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?

[bernclare]

My wife has a Samsung A52 on contract from Virgin. It will not receive text messages when WiFi calling is enabled. Virgin this problem needs to be resolved.

[garywilki]

My wife and I recently got a samsung s20 5g each. My phone seems to work ok but my wife's is not receiving messages. I've tried the fixes mentioned i.e. turning voLTE off, turning wi-fi off and putting sim card into a different phone then back in to new phone but none of these appear to work. As has been said this is extremely frustrating as so many apps, banking etc rely on text security support.

[Tom_F]

Hi bernclare & garywilki. Sorry to hear you've encountered this issue. In some cases a replacement SIM seems to fix it - I'd like to take a look and see what we can do to help so please look out for my PM (the purple envelope) and get back to me when you can. 

Tom

[Peter_D]

i also have this issue on i-phone 12 and i-phone12 pro

[Tom_F]

Apologies Peter_D, let me take a look and I'll do all I can to help get it sorted.

Tom 

[Atletico03]

I've already had the same issue 6 months ago, and now experiencing the same thing with two separate phones.

I've tried all the fixes mentioned and nothing works. I've received a new sim and it's the same issue.

Most people are experiencing this with Samsung phones. Is anyone else on the plan where Broadband and sim card are offered as part of the same package?

The fact that Virgin assistants are being asked to 'get numbers' of customers having the same issue a year down the line shows that they know fine well what the issue is and are now making the calculation of how much it is going to cost to fix the issue in comparison to how many customers it is affecting. It's a disgrace.

[Tom_F]

Hi Atletico03, sorry to hear you've had an issue with WiFi calling. Are the phones you've had issues with confirmed as compatible via the following link: https://www.virginmedia.com/help/mobile/wifi-and-4g-calling?

Tom

[Atletico03]

Hi Tom. Yes, both of them. The old one was an iphone 8 and the new one is a Samsung M31S, which I bought the last time I suffered this issue because I thought that it was phone-related. Both are compatible, but both seem to have this intermittent fault receiving texts and calls through the network.

[Zach_R]

Hi @Atletico03,

Would you mind confirming what you've tried in an effort to remedy this issue? This is so that we don't repeat anything where possible, but also so we don't miss anything either.

Thanks,