Too many text reminders

Having worked in the NHS all my life I am very much in favour of text reminders for medical or dental appointments. The thousands (probably millions) of pounds missed appointments cost is astronomical. Yes, people should be able to remember on their own, but often they don't, especially if the appointment was made several weeks before.

I turn my mobile off overnight so I don't get disturbed.

I've had to stop the medical reminders by text altogether.
I got 24 one week.
I didn't give them my mobile no. in the first place - I think the GPs passed it on and I stopped them using it too, but too late.
I won't let them text or email so I get letters and have an actual piece of paper. I keep my mobile for family.......

Have not had any reminders from Tesco etc or been asked for mobile. Why not, I wonder?

PS - all my appts go on a calendar and I turn my mobile off at night too!

I turn ours onto Do Not Disturb, just have to remember to put it back to normal in the morning.

If you are asked for a mobile number with an online order, just put 01234567890 which will satisfy the computer and stop them texting you. It seem quite unnecessary when they already have your email address! Our dentist phones our land line, which is fair enough as a reminder and we are in the phone book anyway.

I turn my mobile off at night too.

I keep my mobile on so that family can call me anytime they like. I know some will say they have the landline but when my son was dying he tried to call me on both but I think his battery ran out.

When I always try to put a series of naughts but there have been times when the system has been clever enough to tell me it is not a recogniseable number.

“Do not disturb” at night is very useful. You can choose the hours you want (mine is between 23.00 and 7.00) and you can choose to still accept calls from some numbers.
That is on Android phones (look under sounds and notifications) but I think iPhone has something similar.
But I don’t mind the medical reminders. It sometimes annoys me when it says “your appointment” without specifying where, when you might have more than one coming up.

I think its aim is to try and reduce the huge number several millioof missed appointments which cost the NHS a fortune and stop needy people being unable to get appointments.

It is very hard on those who do not miss appointments.That is the only reason I tolerate them.

Switch your phone off if you don't want to be disturbed.

Wildswan and MOnica I am sure you are right but it is yet another thing which means people don't have to take responsibility any more. Shame you can't sanction people who fail to turn up.

I also have “do not disturb” activated on my phone and iPad 11pm to 7am I’m happy to have NHS reminder texts OH has lots of apps and that way I can always keep check on them.

I quite like a text reminder.
I'm usually very organised, but that seems to have gone out the window recently.

Nonnie, you're right about 000etc being picked up as a non-number, but I have tried the 01234567890 combination, and it's worked. I think provided you have 11 digits and the first one is 0, you could put anything you want, but if you got a real number by mistake you could cause a great deal of confusion!

My DD would have been a "no-show" for a medical appointment, had it not been mentioned when she was having a small op at the hospital.

The nurse got quite shirty that it was DD's responsibility to know about it and to turn up (I was there and heard her) but changed her tune once she had beetled off to check and found that Outpatients hadn't sent the letter.

I like the reminders as I have a brain like a colander and forget to look at the calendar!
I have Do Not Disturb automatically activated at night and use the Truecall number on forms if the box has to be filled in and I don't want my number known. Its 033388888888 and callers get a polite message saying that I don't want calls from them.

Someone recently gave out my mobile phone number as their own. I started getting texts for quotes and deliveries together with frequent calls asking for someone called Mike. Despite telling every caller that they had the wrong number, the calls kept coming.

Please don't give out legitimate phone numbers instead of your own, it can be unsettling to be on the receiving end.

I wonder if your Mike was a friend of the Steve for whom I got a lot of calls for a while, NanaMacGeek? I just assumed that he had given out his number with perhaps one digit wrong, but as I didn't know which one, there was nothing I could do but wait until he sorted it out. I also had a spell of having drunken messages from some woman in the middle of the night, when my phone was off. Eventually I phoned her back and told her she had the wrong number, and she apologised, but didn't tell me if it was Steve she wanted!