Recipients replying to emails received by 02 webtext (internationally)

ivoryhunter

Hi,


I have just signed up to 02, mainly to take advantage of 250 free international
webtexts each month as I tend to send many texts to Australia.

However when texting people in Australia (using webtext on o2.ie), they receive
the message fine, but if they hit "reply" and type a response they cannot send it,
because the "+" symbol isn't sent by 02? I think the message is received by them showing
the number as 353851xxxxx (instead of +353851xxxx).

Has anyone else had this problem with 02 webtext? The easiest work around is for
the recipient to create a new text, rather than hitting "reply", but this is a pain

I saw another thread with a similar topic but there was no resolution...
http://boards.ie/vbulletin/showthread.php?t=2054890194

I guess the problem is with the 02 website and the way they have set it up.
Was wondering if any of the programs like AFT work around this problem. Though haven't been able to get that program working on my mobile yet.
My mobile is a Samsung 401i


Thanks

Sam Vimes

AFt doesn't work around it. the problem's at o2's end so i don't think that anything can be done about it unfortunately

Random

Send O2 an email about it and see if anyone gets back to you on it? I'm actually gonna do the same now and see what they have to say.

Oh, and the number comes up as 00353 ... the problem happening here is that 00 isn't the international access code for all countrys.

I might even write them a letter .. they always tend to reply to them properly

ivoryhunter

thanks guys.

Yes I will get in touch with o2 on this issue.

ciaranfo - you're right about the country code. In OZ you have to dial 0011353 (or +353 from a mobile). Obviously just need it to appear as +353, I do wonder whether this is deliberate by o2 to make people use their phone more to send texts.

I will get in touch and report back my findings if I get a response.

Cheers

Random

Let us know how you get on

culabula

Actually it was an improvement when they finally got round to sticking on the '00' -in the early days messages came from '35386' and replies wouldn't work at all, especially for ordinary punters who had no clue how to work it out. No idea why they insist on doing this just as much as I wonder why people simply won't put in their numbers one time in full GSM format -especially those who travel.

Fair keeps me awake at night, I tell you.....

Urban Weigl

I recently changed my phone book so that all numbers are in there beginning with a +, no more 00 (or no country code at all).

Works wonders while travelling. There should be a booklet or something about this.

Random

Urban Weigl wrote:

I recently changed my phone book so that all numbers are in there beginning with a +, no more 00 (or no country code at all).

Works wonders while travelling. There should be a booklet or something about this.

This actually gets around the "00353" problem on a lot of phones when you recieve from webtext and the phone trys to reply using the "+353" in the phone book - I think older Sony Ericssons and a few others still had issues though.

culabula

Urban Weigl wrote:

I recently changed my phone book so that all numbers are in there beginning with a +, no more 00 (or no country code at all).

Works wonders while travelling. There should be a booklet or something about this.

My, I thought an urbane chap such as yourself would have done this from Day One!

ivoryhunter

o2 have got back to me by email and apparently the web team are investigating....

if anyone else is bothered by this they should drop customer care an email like I did to increase the chances of them fixing it!

Random

Indeed - they won't know there's a problem unless enough people tell them!

krudler

its all of what? 2 seconds? to write a new text from scratch,its a small inconvenience, get over it

Random

While you make a valid point about having to write a new text from scratch there's a couple of issues with this.
- why should you have to?
- it's a pain to try and explain to less tech minded people why they have to write a new text each time, they just assume it's not working and they won't text you back

ivoryhunter

krudler, it is no inconvernience for me as it is the recipient that has to do it. But if you use sms alot (as you would for international rather than calling) you would probably hit 'reply' out of habit 98% of the time. So when people in OZ hit reply and write a long text only to find when they hit send it doesn't work it is annoying to have to retype the text (as ciaranfo suggests if they can be bothered!!)

culabula

It's even less of an inconvenience or a pain to just edit that '00' to '+' as soon as you see it on clicking reply.....

ivoryhunter

but not everyones phone makes it that straight forward

krudler

or just save the reply in drafts then send it from there

ivoryhunter

RESPONSE FROM 02:

Our web development team have investigated this and they advised that they have tried to add a + instead of the 00, but it was found that there was a limitation on the system that didn’t allow a non-numeric character in the reply number. It won’t be possible to change this on the current webtext system, however, they are looking at replacing the current webtext system with a new system so it may be something that they can implement at that time. It is something that they will certainly consider for the new system. I do not currently have a time frame for the implementation of the new system, it is still in the early planning stages.


I am sorry that I cannot give you a more immediate resolution at this time.


If I can be of any further assistance, please let me know.


Any thoughts?

Random

At least you got a reply. We already know they use a 3rd party to send the webtexts, so i guess it's a limitation of their system.

Pretty detailed reply aswell.

andy0

Urban Weigl wrote:

I recently changed my phone book so that all numbers are in there beginning with a +, no more 00 (or no country code at all).

Works wonders while travelling. There should be a booklet or something about this.

On the other hand - if you then use callthrough or callback services and open the phonebook to send DTMF, the + is very unlikely to be recognised. Also, some callback services use a different format like 353....# - so in a couple of cases I have one format on SIM, one on phone.