Mobile phone does not receive text messages

[bamusbigus]

I upgraded my phone on 4th February to Samsung A42 5G.

I soon realised that I was not receiving texts, some not at all, some intermittently and some after a long delay.

I soon realised that the text messages I did receive arrived when I was out of WiFi coverage.

I spoke with a chap in Virgin Mobile Customer Services and after much head scratching  and dianostics his solution was to send me a new SIM Card.

I received this at the weekend  and having installed it I am still experiencing the same issue.

Today, I did some experimenting.

First I disabled WifI and sent a text message to my friend, asking him to respond by text if/when he received the message.

The system told me the text had been delivered, my friend received it, he responded to me and I received his response.

I then enabled WiFi and sent another text to my friend, again asking him to respond by text if/when he received the message.

The system again told me the text had been delivered, he responded to me, but this time I received no response.

Later on, when I was away from home and out of WiFi coverage, his response to message number 2 arrived.

I spoke with another chap in Virgin Mobile Customer Services who was very helpful and tried various diagnostics including resetting Network Services. All to no avail. He eventually said he would need to pass the issue to the Fault Management Team and I am awaiting a call from them.

I have become aware that other people are having the same issue and that the finger is pointing at WiFi Calling as the culprit. I thought I would turn off WiFi Calling, but can't find out how to do that.

However, that is potentially adequate (if it works) as a workaround but it is not a solution and is unsatisfactory. I am paying for a service that is not being delivered.

Whilst some of this is inconvenient, a lot of it is not.

My GP Surgery, like many others, uses text messaging to alert me to things I need to know, including issues like getting a COVID-19 vaccinatiion. Not receiving one of those texts is certainly more than an inconvenience.

Many apps nowadays use text messaging to issue security codes to enable secure access. I have not been able to receive any of those messages until after their expiry time. That is not an inconvenience.

Much as I would like to use the Text Messaging Service 07533016422 advertised above, it would be pointless because I have no faith that I would receive a text message  sent to me by it!

Does anyone know of a solution to this issue?

[Tom_F]

Thanks for the update kobesmoby, I'm sorry I can't do more to help at the moment hopefully we'll have an update on this for you soon. 

Tom 

[MissyP1]

Hi

I am also having issues with text messages,  I can send them but I'm not receiving them.  This has been going on for about a month, around the time my contract ended and I went SIM only! 

I receive them eventually but usually days later.  As previously mentioned,  this is unacceptable when most banks, doctors, dentists,  etc make contact via text message.

I have contacted VM a number of times & received a new SIM card but nothing has fixed the problem. 

If this is purely a VM issue that can't be rectified, I will have no alternative but to change service provider.

[Tom_F]

Sorry to hear you've also been impacted by this MissyP1.

As mentioned above - we've been asked to collect examples of numbers affected by this, I will get in touch via PM to confirm a few details which I will pass on and hopefully that will help the teams get this fixed sooner. 

Tom 

[Tom_F]

Thanks for getting back to me @missyp I've passed those details on, fingers crossed there will be some progress with this soon.

Tom

[enlli]

Well let's hope there is some action. This other thread has just had it's first birthday 

https://community.virginmedia.com/t5/Virgin-Mobile/Not-recieving-texts-through-Wifi-Calling/td-p/423...

[Gary_K]

I noticed today that my Samsung S9 wasn't recieving txt messages, when I needed an activation code for online services.

I tried various resets but nothing worked, I even tried a full factory reset ... no difference.

I can now get Txts, but only if I put the phone in 3G/2G Network settings, which isn't a real solution.

Who do I call to get a replacement SIM if that might help?

[Talon]

Hi, I have a Galaxy S20 FE 5G which also does not recieve txts when voLTE is enabled. It did this when I first got the phone last year. I turned voLTE off then and just re-enabled yesterday to see if any change but no, still not working.

[Robert_P]

Hi Gary_K

Sorry to hear of the messaging issues in regards to receiving texts, we appreciate you taking the time to contact us via the forums and welcome to the community.

There are a few things to try before we would send a replacement SIM card out as this is a known issue we're looking into. The first one would be to go into the settings and turn off VoLTE, this cna be done by following these steps:

1. Tap the Settings icon.
2. Tap Connections.
3. Tap Mobile Networks.
4. Tap the status switch beside VoLTE Calls to toggle it on and off.

Another work around which has helped some customers resolve the issue involves the use of a different handset if you have one?

1. Take out your SIM card and insert it in another phone.
2. Turn it ON and wait 2-3 minutes.
3. Make sure it has a cellular signal before you turn it OFF.
4. Take out the SIM card again and insert it in the phone that was causing problems.
5. Turn it on again and wait 2-3 minutes. It should automatically reconfigure the network registration.

Let me know if either of these work for you.

Rob

[Gary_K]

Hi Robert.

Thank you.

I seem to have some success with: 

1. Tap the status switch beside VoLTE Calls to toggle it on and off.

I've experimented with sending/recieieving txt messages by using my work phone (iphone 4 on Three).

After toggling VoLTE & then leaving it off, I have switched my phone back to LTE/3g/2G Auto from 3G/2G and txts came through.

I then turned VoLTE back on and txts came through. So it looks to have fixed it, for now.

If the problem returns I could try my sim in my wife's phone, however it's also a S9 on Virgin, although she has had no such problems.

As an extra point, I had already turned off the wif-fi calling feature.

[Zak_M]

Good to see things are looking up @Gary_K

Do keep us updated if there are any further issues.

Kind regards,

Zak_M