Why am I getting all ascii character text messages?

[DANCINKSB]

Why am I getting all ascii character text messages?  It seems to be happening only when someone dictates the message using punctuation in the dictation.  This is happening on my Samsung Brightside phone.  It didn't use to happen.

[vzw_customer_support]

Your support is here DANCINKSB. We want to make sure your device works properly. Can you share more details to help us correct this for you? Where any changes made to the device before this began? A new update or application? Please provide more information about the ascii messages. We want to be on the same page. BobbyN_VZW

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If my response answered your question please click the "Correct Answer" button under my response. This ensures others can benefit from our conversation. Thanks in advance for your help with this!!

[DANCINKSB]

No, I have not made any updates to my phone.  And I recently received a garbled message from someone that did not dictate their message to me.  Please advise as to how I can supply more information?  Is there some way for me to forward one of these messages to you?  THANKS!

[NAmabile]

The most recent iPhone update has made any message sent with an apostrophe or quotation mark, to a basic phone, illegible.

The only fix, as of now, is to ask the iPhone user to turn their "Smart Punctuation" feature off.  Apple's and Verizon's suggestion is to upgrade to a smart phone.

[SINGLEFINN]

My text messages are now garbled as well. I was using the Samsung Gusto and had occasional garbled messages, recently it became constant. Most texts are unreadable. I replaced my phone, upgrading to the Samsung Gusto 2. I have the same problem on that phone despite the fact that it is brand new. I don't want to upgrade to a smart phone, I would like to see a solution to this problem so that I can continue using the new phone I just purchased.

Messages are garbled when messages contain emoji's or even certain punctuation marks like apostrophes--I cannot ask my contacts to avoid use basic punctuation. This occurs when I receive messages from other Verizon customers or friends who are on other networks.

[vzw_customer_support]

DANCINKSB Let's get started with our troubleshooting. Is this issue happening all the time or just from one person? Please power off the phone and remove the battery. Click the link for instructions: https://www.verizonwireless.com/support/knowledge-base-60827/

DeloresK_VZW

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If my response answered your question please click the �Correct Answer� button under my response. This ensures others can benefit from our conversation. Thanks in advance for your help with this!!

[DANCINKSB]

I had already tried turning off my phone and removing the battery, but since you are willing to help me, I turned it off and removed the battery again last night. Had a friend resend a message that comes in unreadable. And I still can’t read it. It happens with some messages from multiple people but not all of their messages.

Look forward to finding out what the problem is.

THANKS!

[vzw_customer_support]

@DANCINKSB

Thanks for trying that step. Let's take a closer look into this texting issue for you.

Do you notice this happening when you receive text messages from certain recipients with certain model devices? What model phone does the sender have? Can you have the sender send you a screenshot of the original message to see if their message contains any signatures, symbols or special characters? Please keep me posted with your findings.

AnthonyTa_VZW

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If my response answered your question please click the "Correct Answer" button under my response. This ensures others can benefit from our conversation. Thanks in advance for your help with this!!

[DANCINKSB]

I receive these from multiple people. There are 2 people who I feel comfortable asking specific questions about it, others are clients. How do they take a screenshot of the original message? How do they send it to me or you? I don’t have a data package, remember, basic phone. I do know that one person has an iPhone and she dictates her messages and includes punctuation like “period”, “exclamation point”.

THANKS!

[DANCINKSB]

Here is a screen shot of the message that came to me all garbled.  It was from and iPhone7.

[removed]

Content removed as required by the Verizon Wireless Terms of Service​.

Message edited by Verizon Moderator.