Suggestion: SMS Connectivity

[FONGO_mike]

Pellbort,

I had this issue when first added to my own account. For me (on iOS) i loggedout and back into the app and it worked fine. It also took a few minutes after getting it for them to start going through.

[Pellbort]

Unfortunately, I've restarted, rebooted, logged in and out and everything else you can imagine, and it's still no good. This, by the way, is a full day later. The fact that the (choppy-sounding) tech support person couldn't get it working is troubling, too. That, plus the terrible website, plus the ghastly, bug-ridden desktop app that just simply doesn't work unless you want to start ripping out up-to-date java installs and screwing around with stuff that works otherwise, well... it's all pretty scary. I was hoping to make the transition out of a cell-phone plan into Dell Voice, but it's been anything but smooth so far.

[FONGO_mike]

Is your DV number in the 647 area code?

[Pellbort]

Yes, it is. Is that significant?

[FONGO_mike]

I am starting to think it may be something specific to the area, i have already passed along the information and the similaritys in betweem the few cases i have seen.

[FONGO_mike]

Just heard back from our team, this issue should be resolved in less then 24 hours.

[Pellbort]

Can you specify what the problem is/was?

[FONGO_mike]

To be honest, I am not sure what was causing it. I know it was not wide spread (the number of affected users was under 10 people)

[OffRoadCruiser]

I often travel to the US. Will the unlimited $2.99 per month feature allow anyone to send me SMS text messages and will I be able to receive them even when I am in the US?

Can I also send text messages to anyone in the US and Canada even when I am traveling in the USA?

I understand the I need access to WiFi in order to send or receive messages, that is not a problem.
Carl

[Jake]

I often travel to the US. Will the unlimited $2.99 per month feature allow anyone to send me SMS text messages and will I be able to receive them even when I am in the US?

Can I also send text messages to anyone in the US and Canada even when I am traveling in the USA?

I understand the I need access to WiFi in order to send or receive messages, that is not a problem.
Carl

Because Dell Voice works over the internet, you could be anywhere in the world and it would work the same as if you were in Canada. The only part it might use your cell provider is if you send a message or call using their 3/4G data network as the internet connection. No matter how you connect, as long as you can connect to the internet then DellVoice will work the same.

[FONGO_mike]

I often travel to the US. Will the unlimited $2.99 per month feature allow anyone to send me SMS text messages and will I be able to receive them even when I am in the US?

Can I also send text messages to anyone in the US and Canada even when I am traveling in the USA?

I understand the I need access to WiFi in order to send or receive messages, that is not a problem.
Carl

Because Dell Voice works over the internet, you could be anywhere in the world and it would work the same as if you were in Canada. The only part it might use your cell provider is if you send a message or call using their 3/4G data network as the internet connection. No matter how you connect, as long as you can connect to the internet then DellVoice will work the same.

Very true! The SMS messaging works in the same fashion as calling (when it comes to WiFi/3G-4G signal)

[FONGO_steve]

I often travel to the US. Will the unlimited $2.99 per month feature allow anyone to send me SMS text messages and will I be able to receive them even when I am in the US?

Can I also send text messages to anyone in the US and Canada even when I am traveling in the USA?

I understand the I need access to WiFi in order to send or receive messages, that is not a problem.
Carl

I'm using the SMS plan to text family and friends back home while I'm on a Caribbean island right now Wifi is free at the resort and there's no way I'd have ever paid roaming charges to text through my carrier. It's been fantastic to keep in touch!

[Pellbort]

Just heard back from our team, this issue should be resolved in less then 24 hours.

Still not working. It's been two days now since I opened my account and bought my time, and I have yet to successfully send a text. Not good.

Also: The ticket I was told would be opened has gotten no attention so far, as I've gotten no confirmation that the ticket was opened, nor have I received any correspondence regarding the ticket or when I might expect it to be resolved. Calls to the technical support department at 1-855-323-6646 were met with "We're sorry, there are no agents currently available to take your call."

I'd just abandon this number and re-register, but I've already sunk seven bucks into the account for the four months of text messaging and one month of visual voicemail. Can anyone tell me how I might get this money back so I can try again?

Holy cow, thank goodness I didn't immediately try to port my number over...

[FONGO_mike]

Is your numberi n the 647 area code? Have you tried logging out of the app, rebooting and logging back in? Have you already downloaded version 1.4? What kind of phone and OS are you using?

[Pellbort]

Is your numberi n the 647 area code? Have you tried logging out of the app, rebooting and logging back in? Have you already downloaded version 1.4? What kind of phone and OS are you using?

Yes, it's in the 647.
Yes, I've tried logging out, restarting my iPhone and logging back in.
Yes, I'm on 1.4.
I'm using an iPhone 4, with iOS 5.01.

[FONGO_mike]

I am starting to think it may be something specific to the area, i have already passed along the information and the similaritys in betweem the few cases i have seen.

As was stated earlier in this very thread, there was a known issue with some 647 area code numbers in regards to texting. It is still expected to be resolved today.

[Pellbort]

As was stated earlier in this very thread, there was a known issue with some 647 area code numbers in regards to texting. It is still expected to be resolved today.

Mike, could you find out the exact nature of the problem and report it to us here? In order to test the claim that it was "only a handful of numbers," I opened another account and paid for another text subscription (on a 647 number). This separate number was also unable to send text messages.

It wouldn't bother me so much if I hadn't received the same "It'll be fixed in 24 hours" promise from the tech support person (which turned out not to be true) and again from you (which turned out not to be true). Now, I can't call through to tech support at all, and it's almost the end of the business day. I'm not trying to be impatient, but I've been waiting a couple of days now and the promises that "it's about to be fixed" are not so comforting anymore. I'd just like a little transparency on Fongo's end so that I can understand the scope and nature of the problem, and have some realistic timeline for when it will be fixed. It's not the eight bucks I've already spent with Fongo- that's just pocket change- it's the principle of the matter. It just generates bad blood amongst your customers and damages the brand- especially when this thread is pretty much the only pubic acknowledgement of the problem. There should be a front page stickied note about this problem to let new users know what it is, that you're aware of it and that it'll be fixed (soon?).

Technical problems are a given nowadays with any service, and people can be pretty forgiving if you handle things properly. If you want people to actually look at Fongo/Dell Voice as a legitimate, viable alternative to other phone services, you've got to generate a little trust, and part of that is responsibly handling problems like this.

[FONGO_mike]

As was stated earlier in this very thread, there was a known issue with some 647 area code numbers in regards to texting. It is still expected to be resolved today.

Mike, could you find out the exact nature of the problem and report it to us here? In order to test the claim that it was "only a handful of numbers," I opened another account and paid for another text subscription (on a 647 number). This separate number was also unable to send text messages.

It wouldn't bother me so much if I hadn't received the same "It'll be fixed in 24 hours" promise from the tech support person (which turned out not to be true) and again from you (which turned out not to be true). Now, I can't call through to tech support at all, and it's almost the end of the business day. I'm not trying to be impatient, but I've been waiting a couple of days now and the promises that "it's about to be fixed" are not so comforting anymore. I'd just like a little transparency on Fongo's end so that I can understand the scope and nature of the problem, and have some realistic timeline for when it will be fixed. It's not the eight bucks I've already spent with Fongo- that's just pocket change- it's the principle of the matter. It just generates bad blood amongst your customers and damages the brand- especially when this thread is pretty much the only pubic acknowledgement of the problem. There should be a front page stickied note about this problem to let new users know what it is, that you're aware of it and that it'll be fixed (soon?).

Technical problems are a given nowadays with any service, and people can be pretty forgiving if you handle things properly. If you want people to actually look at Fongo/Dell Voice as a legitimate, viable alternative to other phone services, you've got to generate a little trust, and part of that is responsibly handling problems like this.

First, i would like to say the issue was supposed to have been resolved yesterday. If you are still having issues today, let me know and i can look into it.

As with any company experiencing issues, we can not give full transparency into the issue. We do have things in place and procedures implemented that we do not want to have become public knowledge (we want to be the biggest free company for as long as we can) and sharing some information in regards to how we function (programmers will pick up quickly on what is going on and could easily duplicate the service)

Announcements are usually reserved for upcoming releases or planned maintenance that will may be service affecting. No company truly broadcasts that they are having issues via their community driven, unofficialy supported media forums. We have discussed numerous times the possibility of incorporating a status update via our main web site, but that is still in discussion.

All i can say for now about the texting issue, is that it is limited to numbers in the 647 area code (according to all the reports that i have seen) and it was supposed to be resolved by yesterday.


Phone support limitations was a very tough choice to be made by Fongo. In providing a free service, we are clearly not working on the biggest of profit margins. In limiting live technical support via the phones, it allows Fongo to significantly reduce costs, permitting Fongo to invest more into expansion (something people are always demanding of our free service) service upgrades/new features, equipment upgrades to help increase the reliability of the service, etc, etc.

[Pellbort]

I don't need full transparency, I just need something like "The problem is in a mistake in the classification of certain numbers we own, which we're working to get changed" or something like that. Hell, make something up if you have to, just so long as people feel someone's got their hands on the wheel. Likewise, with announcements, once you know something, putting that information where people can easily find it (making them search for it is not good enough). It costs you nothing, and saves both customers and support staff a lot of trouble. Heck, just start a twitter account for tech issues, so people can keep up to date in a simple, centralized way, the way thousands of companies do. Getting people used to checking that feed when they have a problem will - I PROMISE YOU - cut down on support calls and forum posts, relieve customer aggravation and save a lot of time, money and reputation for your company.

As for phone support limitations, again, it's a matter of letting customers know what to expect. How can I tell when a good time to call is? What are the hours of support? I don't see anyone going out of their way to put this information in front of us. That one simple thing saves all kinds of frustration and gives people the idea that your free service isn't a flaky, unstable, soon-to-be-gone experiment that can't be fully relied upon. It's much better to KNOW I'm not going to get an answer if I call than to call over and over and not get an answer.

I know that you personally are not the problem-- in fact, this forum and you personally are the most effective part of Fongo's support strategy-- so please let it be known to those further up the chain: The front-end user experience right now is NOT GOOD, and for a company that wants to expand and draw people away from their existing phone plan, offering a positive user experience that instills confidence is job one. It's a very easy thing to do if you think like a customer. Customers don't necessarily want the world, they just want to know exactly what's being offered, and how to get it. Tell John, Dave or Jody to get in touch with me and I'll happily clean up a lot of these problems for them.

Oh, by the way-- My problem still persists. No text service. Day three.

[thunderzhao]

I'm an old freephoneline user, will we be able to access this function with SIP SIMPLE or email forwarding?

[Jake]

I'm an old freephoneline user, will we be able to access this function with SIP SIMPLE or email forwarding?

It is just for the mobile apps from DellVoice at the moment. I doubt it will be extended to FPL (but who knows). At best we can expect this to be extended to the desktop versions of DellVoice I think.

If you want to use the texting option, it will have to be done through a DV app on your cell for now, which may mean signing up for a new account in your case.

[thunderzhao]

yeah, new account means new number, don't think there's a point

[FONGO_mike]

Pellbort,

Have you tried logging out of oyur account, closing the app, and opening it up again?

[db519]

save drafts when you press back automatically,
lined ordering of messages instead of me having to scroll through my entire message on one line,
or... kill two birds in one stone, skip a bunch of useless coding, and just natively integrate with messages like you guys did with call history


+added note about integration regarding both Android BudPhone and Dell Voice apps:

Why doesn't someone at Fongo try out Talkatone? Integration is seamless with SMS, contacts, and call history. NO- some DON'T and some of us never WILL have to exit your overbranded app to try and avoid your marketing ploys, so no worries there. Using a Fongo label as I add new contacts through your app? It throws me off on my Google Labels that I have synced.... "-2's" in-app call history labelled as missed calls? Huh? Buggy buggy buggy.. And all my labels have been properly setup on spreadsheets by hand through Google, and all new contacts are added and auto-synced to Google. Not only Google does this folks, we all use these sort of cloud-like services whether we'd like to admit it or not. Hop on-board, Fongo.