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.

I'm in my fifties.

I think the service provider should have asked for confirmation that you had received the message, but I also think you were BU to turn off notifications and have no other system for checking texts.

I haven't disabled texts but have a couple of people who text sometimes I do miss then in with slurry of all the rubbish that ia text BUT I do think most appointment communication is done via text. NHS primarily texts.

At work we text about appointments but as the previous poster has mentioned, we would ask for confirmation they have received it if rearranging and try to contact them another way.

However they might have text as opposed to email because they thought it was more likely you would get a text. There are plenty of people who still don't have their emails on their phone in this day and age.

Basically I don't think anyone is unreasonable. They sent a message to the number you have provided updating you. While it would have been best practice to contact you another way, they can't be expected to know you've turned your texts off.

Can't you block the nuisance numbers?

NHS does everything by text.

I’m in my mid 70s, rarely make a phone call and do most of my comms through WhatsApp and SMS. Madness to turn off notifications.

I think this is a problem with access to as many means of communication. A few years ago I would often miss WhatsApp messages as I didn’t use it a great deal but would always check text messages.

If it was urgent as this was I would ask the messagee to confirm receipt and if that didn’t happen I would ring.

You can turn all the sounds and vibrations off (I do) but still see the notification icon, so you know there are messages when you do actually look at your phone.

This is so bizzare to me to turn any form of communication off. Just turn your phone on silent if it bugs you.

Not everyone has WhatsApp. Almost all people have texts. Go and dentists always text if they need to cancel) rearrange appointments as does my hairdressers. My parents text at least once a day in an emergency and teens text when coming home, staying out late, ask if they can invite a friend over. I wouldn't be able to function without texts. Just turn on notifications, it's not hard

Sorry to hear about your cancer scare, but thankful it was a 'scare' & not a diagnosis xx

Well you're lucky to have a GP that still remembers how a phone works & has the time to use if!

99/100 it's a text, 1/100 it's a receptionist with a message. A partial messsge.

i had a stroke last year & text messages all the way. Consultants admin. GP etc.

I suspect you're not an iPhone user OP. 99% of the text messages I send are through the Messages app, which is both SMS and iMessage. I rarely use WhatsApp unless it's for group messaging and not everyone in the group has an iPhone. Turning message notifications off therefore seems truly bizarre to me as it is my main messaging app.

I'm mid 30s, and would and do check SMS before WhatsApp, and as I've said already think SMS is a more urgent way of communicating than WA (which it sounds like you'd have been happy with). I agree a phone call would've been best though.