Not receiving Santander one-time passcode (OTP) messages

[dallardyce]

I've got a frustrating problem with not receiving OTP messages from Santander, for a new account I've opened. Having spoken to both Santander and Vodafone, both are saying "everything is fine" and that it's the other party's problem, and I'm stuck in the middle.

I have spoken to Vodafone live chat a couple of times and they have run me through clearing all bars on my account (voice, data, fax, SMS etc) using #35*1919#, and have otherwise "checked my account" and have verified that everything is okay. Not exactly sure what has been checked, but Vodafone's perspective is because I receive other SMS messages absolutely fine, this can't be an issue on my account.

Santander's perspective is the number registered on my account is correct, and they can see the messages have been sent successfully, so it's not their issue.

I've removed all blocked contacts from my phone and tried the SIM in a different device. Short of literally getting a new phone number and testing with that, I'm completely stuck as to what to do now.

Grateful for any suggestions or help from the community, or indeed anyone from Vodafone who could investigate for me!

[BandOfBrothers]

Hi @dallardyce 

What phone model are you using and was it supplied by Vodafone or another seller or shop or auction site ?

I've heard of imported phone's experiencing issues.

You say....

" I've removed all blocked contacts from my phone and tried the SIM in a different device."

What happens if you try your sim in another phone  ? i.e Does it work ?

[dallardyce]

Thanks for the reply.

It's an iPhone 11 Pro that I bought direct from Apple. The only other phone I have is an older iPhone; when I put my SIM in there I still don't get the messages. This would indicate it isn't a device issue.

I ported my number across from O2 in December 2018 when I joined Vodafone; it seems unlikely that there could still be number-porting gremlins causing issues after all this time but that's probably what I would hope Vodafone could check for me next.

[Josh]

@dallardyce If the port was in 2018, it's very doubtful it'll be related to that. We'd love to take a closer look at this though! Please get in touch with our team, following the instructions laid out in this Post.

[dallardyce]

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@Josh wrote:

@dallardyce If the port was in 2018, it's very doubtful it'll be related to that. We'd love to take a closer look at this though! Please get in touch with our team, following the instructions laid out in this Post.

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Thanks for the reply, Josh; I've sent a Facebook message. Fingers crossed we can get somewhere with this - if we solve it, I'll share details here in case others have the same issue.

[dallardyce]

So, by way of an update, I contacted Vodafone on Facebook messenger. He helped as much as he could but ultimately concluded that because there were no bars on my account, and other text messages were being received successfully, this was not a Vodafone issue and I would need to get Santander's technical team to investigate.

I called Santander and had them change the phone number on my account to a different number, which on a different network. I received a message confirming the change and a subsequent OTP straightaway.

We then changed it back to my Vodafone number, but no messages were received.

Finally we went back to the number on the other network, and the message came through fine again.

I'll go back on Messenger to see what further investigations can be done by Vodafone, as I can't see how this is anything other than a network issue.

[gthomson]

Hi, I am having the same problem i.e. not receiving OTP codes from Santander bank. I also contacted Santander who confirmed that texts were being sent and to the correct number. I received OTP codes for several months before this issue appeared and I did not make any changes to my phone,network, number or bank account before first seeing the problem. I have contacted Vodafone twice and have been through all the steps they have advised (restarting, removing SIM, unbarring etc) without success. I also transferred my Sim to another non-smart phone but the problem remains the same. The chat agent said he had raised a ticket to his technical team but I have heard nothing more. Did you ever reach any resolution to this issue ?

[Anonymous]

Hi @gthomson  I'm sorry to hear you're still having issues here! If you'd like to pop us a message over Social Media here, We'd be happy to check your account for an update from our Technical team

[dallardyce]

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@gthomson wrote:

Hi, I am having the same problem i.e. not receiving OTP codes from Santander bank. I also contacted Santander who confirmed that texts were being sent and to the correct number. I received OTP codes for several months before this issue appeared and I did not make any changes to my phone,network, number or bank account before first seeing the problem. I have contacted Vodafone twice and have been through all the steps they have advised (restarting, removing SIM, unbarring etc) without success. I also transferred my Sim to another non-smart phone but the problem remains the same. The chat agent said he had raised a ticket to his technical team but I have heard nothing more. Did you ever reach any resolution to this issue ?

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Sadly not, and I'm afraid I've given up on it. My genuine feeling is it's a problem with Santander, and not Vodafone, but trying to get anyone to take ownership of the problem is next to impossible.

The furthest I got was Santander to say they were seeing an error when they were trying to send the OTP. They say it's not a Santander error but to my mind, the reference in the message to a "campaign action" sounds to me as though my number has been put on a blocklist to prevent my number receiving marketing messages.

This is what they said:

I’ve reviewed the logs and can see that our system is providing the error message “number has been blacklisted by the campaign action (code 2052)” every time we’ve attempted to send a One Time Passcode or other text. I’ve been informed that this is not a Santander error, and that this means the network is stopping the text message from being received.

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Vodafone did subsequently confirm (again) they weren't blocking anything on their side.

Fortunately, I don't use Santander for day-to-day banking so I'm not really missingout on much by not being able to receive these - it's an inconvenience but not one I'm willing to waste any more time on!

[Odat88]

Hello, l have the same problem

Any solution?