

 

@Hibino This would cause many complaints of SPAM SMS and takes quite a bit of planning!

 

 

Spark does send SMS when data usage is over 80% and over 100%, I do feel a SMS says "you will not have network for the next X hours from now" is more important than "please be careful with your data usage" right?

 

 

If these annoy you, you may turn them off





#include <std_disclaimer>

 

Any comments made are personal opinion and do not reflect directly on the position my current or past employers may have.

 

 


hio77
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  #2358000 20-Nov-2019 14:53
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Linux:

 

@Hibino This would cause many complaints of SPAM SMS and takes quite a bit of planning!

 

 

You mean like Vodafone currently do?..





#include <std_disclaimer>

 

Any comments made are personal opinion and do not reflect directly on the position my current or past employers may have.

 

 


 
 
 
 

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Hibino

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  #2358009 20-Nov-2019 15:11
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dt:

 

A bit OT but is the customer mobile? just if they are in a fixed location and have internet, most eftpos machines these days can tunnel out over the internet.. you might be able to connect it up in a way that it can go out over the internet as primary and 3g as backup? would cover you off if either service is unavailable.. some food for thought anyways 

 

back on OT, if its possible, what youre saying does make sense to me though.. send out a courtesy sms to users connected to a cell site that's going into maintenance.. im sure the people that would appreciate it would far out weigh the people that would grumble about it 

 

 

Sadly no, the EFTPOS machine can only have 1 type of connection(WIFI, USB[require special software], Ethernet[require a base] or 3G), to change to a different connection type requires to go into a secret setting menu that is protected by password, and the password is not given to customers. I've actually had a conversation regarding this when setting up a dev EFTPOS machine from Payment Express, they say they use to have the setting menu expose to customers and people actually mess it up since they do not know what they are doing. So all the machines now has pre-configed before pass to customer and no settings can be changed at customer's point.

 

 

 

hio77:

 

If these annoy you, you may turn them off

 

 

These status update SMS is not annoying at all.

 

 

 

Linux:

 

@Hibino Data usage warning SMS is very different to planned work (I know it does not seem logical) But carriers need to be very careful

 

 

Yes normal logic does not apply on dealing with customers


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