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I had a similar experience when I changed my ISP. When I contacted Ebay they told me the only way to unsuspend my account was to click on the link they texted

I had a similar experience when I changed my ISP. When I contacted Ebay they told me the only way to unsuspend my account was to click on the link they texted to me. I told them I don't own a cellphone and haven't for several years, so who did they text. I went through 6 different tech support people, and every single one told me to click on the link they texted, even though I started the conversation saying I don't own a cellphone. You might think the stupidity stops there, but after all this frustration, I told them to delete my entire account, all my purchase history and reviews. They told me to do so they'd have to send me a text with a verification link! After 12 different techs couldn't figure out how to do so without a text verification, I finally threw in the towel. Ironically, after a year I decided to try and log in again. Like magic, it just worked. What a shitshow...

darkhorn 4y ago
Modern landline phones can receive and send SMS. Your landline provider might have SMS support. Just buy an SMS capable telephone.
- tmm 4y ago
  This is news to me. Do you have any example devices? Cursory internet search isn’t turning anything up. Verizon, the ILEC where I am, provides a text-to-voice service if you pay for it. Basically converts an SMS to voicemail. I guess IP phones can do SMS though.
  - darkhorn 4y ago
    https://www.hurriyet.com.tr/ekonomi/ev-telefonundan-da-sms-devri-basladi-5540540 https://www.hurriyet.com.tr/ekonomi/ev-telefonundan-da-sms-d... https://www.onedirect.de/gigaset-e720-eu-version https://www.onedirect.de/gigaset-e720-eu-version https://www.quora.com/Why-was-SMS-text-messaging-never-rolled-out-on-landline-phone-services https://www.quora.com/Why-was-SMS-text-messaging-never-rolle... The news says that TurkTelekom (home landline) now (2006) has SMS capabilities. Back then the company was only landline. There was no wireless landline. I think there is still no wireless landline. (Only few years ago Avea has merged with TurkTelekom and now TurkTelekom refers to both landline phones and one of 3 mobile service providers in Turkey) Aroud 2006-2010 I was sending SMS from my mobile phone to my coisin's landline (yes, connected with a cord to the street) and because his phone didn't had SMS support a computerazied female voice would read the SMS for free. I think it is still valid. I think you can search for dect phone with SMS support. I was thinking to buy one few years ago but they were a bit expensive.
  - deleted 4y ago
    [deleted]
  - lstamour 4y ago
    Sometimes there is a service you can sign up for with a website to receive and send SMS from. Sometimes the phone company calls you and reads the text to you. Sometimes the phone company sends an email to the email account on file (this sometimes happens for wireless text messages too, if undeliverable by other means…)
SoftTalker 4y ago
The front line support people follow scripts. They don’t have any latitude to be creative to handle something unexpected like “client cannot receive text messages” or to answer any questions the the script did not anticipate.
- rstuart4133 4y ago
  Which means the only skill the front line support people bring to the table is translating what they are told into "goto script line X". We can't be very far from an AI doing that at least as well as a human can. If true we've seen the light at the end of the tunnel, and it's a train. Then again, Google's "we will phone the restaurant to make a booking for you" portended that a long time ago, yet we aren't there. Maybe there's hope yet.
derbOac 4y ago
I had a similar experience with SMS dependent processes, only that time they also required access to an old credit card number I didn't have anymore, and that the credit card company couldn't provide because it was a temporary number. Ebay isn't alone in relying on SMS. It drives me nuts and strikes me as irresponsible. There should always be multiple options and if they SMS something they should be able to call with a code over audio.

darkhorn 4y ago

Modern landline phones can receive and send SMS. Your landline provider might have SMS support. Just buy an SMS capable telephone.

tmm 4y ago
This is news to me. Do you have any example devices? Cursory internet search isn’t turning anything up. Verizon, the ILEC where I am, provides a text-to-voice service if you pay for it. Basically converts an SMS to voicemail. I guess IP phones can do SMS though.
- darkhorn 4y ago
  https://www.hurriyet.com.tr/ekonomi/ev-telefonundan-da-sms-devri-basladi-5540540 https://www.hurriyet.com.tr/ekonomi/ev-telefonundan-da-sms-d... https://www.onedirect.de/gigaset-e720-eu-version https://www.onedirect.de/gigaset-e720-eu-version https://www.quora.com/Why-was-SMS-text-messaging-never-rolled-out-on-landline-phone-services https://www.quora.com/Why-was-SMS-text-messaging-never-rolle... The news says that TurkTelekom (home landline) now (2006) has SMS capabilities. Back then the company was only landline. There was no wireless landline. I think there is still no wireless landline. (Only few years ago Avea has merged with TurkTelekom and now TurkTelekom refers to both landline phones and one of 3 mobile service providers in Turkey) Aroud 2006-2010 I was sending SMS from my mobile phone to my coisin's landline (yes, connected with a cord to the street) and because his phone didn't had SMS support a computerazied female voice would read the SMS for free. I think it is still valid. I think you can search for dect phone with SMS support. I was thinking to buy one few years ago but they were a bit expensive.
- deleted 4y ago
  [deleted]
- lstamour 4y ago
  Sometimes there is a service you can sign up for with a website to receive and send SMS from. Sometimes the phone company calls you and reads the text to you. Sometimes the phone company sends an email to the email account on file (this sometimes happens for wireless text messages too, if undeliverable by other means…)

SoftTalker 4y ago

The front line support people follow scripts. They don’t have any latitude to be creative to handle something unexpected like “client cannot receive text messages” or to answer any questions the the script did not anticipate.

rstuart4133 4y ago
Which means the only skill the front line support people bring to the table is translating what they are told into "goto script line X". We can't be very far from an AI doing that at least as well as a human can. If true we've seen the light at the end of the tunnel, and it's a train. Then again, Google's "we will phone the restaurant to make a booking for you" portended that a long time ago, yet we aren't there. Maybe there's hope yet.

derbOac 4y ago

I had a similar experience with SMS dependent processes, only that time they also required access to an old credit card number I didn't have anymore, and that the credit card company couldn't provide because it was a temporary number. Ebay isn't alone in relying on SMS. It drives me nuts and strikes me as irresponsible. There should always be multiple options and if they SMS something they should be able to call with a code over audio.