poor user experience with text messages from Fido

[DaveC426913]

I had planned to send some feedback to Fido about what I perceive as a poor user experience with text messaging. I didn't find any way to do that on the website, so I went into Live Chat to ask them how I could send feedback.

(Well, that was not a satisfactory experience either; the support person kept trying to send me to technical support, despite my insistence that this was not a technical issue.) Nonetheless, they did point me here. And they did raise a question that had not really occurred to me: is it possible I am the only one with this problem? Or who sees it as a problem?

My problem:

My text messages from Fido are, at best, confusing and unreadable, and at worst, false. Examples:

"Who called: Now improved!" I get this message every single time I miss a call. I've gotten it for several years. How long do I have to see that this feature is new and improved? Is it still "new" after several years? Either they improve the service weekly so much that they must inform me about this new improvement every week - or they are not bothering to keep their messages current and informative.

18, 8888, 4735, 450012, 465644, 4944, etc. This is just a sampling of the sender names I get from Fido. My Inbox is littered with this junk information that clutters up an otherwise a perfectly usable text message experience. I'm not complaining about receiving the meesages (that is a separate issue), I'm complianing abut why they are all useless numbers, and all different and are instrumental in slowing down my ability to scan and process my incoming messages.

So, my questions:

1] Am I the only one that gets these texts in this format?

2] Is it possible that it IS a technical issue, somehow more to do with my phone than with Fido?

3] Am I the only one that finds text message managment a frustrating, grating experience because of this lousy attention to (or perhaps deliberate mangling of) the user experience?

4] Can I change it?

My phone is an LG 990.

***Edited to add labels***

[Nikkii]

I also agree with the false messages. I recently got one that mislead me and turned out to not be true and it was disappointing:

Hi _________, it's Fido. There's no need to wait to upgrade to a new phone. Now get $150 off your current device balance when you switch to a new phone of your choice on select 2-year plans. Find the right one for you online, fido.ly/exclusiveoffer or pop into a Fido store and mention the promo code TAB. Offer ends 29-Oct-2018. A price plan change and remaining device balance may be required. Questions? fido.ca/contactus Reply STOP to opt out of Fido text msgs.

I got the above message from fido but when I went to take them up on the offer, they had no record of this msg ever being sent. 

[FidoKenny]

Hello @Nikkii

We would need to take a look at your account to better understand what happened.

You can reach us on our channels here.

We can also send you  PM here on the Community.

Let us know what's best for you.

[Varmint]

I also get unwanted text messages from Fido. Especially one that tells me I recently travelled to a roaming area and now I can make uncharged phone calls from them, again again and again.........Very frustrating! to say the least I wish we had a choice of what notifications we wanted to turn off. I am so frustrated with these types of unwanted text messages that I might switch to another service provider soon.

[FidoKenny]

Hey Varmint and thank you for using the Community.

The notifications are there to help you avoid unwanted charges.

We certainly don't want to see you leave. If you need any  assistance on your account, don't hesitate to contact us on Twitter or Facebook

[afterthefact · Accepted solution]

Hello DaveC426913,

Some information for you.

SMS from +18 is for Voicemail Notification.  Fido sends you a text message with the details of any voicemessages you have received/stored.  This is actually a GSM standard (although admittedly not many providers in Canada have implemented it in this way -- but it is the official documented standard on how to advise the end user there is voicemail waiting on a GSM network).

SMS from +8888 is for the WhoCalled(tm) service.  This value-added service is bundled with many Fido plans.  The goal of this service is to notify you when you missed a call while not connected to the network (phone off, out of service coverage area, etc).  Since otherwise you'd have no notification of the missed call since Call Display only works if you're actually connected to the network.  Exceptionally, if you wish to remove this service from your plan, you can contact Customer Service and they can do so.

For the others, I could possibly provide more information if you provided the type of content received from that sender.  They may be Premium SMS services or other Fido services or for Marketing Campaigns.

Regarding your comment on the cluttered experience, does your phone not sort messages by sender?  If so, all SMS from the same sender should be grouped together (not cluttered).  Additionally, it's typically a quick action to delete an SMS.  I can't imagine you're receiving so many of these SMS per hour that you are unable to keep up pace to delete them.... I may be wrong so please provide some more information about the frequency you are receiving these SMS as well as your Phone Model and perhaps we can find a way to make your texting life easier! 

Regards