MetaChat - Bizarre cellphone tricks.

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24 October 2007

Bizarre cellphone tricks. I've been getting misdirected text messages for months, and I think I finally know why.→[More:]

Lately I have been receiving a rash of messages from highschoolers in Houston, Texas. When I texted one of them and told her she had the wrong person, she replied, "That sucks. I just typed (my extremely uncommon first name) into my phone." Then last night another one of my namesake's friends texted "me." I asked her some questions and got a clearer picture of what is going on, but I still don't understand the technical aspects of why this is happening. Sure, it could be coincidence, but I don't think so.

When this first started happening, I called Verizon to see if they could fix the problem. They declined to get involved ("sometimes this just happens to people,") instead offering me a "one-time courtesy credit" for the charges someone else had racked up and advising me to change my plan to absorb the cost of individual messages (at a higher cost to me, of course). Lusers.

Now that I sorta know what is going on, I plan to call them again, but I have the feeling that they will direct me to the part of their user agreement that reads "Verizon is not responsible for lost or misdirected text messages."

post by: initapplette at: 10:19 | 14 comments

Fact I have learned: Verizon sucks, for many many reasons. Switch when you can. That's what my family did.

posted by CitrusFreak12 24 October | 10:23

I just typed (my extremely uncommon first name) into my phone.

Wait, you just type people's names into your phones? What happened to phone numbers?

posted by chrismear 24 October | 10:28

I think there's some way you can block text messages from your phone, so you never receive them. I'd call Verizon back and tell them this is what you want to do. Make up some story about annoying spammers/stupid ex-boyfriends if needed.

posted by desjardins 24 October | 10:35

Do Cell Phone companies charge people to receive texts?

posted by drezdn 24 October | 10:54

Wait, you just type people's names into your phones? What happened to phone numbers?

Mine knows who the recipient should be based on context. If I type the text in LOLcat speak, then AT&T automatically sends that text to SassHat.

posted by mullacc 24 October | 11:03

drezdn: Verizon does, yes.

posted by desjardins 24 October | 11:14

From this page:

Create a wireless nickname so your family and friends can send you a text message to a name not a number. This makes communicating with email users easier than ever.

Who wants to be bothered with unwanted messages? Keep them from being delivered to your handset. Control messages sent from e-mail addresses, domain names and web sites.

posted by desjardins 24 October | 11:16

I can haz txt msg?

posted by SassHat 24 October | 11:50

... / _ _ / ...

posted by seanyboy 24 October | 11:58

Thanks, desjardins. Maybe I created my name as a nickname at that text site, but the other person did also. I'll check that out.

Verizon told me the first time I called that they can only block texts coming from specific email addresses but not from phone numbers. Quote: "Unfortunately, that's across the whole wireless industry." (Untrue? True? Who knows?) So that will work for about 10% of the wrong texts I'm getting.

posted by initapplette 24 October | 14:10

OK! I went into my Preferences and sure enough, my nickname at the vtext site is the same as my first name. The girls who are texting "me" have Verizon (and have "my" first name listed in their phone's Contact list), but the intended recipient does not have Verizon. Maybe Verizon software is searching a single database including both vtext nick and Contacts list? So probably the only thing I can do is block each number as I receive messages, but maybe Verizon will have a bright idea.

posted by initapplette 24 October | 14:57

Oh god that's so stupid to offer names instead of numbers when they haven't done this jointly over all cellphone-operators, like a central database they all share.

The luzers at verizon should not be charging you for misdirected messages coming from other verizon users who think they texting their mate at sprint. They need to explain stuff better. Or quit offering that dumb thing. Sheeesh.

and yeah, what the heck, do they charge you for receiving messages?

posted by dabitch 24 October | 15:19

Wait, you pay for receiving text messages? Isn't that a bit weird, or is that a just US thing?

posted by pompomtom 24 October | 18:43

Wait, you pay for receiving text messages? Isn't that a bit weird, or is that a just US thing?

That's the norm in the US.
Although I don't pay for texts from people with the same carrier as me. It might be because I do pay extra for the 500 texts/month plan, though.

posted by kellydamnit 24 October | 22:49

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