Blykwatch - 29 days and counting...

For the regular readers of this column you will know the format is generally I discuss anything I want to and then move on to explain and describe my interactions with the adverts BLYK send me. However this week I will not be able to cover the adverts for the last 14 days, this is due to more problems on BLYK and me going on a short holiday.

Firstly let’s look at the current multiple SMS problem; we are on 29 days and counting….. There is nothing I can further add about this problem that has not been covered by previous editions. All I ask anyone from BLYK reading this column, PLEASE PLEASE PLEASE sort this issue out ASAP!!!!

Now let’s move onto some NEW problems. Until Friday 30th May, I had no problems receiving BLYK MMS messages and then all of the sudden I received an error message Communication Error, this occurred when the MMS tried to be downloaded. I thought to myself ok no problem there must be an issue with my settings, no problem I did a full system reset and tried to get the settings resent to my phone. As part of receiving the settings BLYK also send you a welcome MMS, and yet again I had the same problem. So I went online sent customer care an email and on the forum, and was informed that there was intermittent problems with Sony Ericsson phones and downloading MMS message. Great another problem to the current list those BLYK members have to endure.

Since I was flying out to Prague and Vienna the next day, I decided to put my account into pause. This is where you stop receiving brand messages, and you can’t use your free balance and simply turns your account in essence into a normal pay as you go orange sim, with once exception with crap roaming. Currently Blyk users can only use their phone in Spain, and brand messages are not sent when abroad and you cannot use your free balance. Hold on exciting news, BLYK have added more countries to their list France, Italy, USA, Belgium, Switzerland, Portugal and the best bit you must have credit on your phone. Can you sense the sarcasm? I know Blyk is small and new but surely they can use Orange’s roaming partners? I understand the bit about no brand messages and no free balance, but that your account must have credit is ridiculous and surely against Blyk’s free model. As a result I could not take my phone abroad and receive SMS messages from my friends. Luckily BLYK is not my main line, therefore this did affect me directly however for those who use BLYK as their only number, surely this will affect them.

Since returning back to the UK on Friday, I again tried to reset up BLYK on my phone to no avail, in fact BLYK’s system tried to send me settings over and over again. I am sure this is linked to the multiple text problems, mentioned at the start of this post. Still on my k550i, I cannot set up BLYK; however I now have it working on a spare k750i and my account is unpaused and receiving MMS messages again. If I was an advertiser with BLYK I would be worried, as it seems there is an issue with some Sony Ericsson phone and the ability to receive MMS brand messages.

Finally BLYK has another SMS issue on it’s hands, it seems on the last few days that a problem has manifested itself that messages are coming out of people’s free balance and are not be receiving at all and with no delivery reports no one knows what has got through at all.

Oh dear it’s not good news really for BLYK especially as SMS is the main communication method for Blyk’s target audience and it is very worrying that things are taking such a long time to get fixed. I thought I would publish some comments that have appeared on the Blyk forum of how some of the members are feeling about the current problems.

I have been “testing” Blyk since January…thankfully its not my main number! I never felt the service was reliable enough to make Blyk my main number. Im just growing weary of the failed texts..pity, the Blyk idea is a good one, let down by poor technology.

I know the service is free, and I did consider to change over but at the moment I’m testing and as far as I can tell its not the best.

I think ive been patient…for 6 months! When the service works its great…but it just isnt reliable! Im sick of random texts never being delivered..and I have no way to know which ones make it and which ones dont!! Arghh!!. Please, please just tell me…are delivery reports EVER going to happen…and you cant say “youre looking into it!”. If they are unlikly to ever be part of the Blyk service id rather know now and maybe I can move on.

In direct response to the above quotes here is a response from member care

I am sorry that you are angry about this,
With delivery reports, they will not work at the moment and it is something we are looking into. I know that’s not what you wanted to hear but its what’s happening. For the moment though they will not work and probably wont for some time. I’m not saying that they will never be on Blyk but for the moment they wont.
Our tech team are working extremely hard at the moment to fix any issues and personally i am impressed at how hard they are working.
Remember this is the Only service in the UK that gives you free texts and calls with no contract and that Blyk has only been running since September. Now as our Member numbers increase errors that were not around before are now showing. As with anything, new trial and error are a big part of things.
All i can ask is that you show some more of that amazing patients again and wait until these errors are sorted.

I have to agree the model works; it just needs to be backed up by reliable network service, something we just are not getting at the moment.
As you can see things are happening with BLYK very quickly and as a result this column will become weekly, so I can keep you updated with what’s going on with BLYK!

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Thanks Ricky! Remember Blykwatch is going to be published weekly, so stay tuned!