Significant delay on text messaging

[rliao]

I've had marked delays on SMS messages sent through the email gateway (phone@txt.att.net) but not through other SMS devices (including google voice). Is there a delay on AT&T's part in routing these messages?

[Owtlaw1]

I, personally, have never had an issue in regards to receiving texts throught the email pathway to text pathway. How large are these messages that your friend is trying to send? If they are freakishly large, then this could be why. Also if they are trying to send you mms then they are using the wrong address, which could be why there are issues.

[rliao]

These are very short messages sent specifically to test latency through the email gateway. I would sent the email with a time date stamp. It's been taking an hour or so today going through email. I also copy myself on that same email to another email address.

[fortunate2001]

I am experiencing some hefty delays today also.  I have once or twice before, but thought it was my error, because a few minutes later the delivery was immediate once again.

Today 3-5PM Eastern time I am seeing many delays.

Sending to:  mycellnumber@txt.att.net.

[pwwalski]

Well I've started noticing some delays the past few days, but also noticed that the websender address changed. I have a personal account but use it for work and business notifications and the message that should get paged out is getting stripped of some of the content. This is now occuring on all my departments AT&T devices that recieve pages.

Our AT&T rep said nothing was changed on their end, but reading some of the posts in this thread, obviously something has and it's not really working out as they intended.

Message Edited by pwwalski on 09-17-2009 01:37:31 PM

[dgood92602]

I've also noticed that messages sent via email to number@txt.att.net no longer includes the subject line.  I use the email texting a lot to get alerts from our automated monitoring system and not having the subject makes it really hard to figure out what the problem is.

[fortunate2001]

Just received a message that was 2 hour 50 minutes delayed.  A few minutes earlier I received a similar message in <1 minute.

And several messages sent yesterday were never delivered.

This could be a great tool, but not if it is unreliable.

[tszefr]

Any traffic going to/from email will be routed thru at least one AT&T mail server.  If you send to an address where you can read mail headers sometimes you can catch what is wrong by reading.  It gets a bit confusing as the time stamps will be all over the place depending on time zones, but it can be done.

Up until a year or two ago, I used the mail gateway.  Usually I used MMS without anything but text because I liked my MMS client better.   One day a message went missing and did not show up until the next day.  When you are trying to carry on a conversation this does not cut mustard.   The headers demonstrated that one cingular server held the message for over 24 hours before conveying to another.  That would be a back-end mail server issue.

Complaint went nowhere and there was no answer or resolution.  I did however terminate and block all SMS and MMS on my account.  Cannot run it?  Not using it!

In its place I use S/E mail tool to send all the traffic I want, with or without pictures.  I use the $15 "unlimited" data plan and rarely go over a hundred megabytes.  That would cost out the wazoo at a penny per kbyte.  Now any delays are either a result of my phone needing a kick or google being constipated.  No AT&T mail servers are in the mix, and they keep me connected most of the time. 

[ftc75]

I'm getting messages this morning sent OVER EIGHT HOURS ago.  This is absolutely unacceptable and I'm going to change providers if it is not fixed VERY quickly.  The web gateway has worked perfectly for years until they started messing with it recently.

---

pwwalski wrote:

Our AT&T rep said nothing was changed on their end, but reading some of the posts in this thread, obviously something has and it's not really working out as they intended.

---

They are LYING.  Plain and simple.  The fact that they just recently started trying to mess around and manipulate the subject lines with the completely unnecessary WEBSENDER garbage is irrefutable proof of that.

[DCook43]

I have been experiencing delays as well, like most of them don't even get threw, if anyone finds anything that can help of if anyone can do anything to fix this problem pleese do cause it is SOOOOO anoying. Also if anyones starts working again can you please post that. Thank You

[ftc75]

Over 10 days and numerous users affected...why no word from "support" on this???

http://forums.wireless.att.com/cng/board/message?board.id=messaging&thread.id=37633

[tszefr]

---

ftc75 wrote:

Over 10 days and numerous users affected...why no word from "support" on this???

---

Your expectations have been set wrongly.  It is a community support forum.  Should we say a non-organized community?

Seems like there was a "chat" facility here and you might conceivably get a bit of help there.  Take that back -- I doubt it but give a shot if you have the time.  We have some real AT&T mods with an occasional announcement but I don't think any real support troops come around.  Have confidence and ring one up, why not?  Maybe read the "mobile email" thread first though.  

Since the rest of us are not employees or support, that means we are customers with experience (at best) or just posters at worst.  For one, I have given my experience and resolution to the "delay" issue.  In almost 10 years fighting with Cingular over mail service, that is the best I know.  Use if you like 

[pwwalski]

Here's the thing, you are correct this isn't a direct support portal for customers. However it does bring to light what appear to be chronic patterns within the brand that we all are a part of. While AT&T may not use this forum system as a formal complaint area, but it is a valuable resource for their organization at multiple levels to learn and gauge how their product(s) are fairing. So if they are choosing not to pay attention to this stuff, then my opinion of their support is dwindling.

We've hired AT&T to provide us a service with a reasonable expecation of uptime and reliability. In my case part of my actual job is dependant of recieving pages about critical outages my company is experiencing. Then I, based off those pages, know to communicate those outages to my customers. AT&T's failure to provide adequete, reliable, and realistic service impacts more than just their customer base.

What bothers me most is not so much as them not providing an answer, but more that they don't care. Granted they are a HUGE company that spans several layers and disciplines, but if a service isn't working, building a consistent message to their customers is not out of the realm of possibility.

Complaining to them might not have generated results for some in 10 years, but maybe people should start complaining to the FCC and see where that starts leading. That's just my opinion.

[tszefr]

---

pwwalski wrote:

We've hired AT&T to provide us a service with a reasonable expecation of uptime and reliability. In my case part of my actual job is dependant of recieving pages about critical outages my company is experiencing...

Complaining to them might not have generated results for some in 10 years, but maybe people should start complaining to the FCC and see where that starts leading. That's just my opinion.

---

Sure we hired them, but I don't think they commit to any service levels.  Not coverage, not uptime, not anything as far as I know.   Maybe we have a cronic pattern here and good luck interesting the FCC in it.   You even have a tough one getting to someone in the company that understands the problem.  They are pretty well insulated and you likely don't have much data that can demonstrate the issue. 

Take, for example, the "mobile email" issue I mentioned.  Poster reported CS had no idea what the product is.  That question is very simple and documented for customers.  Presume though that the issue here is a back end mail server issue as I had proof for.  The task for each complainant is to have sufficient evidence and then to convince CS about the nature of the issue.  Possibly educate CS and get a case logged and duly elevated to backend team that maintains mail servers with sufficient priority that it will get looked at in a few days.

I'll pass on those odds.  Given a fairly reliable conduit "media net" and a fine mail client from S/E and an outside server (google), we can do mail and leave all Cingular/AT&T/Oz servers out of the loop. Simplifies things and works very well thank you.   Good luck though if you pursue it.

[MikeAnthony]

Actually all cell phone "contracts" are not in the customers favor, if you read the contract it really says very clearly that in a nutshell you are required to pay that monthly bill but "they" the carries does NOT have to provide you with anything in return....loss of service, lack of coverage, and basic voice calls with all other forms of communication being "complimentary". In other words if you signed the contracted you agreed to take whatever you get and you better like it or pony up the $150-$250 cancel fee and move on with you life.   CONTRACTS ARE NOT MADE WITH CUSTOMER IN MIND ONLY PROFIT

[dokkadave]

Have just noticed the thread here after experiencing delays of hours for text messages sent from email.  Seems like it is a chronic ATT problem.  Any solutions out there?

[rliao]

I have not seen any meaningful solutions out there. As a physician, some of the messaging I get is time-critical. I've gone back to my old pager for messaging and use the text messaging only for social needs.

I've posted a similar thread on Macintouch, with no results.

[dokkadave]

I'm a doctor too and this is how my office, my associates, and I have been trying to communicate (sending a text message from email).  Since we have not had trouble in texting from a phone, rather than reverting to the old pagers we might just get an office phone so that anyone can send out a text message from it.  Kinda sad AT&T can't/won't fix it.  I have complained to AT&T before and they don't think it is a problem, must be the phone, firewall, etc etc.

[tszefr]

---

dokkadave wrote:
I'm a doctor too and this is how my office, my associates, and I have been trying to communicate (sending a text message from email)...

---

OK Doc that will get you a response because I know you are not stupid and you want and need a solution.

Your response from AT&T is about as good as I got in 2000/2001 when mail from N5165 went nowhere.  Cingular could not and would not solve it so I moved to ATTWS where the same model phone worked just fine.  Years later I decided (after activating that old phone on Beyond) that the phone itself was defective.  This was long after I had terminated the Cingular account. 

Seeing mail headers a few months ago showing that one Cingular server held my mail for 24 hours before passing to another Cingular server tells me that their back end is screwed up and unreliable.   I don't think individuals are going to be able to make enough noise even if they are well paid people with urgent needs.  You don't have an ox goad that is big enough.  Neither do I, and that is why I described how I get the job done by using outside servers, and rely on AT&T only for the connection.

Posted much earlier in this thread:  I use S/E mail tool to send all the traffic I want, with or without pictures.  I use the $15 "unlimited" data plan.  The components necessary for this are:

1)  Data plan

2)  Outside mail server, preferably one that supports IMAP idle.  Gmail, for example.

3)  Unbranded or de-branded S/E phone.

I call this solution meaningful and do or have used it on W810i, W610i, W580i, and Z750i.  Current issue S/E phones are surely viable but only with de-branding because AT&T firmware removes S/E mail tool.  No doubt my next phone will come straight from Sony, already unlocked and un-branded. 

[dokkadave]

One of my associates stumbled upon a solution that seems to work, at least for the time being.  We use Yahoo email, and in the email feature you can choose to send a new text message, and this is different than the email interface.  We have tried it a bunch of times, and they all have gone through!   We are hoping that this somehow bypasses the problem.