America: Cellphone users face a wave of confusing text messages

Due to a reported maintenance update, some American mobile phone owners received texts which were originally sent back in February on November 7. Mobile phone companies have, however, been cryptic when explaining the cause of the error. The phone companies blamed others and gave no explanation for the months-long delay. While the message helped reunite friends who hadn't talked to each other for several months, the glitch also caused a panic situation for some. A Sprint spokeswoman reportedly said that the glitch resulted from a “maintenance update”. T-Mobile called it a “third party vendor issue” and Verizon and AT&T did not answer the questions. 

People took on social media to share their confusing experience. Here are some:

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The panic caused by “ maintenance update”

Stephanie Bovee, a Portland resident told an international media outlet that she woke up at 5 am to a text from her sister that said just "omg”. She says that the first thought that came to her mind was that something might have happened to her newborn nephew at the hospital. She adds that she immediately started calling everyone and created a panic. It was much later that she realised that everything was fine and the text was a glitch. In another case, Marissa Figueroa from California got an unwanted text from an ex-boyfriend she had stopped talking to. She told an international media outlet that “It didn't feel great and it just was not good for me and my mental health to be in contact with him”. 

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(With AP inputs)