Sidekick 08 and text messages?

Question

Text message notification does not work, COMMON SIDEKICK ISSUE:

So I bought this new sidekick 08 two days ago, spend $270, its priced at 150 but thats if it has been two years since your last renewal of contract and new phone, It was only 10 months for me but I still chose to buy this new phone because it was the one i wanted. Little did i know that the sidekick 08 has a very common issue: Its text messaging features have a bug in them, it does not notify you when you receive a text message. The little scroll ball blinks blue instead of green, but no matter what your settings: vibrate or music, it does not alert you when you have an incoming text message (unless its a picture message). I brought it back in to T-mobile, got a new device, same problem, the T-mobile representative called customer service and was connected to the sidekick team in California who told them its a common problem and they are working to fix it, saying "hopefully well have it fixed...eventually". Now I don't know about you guys but I thought sidekick users bought them because its easy to text, so I figure its a pretty big issue when you are not notified of your text messages and have to check your phone every five minutes to see if you have received one. If anyone can help me out here I'm all ears, if anyone knows of an update on the software please let me know or just a way around this little bug. To anyone else looking to buy a sidekick 08: wait until they fix it....

Answer 1

my sidekick 3 doesn't notify me when i have a voice mail message, it's no big deal if you aren't notified of a text, you can always get back to a person, and if you are texting someone just check your phone every few minutes, NO BIG DEAL!

Answer 2

i just bought a sidekick earlier today too and am having the SAME problem...it's really annoying to have to check my phone for new texts...hopefully they fix it VERY soon...

Answer 3

i got a sidekick 08 and it does go off that i got a new message there is even a setting where you can have your phone to continue to go off every 2, 5, or 10 minutes if you didnt answer it the first time. make sure that you pick one of the tones that goes off longer than a beep or buy a ringtone.

Answer 4

I had this problem as well. I didn't have the data package at the time though. (19.99/month).

I called T-mobile and they really didn't have an exact answer, but that alot of other people had this problem. They also said there was no Over the Air (OA) update. I was getting frustrated that I just bought a $200 phone and it didn't work, so I said just give me the data package.

I was planning on getting the data package anyway (Why have a sidekick without it?) Once I added that to my plan, I shut off my phone. Then I turned it back on, registered the data package/internet (sim, t-mail etc.) And sent myself a text message. Voila! Alerts fixed!

I don't know if this is a coincidence, or if this is the intended fix.

ANOTHER solution that I had discovered before I got the data package, under sound profiles, set your Repeat Pending Alerts and reminders to the lowest time amount possible ( 2 min). This way you'll be alerted, but it wont be until 2 minutes after you receive the message. THIS DOES WORK. (If you're in a rapid fire text session with someone, the sound alert isn't 100% necessary, so this is a good temporary fix until you get the data plan)

Hope this helps!