[sims] Intouch SMS at unsociable hours

[Sean]

Has anyone else who's using SIMS InTouch for sending SMSes to parents had any complaints from parents that they received text messages at obscure hours of the morning?

SIMS tell us that this is just how the system works - if 'service is degraded' InTouch keeps trying to send until it is successful no matter how unsociable the hour!

For what it's worth I've submitted a request for change - ticket no. 1701-3596365 on the Capita website, which you can upvote if you like...

Thanks

[elsiegee40]

They could always use the "Do not disturb" function of their phone.

 

I have mine set to come on and go off automatically... and the family favourited so their calls override the setting.

[Max_Power]

When we used intouch we had that problem and a long list of others, in the end we lost faith because of all the issues and because it seemed to be a degraded service quite frequently so we ditched intouch and went with schoolcomms.

 

 

They could always use the "Do not disturb" function of their phone.

 

I have mine set to come on and go off automatically... and the family favourited so their calls override the setting.

 

Not all phones have that function.

[RobFuller]

We've had this complaint in the past, personally like a lot of you I auto silence my phone at night. We did pass that advice onto the parent which went down ok... But it I think being able to specify a delivery windows would be a good addition.

 

Ditto over the past couple of months we have seen some very pore service, with alot of outages come Monday morning which was frustrating the office staff chasing absences. Touch wood, all has been quiet these term.

 

+1 voted

Edited February 1, 2017 by RobFuller

[Esteban_Child_of_the_Sun]

@Sean, I've voted for your Change request but noticed that I was the first person to vote. You need to vote for your own change requests manually as Capita's MyAccount site doesn't do it for you automatically.

[john]

One thing to note about all the SMS Providers... once its been submitted to the networks its out of Capita (and other's) hands. So if its SIMS not passing to the networks then fair enough but if they get delayed / stuck on the network / sender they use then your out of luck. For example once a few years ago when we had epic sudden snow in the north and were saying we are still open, so issused texts to staff and parents and some of our texts were sent at 6:30am it took till nearly 8:30am for them all to arrive (I was sat in staff meeting as various staff phones went ping ping ping with them was quite funny!) Admittedly it was the EE Network that was slow others were fine but the system we used had send them all to the networks within 2 minutes of me pressing send.

[ITGURU]

Some users may be out of signal range, then when back in range they receive the message.

Remember the days of new years eve when everyone sent texts and you got them hours later?!

[Schoolcomms]

One thing to note about all the SMS Providers... once its been submitted to the networks its out of Capita (and other's) hands.

 

It's not quite as simple as that. School communications providers such as us do not typically submit messages direct to the mobile operator of the recipient. We hand messages to Bulk SMS providers who handle the distribution of messages out into the networks, and this is not a straightforward level playing field type set up as per IP traffic, it is complex web of proprietary billing and handling arrangements between many organisations operating at different levels. Therefore the slow delivery to EE may not be down to EE but down to the Bulk SMS provider chosen by your school communications provider and the web of relationships they have in place to deliver messages to various network operators.

[vikpaw]

I suspect some bulk providers use a really cheap and slow electronic method of delivery. These messages aren't going Out as SMS, they are conveyed to the networks and then received as an Inwards SMS.

You don't often see an SMS from phone to phone fail or suffer 'network degradation' unless it's > 00:00:00.000 on Jan 1st as @ITGURU says.

I guess it's out of their hands in as much as they have chosen their setup, you can either change supplier to one that provides better service like @Schoolcomms or collectively lobby Capita to resolve the issues.