In alt.comp.os.windows-10, on Mon, 1 Jun 2020 18:10:23 -0500, VanguardLH
wrote:

micky wrote:

How hard is it to send a text from a PC, if you don't know, didn't ask,
the cellular carrier for the cell phone?

Texting is a service from a cellular carrier, not some worldwide radio
broadcast from your phone.

Right.

A couple days ago I bought some elastic online, and they offer to find
it in the store and bring it out to the car.

They say when the order is ready they will text me the store's phone
number.

The webpage first said order was in process and then pending pickup. 90
minutes later I went there and they brought it out, as they said they
would.

But the text never came.

What phone number did you give them? Does that phone number have
texting (SMS) service?

Of course.

If so, do you have a texting app on your phone?

Of course.

The Phone app bundled on your phone should handle texts.

Of course. I get other texts periodically.

I would have expected it the text to be sent automatically when the
order status is changed to pending pickup. But that assumes a PC can
send a text** and I thought they would have to know the cellular carrier
prefix to do that. That seems like a big hole that should be plugged.

They send their text to YOUR phone number.

You sure they do not also have an option to send you e-mail status
updates?

They already had my email address and some things got/get sent by email,
but they asked my cell phone number when I actually made the order,
which implied to me they were going to use it to send the notice that
the item was ready. Or maybe they said that explicilty.

The instructions continued that one should park in front of the store
and call them, so plainly they were talking about a cell phone.

They also said tha the text would contain the store's phone number, and
I already had that (and anyone capable of ordering on the web could get
it also) so I just went to the store eventually, and that worked fine.
There were several other cars there too, and several people waiting in
line, with masks, 6 feet across, in the heat to get into the store.

These must have been real seamstresses who wanted several things, but
several were men. Seamsters?

**Well, it can using MyPhoneExplorer, but that doesn't seem widely used.
What alternative might be built into a PC program?

I have a Google account. That gives me access to Google Voice which has
a function to send and receive texts. You can configure Google Voice to
send e-mails to you when it receives texts.

If I start to ge a lot of texts, I may do that. Thanks. But in this
case I was asking about the store's capabilities.