I have a Droid Eris and I haven't had a single problem with the phone until late last night.  I stopped receiving text messages around 9 or 10 o'clock.  When I woke up this morning I text a few friends and never received replies... which was out of the ordinary, so I sent a txt to myself and it came through just fine.

I decided to wait until noon and if it still wasn't working then I'd call Verizon.  I called customer service since I didn't have the number for technical support.  She asked me to pull my battery for about 15 seconds, re-boot the phone completely and then do *228, option 1 to re-program.  She gave me the number to tech support before we ended the call.

I followed her suggestions but it didn't work so I called tech support.   She had me turn my phone off for a couple of minutes, then back on, then she asked me to send a text to myself and this time it wouldn't go through.   Every test message I sent gave me Error Code: 97 Error Class: 2.

As far as I know I can send mms messages just fine - I don't get an error and the recipients receive them but my SMS is completely shot.   How does this happen? And what do those error codes mean?

Tech support asked if I ever had text messaging on my phone to begin with and I said yes... I just got my phone dec. 3rd, went with the 450 min. plan with unlimited text,pix and web.

The lady in support was only with me fifteen minutes or so and she basically gave up, she said she has no idea what could be wrong with it and she's sending me a replacement in the mail - but it won't be here until Monday or Tuesday.

That baffles me.

What can cause my sms to just stop functioning completely? And are there any steps or suggestions I can try to get it fixed without having to receive a refurbished phone? I paid good money for this phone - I expect a little more troubleshooting from support, too.

I appreciate any/all suggestions.

Thanks a million.