Some of you can probably relate to this. I probably shouldn't use the actual wireless companies names because I don't want them to sue me, even though I tell the truth.
On April 12th, I became aware that I was not getting all of my SMS messages. I thought it was just a problem between Jason and me, and it would clear itself up. On Sunday, I received a text message a student sent me on Thursday the 11th. Monday, I realized I wasn't getting all of my bosses's texts.
On Tuesday, I took a break and chatted with "Wireless A." We tried all sorts of things, but nothing worked. My husband and I chatted again that evening, and nothing worked. They finally blamed my iPhone.
Wednesday, I chatted with Apple (They were helpful, so I'll leave their name in here). I went as far as to roll back iOS on my phone, turn off iMessage, reset everything and my problem persisted. If Jason sent me 1-0 one at a time, I might get 2, 3, 6, 7, 9, 0. No pattern, rhyme or reason. My sister could send me texts more or less OK, but my boss could not. Apple was puzzled, so I made a genius bar appointment for Thursday night.
On Thursday, I went to the Apple store, and I showed them my problem by having people text me, then send a screenshot what they sent me through Facebook Messenger. They were puzzled. My iPhone X did have a slight screen defect, so they replaced it with an iPhone XS Max (I did have to pay some extra for the newer phone.) Once we got it up and running, the problem persisted, and they started taking notes. They told me to tell Wireless A to reprovision my account and that should fix it. They also replaced my SIM card just in case.
I got home Thursday night, and spent about four hours on the phone with Wireless A, and nothing worked. Their conclusion is that it was my iPhone, but they would send it to their engineers and get back to me. They never did.
Jason and I decided Monday to go to the Wireless A store, and see someone in person. The guy that with us was with us flat out said it was my phone. Once again I disabled iMessage, yes we disabled it online as well, and we put my SIM into a Galaxy S9. The problem still persisted. The lady the guy would go talk with was extremely rude, and said it's still Apple's problem. At this point, I knew it wasn't. They finally said "We are a sales store, not a service store, you need to call or chat with Wireless A." I told them we had wasted something like 10-15 hours of our own time chatting with them already, and working with Apple. Wireless A said they would get back to me, but after a week and a half, they never did. The lady said again"It's an Apple problem." I then said, "Well, we're going to go to the Wireless B store then." The rude lady said "The problem will follow you there too."
We drove over to "Wireless B" and they were quite friendly. We were unsure of coverage close to our home, so they loaned us a phone so we could see if it worked. It worked there, and at work. Tuesday night, I received a bunch of old text messages, 46 to be exact, on my Wireless A phone. But, new texts were still sometimes not going through.
Wednesday, we returned the phone to Wireless B and signed up with their plan. Guess what. I was able to text again. I lost whatever texts were stuck with Wireless A, but now SMS works as intended. There was some problems porting over my hotspot number, but Wireless B took care of it after they were aware. Wireless B is more expensive by a bit than Wireless A, but hopefully this is a case of "You Get What You Pay For." I was told at the Wireless B store if chat and phone support doesn't work, they will work with me if I come in with a crazy problem that's out of my hands. They also told me that they can fix SMS problems like the one I had without as much trouble.
Anyway, that along with work projects and some things I have to do to take care of myself have left me overly stressed this month. I hope you don't mind that I used this blog post for a bit of venting.
I would like to give kudos for Apple for being patient with me, and trying to help me, even though it turned out it wasn't their problem.