Unable to receive SMS OTP from POSTEINFO (Italy)

[edoardoc]

Hi I changed iphone and after migrating all the apps, the Italian PosteID App to allow me back in wants to send me a one-time code via SMS. The App is essentials to me to pay for tax bills and access other government services in Italy. 

I have attempted many times, while in the UK and even from Italy when I was roaming there but I never receive the SMS.
Other SMSs are received  without problems.
I have also attempted using a spare old android phone where I stuck my EE SIM - but nothing happened.

I have contacted the tech support for the App and they told me that sometimes foreign (for them) operators block these SMS so told me to check with my provider (EE UK). 

I have seen this other thread https://community.ee.co.uk/t5/Mobile-Services/Problems-with-receiving-SMS-OTP-verification-codes-fro.... but no resolution. Please help

[bristolian]

Assuming that you can receive SMS from other senders OK and this is definitely a problem with one specific recipient, you should next contact EE-CS.

They have access to your individual account, but specifically can check your incoming SMS logs to ascertain whether the texts in question are arriving onto EE's network. That should help ID where the problem lies.

[edoardoc]

Thanks @bristolian I've spent time today one the phone with 3 different EE people, last one was from the tech support.

Essentially they checked and reset all and concluded 'not my fault' go back to the service provider who sends the SMS.

I fully expected this ping pong of responsibility, but it's disappointing and I'm no closer to a solution ☹️

[bristolian]

The team that I would understand as Technical Support are not customer-facing, thus I can only assume you've spoken to a frontline CS agent who have chosen to call themselves TS.

Did they advise what their basis was, for this not being an EE-network issue? I'm not suggesting either way, but I'd want to know their reasoning before accepting advice to contact someone else.

[edoardoc]

Unfortunately not much info from them - I have been asked twice to restart my phone and to remove my blocked contacts (so now I'm open to receive phishing SMSs again, thank you EE).
It's really hard to pin a fault - the only sensible suggestion so far has been from PosteID to try the SIM in another phone, which I did.
I'm back waiting for the service provider as the network provider says 'not me' . 

[bristolian]

That sounds more like a "stabbing in the dark" attempt rather than anything methodical, which sadly doesn't surprise me.

Were the CS agents not prepared to check the incoming SMS logs or raise a fault ticket to offline technical support who can?...

[edoardoc]

I mentioned the SMS logs but they didn't have access to them

[Peter_W]

Hi there @edoardoc, welcome back to the Community. 

This isn't always possible, but it can help our technical teams investigate the issue if you know what the other provider is sending the messages from. 

As @bristolian has highlighted though, it's definitely something that needs further investigation at our end, and would usually be passed to our Level 2 technical team. 

I'm confident if you get back in touch and make sure you're following the options for technical queries, we'll be able to investigate further.

Peter

[bristolian]

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@edoardoc wrote:

I mentioned the SMS logs but they didn't have access to them

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The correct process would then be for a fault ticket to be raised into (non-customer-facing) technical support for them to be checked, once you've taken all sensible steps to prove it's a particular sender being affected and it's not a device issue.

Testing your SIM in another phone would sensibly eliminate that, but that then proves the problem to either your SIM, the sender or EE's SMS platform. The SMS logs would ID whether the text is landing on EE's network or potentially being blocked by the anti-spam filters.

The latter would not be a huge surprise, especially where a (relatively low UK use) foreign sender is concerned, but this still needs a fault ticket being raised if the frontline agent doesn't have access. You should be able to provide a handful of examples of "lost" SMS with dates & times.

[edoardoc]

Thanks @bristolian and @Peter_W 
I spent another hour with EE and their technical support and esclated. No resolution.

They say the SMS is not even hitting their network because they would see if it was captured by the filters.

Suggested that possibly the PosteInfo certificates are not recognized . I suppose I must look for a new SPID provider in Italy