why do I receive occasional texts in scrambled ascii format characters on my Samsung Gusto 3?

[stephenrodgers]

About 1 in 5 texts on my Samsung Gusto 3 arrive in scrambled unreadable characters which look like ascii extended character set.  This happens randomly, from friends with Verizon and non-Verizon service providers, and all brands of phone, smart or flip.  If I get 5 emails from the same person, from the same carrier, one will be scrambled.  If I have the failed text resent from the originator it will again be non-readable.  As such, the problem is consistently repeatable.  I've talked with Verizon support who sent me directly to Samsung.  Samsung level 2 support reinstalled the latest software level which had no effect.

By Googling this problem, it has been around for about 10 years with all makes of phones and all carriers.  But I cannot find what the solution is.  I think it has something to do with the way SMS service is set up at Verizon  (SMS vs MMS, or possibly UTF-8/ascii settings) but I don't know enough to be able to talk intelligently about this.

Anyone out there have any ideas?  Thank you very much.

[vzw_customer_support]

I rely on my text messages daily, so I know how important it is to ensure they are working correctly. When did you start experiencing difficulties with receiving garbled text messages? Do you notice garbled text messages received only when a text is over 160 characters? Has there been any changes made to the phone when this started?

Thank You,

MichelleS_VZW

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[stephenrodgers]

I have always had occasional garbled messages with this phone and Verizon

for over a year. The test gargled message that I use to see if it repaired

is 98 characters including spaces. The message has no emojis, pictures, or

audio. It is a basic text message with no punctuation other than periods.

I will send you the exact message if you want to look at it. When I look

at the "message info" on the Gusto 3, the size of the messages is 0.3 - 0.5

KB which I think is probably ok. And the text type was "txt", not "mms".

I sent a text message to myself using Verizon .VTEXT and email which was

over 300 characters and received a truncated message of 160 characters in

readable format. Length of message does not seem to be the problem.

Please ask me more questions. Thank you.

On Sun, Nov 12, 2017 at 2:28 PM, vzw_customer_support <

[vzw_customer_support]

I appreciate all the added details stephenrodgers. Text messaging is my main means of communication, so I understand the importance of making sure it is working properly.

I researched this further and did not find it to be a known issue with the Samsung Gusto 3. There are many factors that can cause the garbled text messages. You can visit http://vz.to/2A4pHdn for troubleshooting steps you can take to make sure everything on your phone is working properly.

Please keep us posted if you continue to receive the garbled text after you have gone through the troubleshooting steps.

JohnB_VZW

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[stephenrodgers]

Hello JohnB,

Thank you for your continued support.

When I select the link that you sent me for troubleshooting I get a Verizon

screen that says "An unexpected error has occurred".

No, texting is not repaired yet. When your attached troubleshooting link

works I will try the Samsung troubleshooting recommendations. I think I've

already tried them though via the Verizon Samsung Gusto 3 support page

having previously tried everything I could find on your site to resolve

this myself. I don't think the problem is with the Samsung Gusto 3 as

Samsung support reinstalled the latest version operating system with no

changes. I can send you some Verizon blog links going back about 7 years

that talk about this problem if it will help. It is not a new, nor

unknown, problem though I've never seen what fix is required.

By the way, at least one of my sources of failed texts is from a friend who

has Verizon service using a Verizon Apple Iphone. This probably means that

the error in not out of the Verizon network. We can retest this whenever

you want. But I think you need to be looking at the Verizon network

settings rather than the Samsung Gusto 3 settings. Somewhere the network,

and possibly not the phone, is deciding to transport and/or display ASCII

characters rather than alphabet characters. Is this function in the phone,

or the network? I don't know. Blogs that I have read discuss this issue

on many brands of phones, both smart and basic flip, which makes me

suspicious of a network rather than a phone issue.

Would a picture of the scrambled screen text, plus a copy of the original

alphabet text, help you to determine the location of the problem? Also,

this is not a problem that has recently occurred. It has been this way

since the purchase of the phone and service so nothing has suddenly changed.

We need to keep working on this. Someone in Verizon is familiar with this

problem and knows the solution. It is OK to pass this issue to the next

higher level of Verizon technical support if you think it would help. If

not, I will readily try anything that you recommend.

Thank you.

On Thu, Nov 16, 2017 at 9:49 AM, vzw_customer_support <

[samford79]

I have been experiencing the same problem (scrambled texts) with about 1 out of every 10 texts. Started last summer. Before that, no problems texting for last 5 years.

[stephenrodgers]

Hello JohnB-VZW,

Wanted to follow up to your earlier response.  I have accessed the Verizon "Samsung Gusto 3 Support" page for which you had sent me the link.  I systematically executed every one of the recommended actions as defined for the "Can't send or receive text messages" issue.  I see no change in the scrambled text message problem and received one just a few minutes ago.  If you read through this entire thread you will see that I've tried everything that I can think of, as well as everything both Verizon and Samsung have suggested to solve the problem.

As a few others have written in to confirm this problem, it is readily identifiable and probably serviceable.

What is the next step?  Who in Verizon can resolve this issue?  How do we escalate this for technical support and resolution?   As has been mentioned by others on this thread, the problem has been around for a long time.  I suspect it is well known and there is probably a fix available if we could just find who repaired it in the past.

Thank you.

[vzw_customer_support]

We appreciate you getting back to us stephenrodgers and want to be sure we are working towards a resolution. I see in a previous response that you noted a text message you received that was garbled contained an apostrophe. What were the results after you removed the apostrophe from that message? Do any of the messages you send show up as garbled on the other users phone or is this issue only with messages you receive?

RashadM_VZW

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[stephenrodgers]

Hello Rashad,

Thank you for responding.

I have had the original text sent to me from another person who had AT&T as

a carrier, and an I-phone handset. It did not scramble, but did convert

the apostrophe to a period ( . ). As mentioned by other respondents on

this thread, it is triggered by any of several things: punctuation,

symbols, and possibly emoji's. The texting system should not be this

sensitive to what is sent. I believe that there is someone within Verizon

who knows this problem well and has solved it years ago. We just need to

find this person (group?). Keep asking about receiving text messages in

extended ASCII character set format and they will know the problem. That

is a big clue as to what is happening.

Yes, I've continued to get scrambled text from several sources (smartphones

and different carriers) but do not see any pattern. No, my outgoing texts

are never received in a scrambled format. I plan to contact Samsung

tomorrow to see if they know anything at a higher level of support as

well. I am confident that we will solve this.

On Thu, Nov 30, 2017 at 2:39 PM, vzw_customer_support <

[vzw_customer_support]

Stephenrodgers, we appreciate the additional details and we truly understand your concern with the messages being garbled for so many users for such a long period of time. We’d like to better assist in this matter and to further troubleshoot so we’ve sent you a Private Message. Please check your inbox and follow up at your earliest convenience.

SamanthaT_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!

[CHAKAL0]

I have been having this issue lately since I've gotten a Samsung Gusto 2 just a couple of weeks ago.  If there is any way to keep up on the resolution of this issue, please let me know. Thanks.

[vzw_customer_support]

CHAKAL0, congratulations on your new Gusto 2. I apologize for the text messaging issue you're experiencing. Please keep in mind that basic phones are not compatible with enhanced text messages. Long text messages, Emojis, Non-ASCII symbols (¿ ¢ ¼), letters with accents and languages that have special symbols and not having enough memory on your device will cause garbled text messages. How much memory do you have on your phone? Menu>Settings. (Utilize the 5-way navigation pad to highlight and the OK/Center button to select). Select Memory and then select Memory Usage.         

-JacobV_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!!

[1Waye]

I've had the exact same problem with my Verizon/Samsung flip phone for a few years, and it seems to have been getting more frequent over the last couple of months. After some experimenting, I discovered that the problem almost always is the result of the incoming text containing an apostrophe ('), an ampersand (&) or an emoji.

[stephenrodgers]

1Waye - thank you for responding. I checked the original text and it did

have one apostrophe, but no ampersand or emoji. I will try a test w/wo the

apostrophe and see what happens. In receiving a text with no words, and

only the simplest of emoji's, I receive a simple punctuation period (.) in

the emoji's place. Not sure what that is telling me.

I would be happy if I simply received all texts in alphabet characters

without emojis, video, pictures, or even putuation. Readable content is

critical.

Have you had any progress with Verizon in resolving the problem?

[1Waye]

I also get a period (.) or two (..) when people send me simple emojis. These problems have not been solved, despite calls to Verizon customer service. I suspect that since flip-phone users represent a small percentage of Verizon's customer base, and a lower-profit percentage as well (no data plans), there is little incentive for Verizon to commit resources to solving this. I've been able to get most of the scrambled messages by asking friends and relatives to resend them without the malfunctioning punctuation, but this is frustrating for both parties.

[oldlures1]

Same here; I started getting the occassional scrambed message about 2 years ago, but it was rare. Now, however, it's been happening with increased frequency, particularly in the last few months.  For example, if my wife sends me 5 random text messages, 3-4 will be scrambled. At first it only happened when I received text from her, but now, in the last week or so, I've started getting scrambed messages from everyone. 

There's a real problem here!

[nicolet_vzw]

oldlures1, I do apologize that you have been experiencing such troubles with your text messaging on your device. I saw that you stated that this has been happening for a while now. What troubleshooting steps have you tried thus far to rectify the issue?

NicoleT_VZW Follow us on TWITTER @VZWSupport 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!

[oldlures1]

According to everything I've read online, including the Verizon forums, there is nothing that works - regardless of what "troubleshooting" actions are taken, everyone seems to continue having the same problem of scrambled text messages.

[oldlures1]

I have this issue also.  It's been ongoing for a couple years, but previously it was only a rare occurrence, so I didn't pay much attention to it.  However, it happens very frequently now.  In fact, out of 10 texts, approximately half will be scrambled, unreadable...and it doesn't matter who sends it, the device, the carrier or the content (i.e. punctuation or not, symbols or no symbols, it doesn't matter).

It's getting to the point where the text function on my Gusto is, at the least, inconvenient, and as the problem worsens it will soon render the text function worthless.

I've seen similar discussion online dating back to 2010, so this problem has been around for a LONG time.

[1Waye]

By the way my phone is a Samsung Convoy, so the problem isn't isolated to just the Gusto.

[wb111]

I have the same issue. It started around 8 months ago when I got the Gusto 3 (I've had a variety of basic phones before). Thought it would be the Gusto 3's problem, but I recently purchased a Gusto 2 off of ebay and it had the same issue. As mentioned earlier, it seems to be related to apostrophes and other characters (possibly exclamation points). In some messages the apostrophes ruin the message, like the initial post described. Sometimes the apostrophes show up as periods within the message and I am able to read the entirety of the message. But the former problem basically renders texting some individuals impossible because of the frequency of the garbled messages.