Mobile phones

18 June 2009

The disappearing texts

Missingtxts2 A Consumer member recently got in touch regarding missing text messages. After some ferreting, they found both Vodafone and Telecom allowed only 72 hours to pick up text messages before the messages were wiped from the servers.

This isn’t very helpful if you’re away from your phone for an extended period. Say you’re going tramping without mobile phone coverage – you’ll start missing out on texts. The same thing will happen if your phone breaks down and you’re waiting for repairs or a replacement.

Paul Brislen from Vodafone says: “The network tries to send a text for up to three days before giving up. If you leave your phone off for that long you could miss a text.” However, he adds, “if you get texts often enough to care it would be difficult for you to leave your phone off for that length of time”.

That’s true – this probably won’t affect most mobile phone users. However, it’s worth knowing if your mobile is going to be off for a few days, whether intentionally or by accident.

Has anyone lost texts, for whatever reason? Post below!

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Tristan Clark - Technical Writer

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Comments

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Phil 18 June 2009

I misplaced my phone recently, and didn't find it for about three weeks. I knew I'd missed at least some messages, but I've no idea what they all would have been.

Paul Brislen's comment is absurd. The quantity of texts one receives has no bearing whatsoever on how much one cares about actually receiving the messages.

Of course, if the messages are from Vodafone, they will be irritatingly misspelled, and so all the better for having been discarded.

Gerald 26 June 2009

This is absurd! What if you go overseas, for example? A trip of one week will lose you four days' worth of txts?!

margy Pearl 2 July 2009

very poor service from both voda. and tele.
At the least this 72 hr txt service should be made known - on the packaging of phone at point of sale?

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