Outage Update March 1, 2023

[DS-VisibleMgr]

We’re aware of an outage impacting voice calls, text messages and data. We are working to resolve it immediately. If you are experiencing issues with service please power cycle your phone, as this resolves most issues.

update from Visible March 2, 2023

Hi there. Our service has been restored. If you’re still experiencing any issues, please try power cycling your device. Still not working? Reach out to us via chat at http://visible.com.

[Saint]

Rebooted phone still cannot receive text messages

[Tbone1]

Took 1 hr to get an agent, but once I did they made a change on their end... I cycled power and then I had SMS back (3 min to fix once I had an agent on the chat) ... Also asked for a bill credit... a $5 credit was issued ... so maybe I will not cancel yet hopefully this does not happen again 

[arianarivera]

5 dollars? What a joke. I'm still waiting to talk to them. 

[cbr9racr]

Its unconscionable if every user is going to have to contact Visible support independently to get corrected.

[ashliero23]

Interesting. I was on the chat earlier this evening and they did nothing to fix mine. Just said I need to wait and it will connect automatically once they fix the network issue... they said a few hours...we're past a few hours now. Contemplating wether or not I wait in the chat queue for another 2+hours or not.

[OrionMitchell]

Still no service!!! When is this going to be fixed?!

[OrionMitchell]

Still no service!!! When will this get fixed?!

[duffin]

I haven't been able to send or receive texts to day, so I thought I'd log in to the website to see if there was any info about an outage. However, when I logged in, I received a popup saying that 2FA now required and let's "begin setup". No way around it. The only way to proceed is to enter the code sent via text. But, as I mentioned before,  I haven't been able to send or receive texts all day, so I guess no logging into the website for me.

Question: will there be alternative methods for 2FA, like voice or email? I usually only log in to my phone service website when something is not working, so a SMS-only 2FA system is pretty short-sighted.

[Jsatterfield]

Just joined a couple days ago.... I regret everything🤦🏼‍♀️

The least you can do as a company is notify us of the outage and keep us updated. Ridiculous 

[cbr9racr]

Same. I joined about 48 hours ago myself. Cringe.

[anonymouse21]

"Working to resolve it immediately" .....and last update was 9 hours ago?

I haven't been able to get through to customer service once. Sent a DM to VisibleCare 5 hours ago, sat on the website multiple times until getting a server error (and now going to visible.com takes me directly to a 502 server error) and sitting on an hour after sending messages through facebook messenger.

[Mrw]

Would very much appreciate an updated status on this issue. 

[jenwright9]

Nope. Doesn't work. Still can't get messages. STILL CANT DO MY JOB WITHOUT TEXT MESSAGES!

[Jpeters787]

You are aware of an outage and in most cases, restarting our phone will resolve this? I'm sorry,  but restarting my phone when there is an outage does nothing and is a pathetic response. 

If the outage ends, maybe restarting our phones will be necessary. 

Please give us a realistic time frame,  as working to resolve this immediately,  would have meant this would have been resolved 12 hours ago.

[cbr9racr]

That's all I'm asking for. Communication. I work in IT and manage outages like this. I know they can do better. The engineers are not the ones providing updates on Internet forums. More communication, please.

[jenwright9]

But good thing I can earn badges for posting and logging back in! I hope my boss will accept those instead of actual work!

[arianarivera]

I waited HOURS to talk to a useless agent who did not resolve any of my problems... I still cannot get any text messages or receive calls. Of course, they charged my bill today for a service that DOES NOT WORK. Their "agents" can't even refund your money. I don't know how to get my money back, and I just paid for a useless service—a horrible company—leaving whether I get my money back or not. GO TO MINT, GOOGLE GI, AT&T, literally anything else. 

[SN]

Hey DA-VisibleMgr - How about a freak'n update on this "outage"?????  From reading below, how come some people seem to get on with Customer Support and get fixed and the rest of us do not.  I have been on with Support twice today, the first time I could not receive texts but could call and receive calls - after talking with them and having them say we fixed a couple things here, power down and up and should be good to go...yea, right - I then lost all connection and ability to call.  Second time was finally this evening and after going through his manual of what to have me try, he asked me to do a full factory reset - Nope.  That would have accomplished nothing except headaches on my end.....BTW, this would not have fixed anything...YOU need to get your act together and get this figured out and fixed for all!!!! 

[HFL2012]

Last month after many, many, reliable years of service with Verizon, I started with a bag phone, I switched to Visible to save a few bucks.  What a mistake, I may have paid a little extra with Verizon but at least I had a phone service I could count on and they didn't try to blow smoke somewhere by telling me "to reboot my phone"  to deflect their own "failures"!!  Looks like a month at Visible is all I can handle.

[cbr9racr]

The problem is core Verizon.

[lanhub]

I'm about to go on a ski trip where I need cellular service in case I need to call for help since accidents can happen at any time. If I don't have service by tomorrow, then I'll need to find another service ASAP as I need a reliable network.

[jenwright9]

So it looks like the actual Verizon network is down there for visible won't work either. 

[cbr9racr]

Exactly. HOWEVER, Visible owes us that explanation.

[surrealone]

They clearly also need to revisit their business continuity and disaster recovery plans.  Something of this magnitude ... lasting this long ... has massive customer impact in the form of lost productivity, lost access, missed meetings/connections -- ultimately adding up to serious reputational damage for Visible that translates to harmful bottom line impacts.  Don't these people do business impact assessments???

[cbr9racr]

Reading through a Reddit thread on this outage, it seems that folks who get through to support and get fixed are told their phone needs to be "reprovisioned". I don't know if this helps at all, but it might be worth specifically mentioning this to support staff (request reprovisioning), for the lucky few who can actually get through to someone. Your mileage may vary.

[HFL2012]

Last month I switched to Visible from Verizon after many years, I started with a bag phone.  I may have paid more with Verizon but at least I had a carrier I could TRUST and RELY on and not be told to go "reboot" my phone to try and shift the blame for this outage from Visible to the users!    Real class!!  I can't wait for them to fix "THEIR" problem so I can switch back.

[cbr9racr]

So I assume you haven't been reading through everything, but the problem seems to be all of Verizon. This is not limited to Visible. I have a coworker I'm messaging with right now on a work problem, and his SMS is also not working, and he's on "regular" Verizon.

[BrianKuhlman]

I'm a Project Manager and I have lost contact with my customers and employees. Can send messages but not receive. Starting to regret switching in Jan. Never had this issue on TracFone.

[Elwha]

When will this be fixed? The solutions you provide don't work as noted by myself and many others  

[Elwha]

When will this be fixed? It's been well over 12 hours.  The fixes you suggest don't work as noted by others.  I am a new customer and have never had this happen with other providers. 

[Kwagner]

And how many times should I attempt to restart my phone? How long should I wait on chat? Will I have to pay my bill if your outage causes me to lose my job? 

[Kwagner]

How many times should I power cycle my phone before it should help? How long do I need to wait to speak with someone in your chat? Will you pay me when I lose my job because I can’t get the code to finish clocking in? 

[pjkowalski81]

As of this time I am not receiving text messages. 

My husband is not receiving them either, and he has Visible also.

[surrealone]

Power cycling my device actually made things worse.  I can't receive texts (and, thus, can't log into things because I can't receive OTP's) and, after power cycling my device per your recommendations, now I can't make outgoing calls, either.

This is unacceptable, is causing people to be unable to things, and warrants a refund not just for the service-related problems, but also the huge inconvenience.

Your slogan "Staying connected has never been easier." should probably be revised to "Staying DISconnected has never been more frustrating."

[Datascience]

Still not working. Very dissapointed. 

[gerardrj]

Not sure if it will work for others, but support had me reset network settings on my iPhone and it seems to have fixed the text messaging issue.  Might be worth trying.

[surrealone]

I did that based on chatbot support and lost the ability to send outbound texts after doing so. It also eliminated all remembered WiFi networks/passwords as well as eliminating all Bluetooth-paired devices.  The juice definitely wasn't worth the squeeze, and their chatbot should warn about such consequences before asking people to do those sorts of things.  This was on Android, by the way...

[Datascience]

Still not working.

[cbr9racr]

With the last update from Visible being 11 hours ago, and with it now being after midnight, I think we need to resign ourselves to the fact that we're not going to get updates here. It appears we're on our own. Good luck...may the odds be ever in your favor.

[l_to_the_dawg]

Why no updates????  What are you literally working on?