Cannot respond to certain numbers such as 64402 (O2 surveys) or 68989 (Barclays Fraud Alerts) !

[Anonymous]

Hi all,

I noticed that whenever I get a text from, for example, O2's survey team (64402) where they ask you to respond with a number or a letter, the sending of the response fails immediately.

I had the same problem with Barclays now and their 68989 number which alerts you about suspicious transaction attempts on your debit card and asks you to verify them with either Y(es) or N(o) .

I can send messages to normal mobile phones no problem!

I called the O2 customer service number, was put through a Guru and he said he cannot see anything wrong (not helpful!) when I told him about the Barclays number. He said it must be the Barclays number that has a problem. Ironically, straight after that call I get a text from O2 to fill out a survey via text responses... does not work either.

I called Customer Services again, this time a lady told me she will have to send a mail to Tech Support but it will be fixed in 24 hours. She could not tell me what the problem was, just kept saying it will be fixed in 24 hours... that was over 24 hours ago and I still have the problem!

Has anyone here had this issue? How do I solve it?

I am using an Android phone (Galaxy S7 Edge) which is on the latest update. My O2 contract has a massive amount of included minutes and unlimited texts as well as 30GB Data.

Please help!

[MI5]

My initial thoughts are that it is somehow connected to a premium rate block on your account (I know these aren't premium numbers but........)

[Anonymous]

That is what I thought as well because these aren't regular mobile phone numbers. So perhaps my "unlimited" texts do not include messages to those numbers?

However, I actually specifically asked about this and the Guru said he cannot see anything on my account that would prevent me from sending texts to those numbers...

[MI5]

I think you need to specifically ask cs if you have a premium block on your account.
These numbers also won't work if you try using Tugo

[Anonymous]

I am chatting to an O2 person right now and all they say is there is no block on my account and "I have reset your settings you should be able to send texts to these numbers in 2-24 hours".... I feel like I am being fobbed off again!

[MI5]

Sounds like it to me too.....
Look in your message app settings and see if text input method is set to unicode?

[Anonymous]

Is it an issue if it is Unicode? Should it be Unicode or something else? I think mine is set to automatic?

Oh and surprise surprise, more than 36 hours later it still does not work despite the Chat support guy saying "I assure you the issue will be gone now" ... getting really annoyed now!

[MI5]

Try it with unicode.

[Marjo]

Hey @Anonymous Did you manage to get anywhere with this in the end?

[Anonymous]

Really sorry for the late response. It was a default setting in the messaging service settings that had blocked premium numbers.

A GURU at O2 found out about this setting by chance and wanted to double check with me whether it was active or not, turned out to be active on my device!