no more Twitter SMSs

[triedeverything]

As from yesterday Voda UK are no longer supporting Twitter sms messaging . I have spoken to Voda live chat and to a rep on the phone but they didn't even know about it. This must be affecting 100s if not 1000s of us. Perhaps if we all complain we can get the decision reversed. I for one will be leaving Voda over it ( as long as the other providers don't follow suit ).

J

[Saiph2]

jeffkinn: "But they dare because you aren't paying anyone for it and Twitter is free."

I can assure you that when I send an SMS to 86444 to post on Twitter, Vodafone DOES charge me for it. And as far as I am concerned, that is a perfectly reasonable and legitimate transaction, so why has it been cut off?

"Vodafone is a business not a charity."

Thank you for that piece of condescension, but if they're a business, how come they feel they can treat their customers with arrogant contempt by not even explaining what's going on? Most proper businesses I know and deal with do NOT behave in that way.

[GojuSuzi]

From what I've read about it, Twitter changed the goalposts yonks back, and as part of how they make revenue from businesses, they needed to pay networks to facilitate the SMS feature (essentially it could either be totally free, or make Twitter money from companies which a portion of which they subsidised random plebs using it). They have recently decided to not pay for the service, so the networks have the choice of charging customers - and then wasting more money arguing with people who'll dispute the charges - or stopping altogether. I'm sure the other networks will be rolling the same way. Blame Twitter for wanting to make money without paying for the service that makes them money.

[jeffkinn]

It's Twitter sending texts to us that's the issue not the other way around. No one is paying for that and it seems that Twitter has been manipulating the system to get away with it. My remarks are not condescending but a reflection of reality. Clearly Vodafone have handled it badly from a customer service perspective but your anger is directed the wrong way. Twitter is responsible for this situation and what have they said to their users? Nothing as far as I can tell so I know who I blame.

[triedeverything]

 Main reasons i am not happy about it is that some Voda customers i know are still getting SMS texts from 86444 ( Twitter ) and like has been said before ,the way some of us were informed only the day before it happened and the lack of communication from Voda. People that live in good internet areas can still get alerts but it's us in the "sticks" that suffer.

[Nabs]

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@triedeverything wrote:

 Main reasons i am not happy about it is that some Voda customers i know are still getting SMS texts from 86444 ( Twitter ) and like has been said before ,the way some of us were informed only the day before it happened and the lack of communication from Voda. People that live in good internet areas can still get alerts but it's us in the "sticks" that suffer.

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If it helps at all I was never informed, the Twitter SMS notifications just stopped. 

I drive 150+ miles a day to get to work and part of that is through some pretty dodgy roads where coverage is minimal at best. I rely relied on the SMS notifications for updates on the road and not having these has seen me caught out twice just in the past week!

[Saiph2]

jeffkinn, from the information I have at the moment, it's quite possible that Twitter are completely unaware of the action that Vodafone have taken. Why on earth should Twitter be responsible for explaining Vodafone's actions? If there's something going on behind the scenes between Vodafone and Twitter, then why are Vodafone not explaining that, especially when it's inconveniencing so many of their customers?

"It's Twitter sending texts to us that's the issue not the other way around." Is it? How do you know that? Do you have access to some information from Vodafone that we don't? Or are you just putting out baseless propaganda to support Vodafone? And if Vodafone are tired of carrying lots of notifications from Twitter to us, why cut off traffic in the other direction, which is being paid for by Vodafone users? There's no need to do that at all as far as I can see. If you can explain why it's necessary to do that, please enlighten us all.

[drey_p]

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@Saiph2 wrote:

If there's something going on behind the scenes between Vodafone and Twitter, then why are Vodafone not explaining that, especially when it's inconveniencing so many of their customers?

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They have explained it as much as they are going to - take a look at the statement here

[jeffkinn]

All the information you need to reach a conclusion is in the public domain.

Are you aware that in North America the user pays to receive texts and phone calls? So if Twitter sends a text the user pays. That isn't the case in Europe so if Twitter sends texts they are free for us to receive. But someone has to pay the network- and that someone is Twitter, and in 2009 Twitter and Vodafone entered into a commercial agreement allowing SMS traffic from Twitter at their cost.

It seems that Twitter has broken that agreement and found some loophole that they have exploited to be able to send texts for free. Vodafone has decided to plug that loophole and we, the customers, are the victims. To assume that Twitter knows nothing about this is unrealistic.

Vodafone is consistently poor at communicating with it's customers when there are problems or issues, and this is no exception. But I fully understand the business decision even if it it highly inconvenient to me as a customer.

I suggest you find a Twitter forum and use that to complain to the source of the blockage.

[Nabs]

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Saiph2 wrote:

"It's Twitter sending texts to us that's the issue not the other way around." Is it? How do you know that?

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Vodafoned don't have access to your twitter account so they can't send the notifications. The SMS messages are initiated and sent from Twitter, Vodafone simply facilitate the delivery of the messages on their network (as do O2, EE etc on theirs)

I've tried getting in touch with Twitter from a statement from their end and have been completely ignored each time. It's clear rom this that Twitter don't care about their users. 

EDIT: checking back this morning it appears Vodafone has been removed from the list of supported carriers so I souldn't expect to have it back anytime soon 

[RugbyGirl]

I doon't really care who's done what, but the lack of notification from any side is what really annoys me. I have been trying for weeks to find out what's going on from both Vodafone and Twitter - no-one's admitting to know anything!

II will be leaving Vodafone, and so will my husband as his contract is in my name, as soon as we are out of contract and going to a provvider who doesn't treat us all like somethin they've stepped in.

It doesn't matter to us, the end users, who's at fault, we deserve a proper explanation of what's happened and whether we can get anything sorted in the meantime.

I rely on twitter notifications by text for my job and this has caused a number of problems with work as I haven't got the inormation I need on time. I am now investigating other ways of sorting this problem out and will not hesitate in leaving Vodafone as soon as I can.

Vodafone treat their customers appallingly at the best of times, ut this really takes the biscuit by withddrawing a servie with no notification to us. :smileymad::smileymad::smileymad: