Problem with sending SMS from iPhone 8 as of yesterday

[Butterhook]

Aged iPhone 8 running IOS 15.6, soon to be replaced but I need it for a few weeks still!

I've had the phone for nearly 4 years with no previous issues.

iMessage still works fine - just conventional SMS.  All but one of the 17 or so I've tried today have been a fail. Repeat send to the number which received one subsequently failed.  It's failed both indoors/outdoors/WiFi/4G. Checked the service status for my area and it's fine.

Device is locked so I can't flick between networks to give it a jolt and am unsure as to what resetting network settings will do and if these revert to the standard O2 ones or if I will need to manually enter some stuff - I don't know what or where I would do this so don't want to make the situation worse.

I could do with not ringing O2 for obvious reasons, given the current state of the "help" on offer.

Thanks for any help/advice.

[Bambino]

@Butterhook If you search the forums of all the major networks you will find complaints and unhappy customers. It's probably true of the MVNO's s as well if they have customer forums. I doubt that there's any one that stands out above the rest. If you've never had a problem with O2 as far as signal strength goes, my advice would be better the devil you know....

[jonsie]

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@Butterhook wrote:

I should add - I thought I had posted this this morning, but it appears not be showing - the situation resolved itself this morning and is now OK. I was about to try my SIM in an old 6S I was recharging and gave it one final try before I extricated the 6S from its case and bingo - it was firing on all six again. Although... ahem... I think someone did say that would happen 😂  @jonsie 

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It seems to happen every year on the days I mentioned, moreso on O2 than any other network

Glad it's resolved itself now

[Butterhook]

@Bambino 

Yeah, but I can't reward this recent bad patch with a 2 year commitment. Aside from anything, I've got no way out if it continues to plumb the depths. Best O2 deal on an iPhone 13 is £621 over 2 years with 90GB per month. Call that £670 if I bought now, and two lots of April price rises would be in that.

Or I can buy the phone outright from Argos for £449.  Get a Lebara 12 month rolling 50GB (less, I know but I use less than 10GB so it's irrelevant to me - I just like having a security blanket of more than I'll use).  There's a current offer of 69p per month for months 1-7 and £9.90 there after.  Averages out at £4.53 per month.

At the end of 12 months, I would be £168 up before I went shopping for another SIM only to take me through the next 12 months.

I can't make a good case for staying with O2. I've looked at the Oftel map for my area which shows slightly more granular reception data rather than the binary ones the networks use in their coverage maps, and Vodafone seems slightly better for my general area and where I mostly go.  There is a slightly weak spot on my daily walk with O2 and this does actually show on the Oftel map so I have a reasonable amount of faith in it. EE and Three are quite bad for me, so they're not in the game.

The thing is, I have been with O2 over twenty years - never even looked at anywhere else. Had no cause to. Then last month when they decided to be running the show like an episode of Beadle's About, with every fibre of their collective being almost being targeted at driving me insane - with each person I spoke to contradicting the other and telling me the wrong information - two of them telling me I needed a PAC to go from a SIM only O2 to a contract one and I could do this in one move - I got deeply annoyed.  I would have stayed with them, but they pushed me away through winding the proverbial out of me.

Me leaving will not make a jot of difference to them, but it will make me feel better - and even if it didn't, it's a vast amount cheaper. I don't see how I've got anything to lose. I wouldn't trust them to run a bath.

[Butterhook]

I do apologise - I meant to add the resolution to your message and put it on mine!

[jonsie]

Couldn't agree more

Buying the phone from Argos is a no-brainer compared to buying from  O2

I've just ported a number out to Three and the coverage is far better than O2

60GB for the equivalent of £8.30 after cashback although there is the £1.25 increase in April

[Butterhook]

I would do Three, but the coverage is a dog where I live and I WFH as well.

[jonsie]

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@Butterhook wrote:

I do apologise - I meant to add the resolution to your message and put it on mine!

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You can always change it.....

[Enlli]

Just bought a new phone significantly below list price and running 12 month SIM only 

Last time I had a handset on contract was 2009

[Oxonian]

This looks like a decent deal to me :-

Boxing Day sales are live: I've picked the 36 best deals available today | TechRadar

https://www.techradar.com/seasonal-sales/boxing-day-sales-are-live-ive-picked-the-33-best-deals-avai...