Texting Issues

If you have problems sending or receiving texts, or getting weird error messages, you are not alone. Extensive research on The Google and in-depth interviews with users and tech support personnel confirm the following conclusions: (i) such problems plague all the carriers; (ii) such problems plague both Android and iPhones but the problems tend to be a little more pervasive with iPhones; (iii) rebooting the phone which all phones can do or pulling and re-installing the battery which all phones except iPhones can do sometimes helps but sometimes won't; (iv) a factory reset sometimes will help but sometimes won't; (v) playing around with your phone's connection and security settings sometimes will help but sometimes won't; (vi) none of the carriers' tech support have a clue how to fix the problem (but if you find you are unable to send or receive any texts, do call tech support to be sure the carrier has not inadvertently put a block on your texting, which they are known to do); (vii) if your texts are over 160 characters, either shorten them to under 160 characters or be sure your data port is open because MM messages require a data link and your IM texts might be mis-coded by the network as MM messages; and (viii) take a deep breath and a time-out on the sofa which is a far better use of your time and far less stressful than wasting 2.5 hours with tech support only to conclude you know more than they do, and remember you are no worse off than you were before texting existed and email does not seem to suffer any kind of similar issues.