Been missing texts on T-Mobile (may apply to other cariers)?

HoosierDaddy

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May 28, 2013
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I stopped getting alerts from CapitalOne in late June or early July. I finally decided to get that fixed. I logged on to CO to make sure alerts hadn't been turned off in my profile and discovered the entire column of check boxes for text alerts was missing. CO told me its probably my carrier's fault which didn't seem likely but I called T-Mobile.

They told me my line had somehow acquired a setting that blacklisted SOME short-codes (texts you get from or send to a short number instead of a full phone number). Mine was the only line in my 8 line account with that setting.

I still received many short code texts and could not get any kind of explanation about what codes were on the blacklist but it sounded like it was a universal list, not customized per customer. But it turns out I wasn't getting texts from several banks I use, so it may be all banks (and others).

T-Mobile said it was a random glitch that probably happened during some behind the scenes system update.

So if anyone isn't getting their texts, don't assume its a problem with the sender. You might want to ask your carrier if some blacklist is being used to screen your texts.

And it took some non-intuitive steps to restore texts from CapitalOne. Their system had my number flagged as rejecting texts which is why the options to ask for text alerts was missing. T-Mobile removing the blacklist had no effect on that. And CapitalOne doesn't have an option to delete your mobile number! It also won't let you replace it with a made up one and if you give someone else's number it would need a response from that number before replacing the old number. So I entered my number with a different last digit BUT checked that I did NOT want to receive any texts. Had to verify I REALLY meant that a few times but it accepted the number without texting to verify. Then I changed the number back to my real one. They verified that number and the text alert check boxes returned.

Still seems weird it is absolutely impossible to NOT have a mobile phone ever after telling CapitalOne you do have one. Once your profile includes a mobile number, it (or another working phone) is there for life.

p.s. its possible they were saying blocklist instead of blacklist, but you get the idea.
 

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