The Switch: Afterword

After moving my wireless contract to Orange (.PL) the only thing that stopped working were SMSes. Really... Murphy's Law... I can receive SMS messages just fine. I can even send them out. But any message longer than just a few words (3-5) displays as a set of little squares on the recipient's handset. And if a recipients are lucky enough to have an iPhone, they get the message in Chinese...

I submitted this problem to Orange customer support and after roughly two weeks got this reply:

W odpowiedzi na złoszenie techniczne dział ten informuje co należy zrobić, aby problem został rozwiązany. Przy problemach związanych z odbiorem wiadomości SMS prosimy, by odbiorca wiadomości wykonał w kolejności:
1. przełożenie karty SIM do innego telefonu na czas ok 3 godz.;
2. wykasowanie 2-3 wiadomości SMS;
3. wysłanie do siebie samego wiadomości: text.
Część telefonów / kart SIM niepoprawnie odbiera wiadomości typu LONG/graficzne/z polskimi znakami. Pozdrawiamy. Orange.

In English this means:

In reply to the tech support request, we advise the following steps to be taken to solve the problem. When a recipient has problems receiving SMS text properly, he should:
1. move his/her SIM card to a different handset for about 3 hours;
2. delete 2-3 SMS messages
3. send to himself/herself the message: text.
Some handests / SIM cards do not receive properly messages that are LONG/graphic/with Polish accents. Regards. Orange.

So indeed, when I want to send an SMS now, I should call the recipient 3 hours in advance, tell him to get another handset, move his SIM card to the other handset, delete a few messages, text himself. And then they will be able to receive my messages.

Surely I will be doing so. Be prepared :)