The Perils of Texting

A riddle for you:
How do you know your intended recipient receives your text message?

The easy answer is they text you back. Unfortunately, that not the whole story. Turns out, unlike calling a phone number that's not in service, or a bounce message if an email mailbox is full, you get no notice that a subscriber has chosen not to receive text messages. To you, the text looks like it goes through just fine, but your recipient never even gets a notice you tried to send them a message.

I learned this the hard way when a client texted me to say she was ill and need to postpone an appointment.  I had blocked text messages on my cell phone, and had never indicated to anyone that texting was a way to communicate with me (even more interesting was the fact that she just assumed my office number (a land line) was a cell phone - talk about generational differences). However, in a subsequent call to AT&T, I learned that there is no notice when a text message does not go through.

Texting can be a terrific way to stay in touch, but don't rely on it to reach someone if you haven't verified with them a) they can receive text and b) they prefer to be contacted this way.