Do you check texts? (SMS)

[DoYouCheckTexts]

Who is in the right here?

Person A: a professional service provider, texts (SMS rather than WhatsApp) their client at 8am on the day of the appt advising the slot (which was for 6pm) is no longer available and asking them to come at 8pm that day or rearrange to a different day.

Person B: the client, has notifications turned off for SMSs on their phone as they get annoyed with getting lots of SMSs about parcel deliveries and from scammers. They don't see the message and turn up at the appointment at the original time to find noone there.

This was only the 2nd appt and Person A has previously communicated only by EMAIL.

VOTE:
YABU = Person A is correct. Person B should check SMSs, especially if they have an appointment.
YANBU = Person B is correct. Person A should have PHONED Person B to ensure they got the message, especially when they didn't respond to the text.

Maybe it's a millennial thing or a ND thing but I understood that most people turned off as many notifications as possible! I'd never get anything done with flipping beeps/vibrations/boxes popping up all day long.

I think overall - just DON'T book a client and then (a week later!) "realise" the morning of the appt that you have "forgotten" your child's parent's evening. And if you do, make DAMN SURE the client gets the message.

Personally I’d be really irritated by a phone call. Would much prefer a text. So I guess they can’t win.

There are some things you need to be notified about though. As I said above, my children’s schools use SMS. Obviously not for extremely urgent things, but for example a couple of weeks ago we got a text to say they had no running water and we needed to pick our children up ASAP. They obviously couldn’t phone all 300 parents. So it would be really irresponsible to switch them off.

I block calls on my phone and probably get about 2-3 texts a day, I haven't used WhatsApp since it was owned by Facebook, so not much to check, I rarely get spam, I am old. My number is obviously not out in the wild

Fellow millennial here. I turn notifications for bullshit off but not actual text messages that people may use to contact me.

WhatsApp is open to scamming - my company doesn’t allow it to be used so whilst it may be a business chat, you can mirror numbers and such so it’s not something I would want to be using.

honestly, when I read this I thought “who the fuck blocks text messages?”

Phone calls require both people to be available at the same time. People could be driving, working, talking to someone, washing up, on the toilet... they can be a very inefficient way of sending a message.

45, I don't agree with you

This is true. I miss so many calls because I’m in meetings etc.

I don't block texts, I just have the notifications off. I just don't want notified 10 times a day that HMRC have a warrant out for my arrest or that Royal Mail have a parcel for me and I just need to click here and pay £1....

Anyhow, that's me used up the 3 hours spare I unexpectedly ended up with today so thanks for your responses, interesting to hear lots of different views, surprising though some of them were.

According to the vote, about 1/3 agree with me and 2/3 with the "professional" although I suspect that as this was AIBU and you could tell I was Person B, some of you were just being contrary as usual! ;-)

I hate to be THAT person @DoYouCheckTexts but there is no option there for me, as I think they are both at fault.

The person who had the appointment (Person A) should be looking out for any changes or cancellations to the appointment. (I even ring and check it's still on sometimes on the same day when I have an appointment.) Switching off SMS is a bit daft to be honest. You are clearly going to miss stuff, and it will possibly be something important. (As this has proven.)

Person B should not have just texted and assumed that Person A got the message. What if she had texted the wrong person? I have had texts before that were meant for someone else, as someone has sent the message to the wrong number. Person B should have asked for a response from Person A to confirm she got the text, and if she didn't get a response, then Person B should have phoned Person A to see if she got the text with the 'appointment time change' message.

If she didn't get an answer (when she rang) she should have left a voicemail message. If there was no response to the text OR voicemail message, (say, within 2 hours,) Person B should have tried again. Obviously if 3 attempts to contact the patient failed, then Person B should do no more. But the vast majority of people will get the message/know the hospital or clinic have been in touch, after a text, and 2 attempts at phone calls. Then the onus is on them (Person A,) to ring them back and re-arrange.

So in the case you are stating, both Person A - AND Person B are at fault.

.

I can't typically answer my phone during the working day. For a message like this I would prefer an SMS, rather than waiting until I get a break (and hope I remember to call back / don't get caught up with something else).

It would also depend on the importance of the appointment I suppose too I suppose. For a medical appointment where missing it is potentially serious, a phone call is probably appropriate. A nail appointment - not so much, SMS is fine.

Sorry. Clears throat. Who the fuck blocks text notifications? 🤣

do you seriously get that many messages tho? I haven’t had a spam since Monday and that was just a dentist saying I was overdue. In Jan I’ve only had the local curry house and a detention notification. I’ve had my number over 20 years and signed up for a lot of shit over the years. I went through my phone and turned all notifications off except phone, sms and WhatsApp so I get it but I don’t… get it.

I don’t really understand why you would check WhatsApp during the day but not have a quick look at your text messages at the same time. To me they are essentially the same thing - both are used for short text messages 🤷‍♀️

I have notifications on my phone switched off for everything - but I do check my phone regularly for texts, WhatsApps and emails.

And I would much prefer either a text or a WhatsApp during the day than a phone call, as I can’t always take a call, especially if I am at work.

So on that basis, YABU. Especially if you had an appointment that evening - surely you’d always check every messaging medium beforehand just in case there was a change!

OP, is your number not TPS registeted? Just wondering because to get so much spam that you have to disable notifications is quite unusual.

Hmmm yeah this. ^ I didn't even know you could block text notifications! Like you, I rarely get spam texts. Maybe 3 in the past year. I just ignore them. (And I have had my current number for 6 years,) and the last one for 10 years before that. Have rarely ever got spam texts...

What? I can't believe the number of people saying person B is in the wrong. Person A has the responsibility to contact person B.
Why on earth would you not call to check they'd got your message, if they hadn't responded to you changing their appointment on the SAME DAY.
God people are ridiculous.
I work by appointment and would never dream of just texting someone to cancel on the same day. I'd want to give as much notice as possible, and I'd call first then text if I couldn't get through!
Are people too anxious to pick up the phone these days?
Do people know how to use a phone to actually speak to people?
Honestly. I despair.

Don’t phones indicate texts, mine does, tells me how many unread at the bottom

Oh for the love of God, dress it up any way you like, turning off your SMS notifications is rather odd, and that is a 'you' issue. Do you not worry about missing your doctor's correspondence, kids' school correspondence etc? Ours send a lot out by text.

I think the therapist should have called as a follow up, but I also think you should have checked your texts. A lot of people prefer a text rather than a call which can be intrusive, especially if you are at work, etc.

Both unreasonable, you more so. I am 40, as you are asking about age.

SMS texts are the only notifications I actually have on - only because I don’t know how to switch them off! I check everything else but don’t like notifications flashing up all the time. I generally only ever get texts that are reminders about eg dentist checkup, saying a parcel is out for delivery and so on, the only “real person” who texts is my eyebrow lady - but I do see them because they come through on my Apple Watch too. I’d find it weird if a professional person sent me a WA uniess it was someone who is also a friend, like my hairdresser.

Irritated by a phone call? Where someone is telling you your appointment time has changed?

IRRITATED by it?

Stop the world I want to get off.

I wouldn’t have been irritated by it, but I wouldn’t be able to answer while at work. SMS works best for me.

I’d say it’s a ‘millennial’ thing (as a millennial) to have your phone permanently on silent, yes. But it’s not a millennial thing to have it on silent AND not check it!

That being said if text wasn’t a usual way to communicate then yes I would expect contact via a usual channel. I wouldn’t automatically expect a call, I personally would hate a call!

If you do want to turn them off, it’s:

settings > notifications > messages

then toggle them off. That will turn off all notifications from messages. Or you could just turn everything off but leave ‘badges’ on so you can still see if you have something new, but it won’t pop up!

Best you don't ever have a serious health issue then.

I’ve got notifications on and sometimes don’t look at them for days, have a couple here at the moment that I think were received Monday. Can’t be arsed.

If it’s important, they can actually call my phone.