No longer receiving iMessages

Question

How frustrating is it to find out that a good half of your clients hasn't been able to get in touch with you via texts for a few weeks?
Very.
Text messages MUST go through every time, or at least report an error message when not delivered.
Instead, all of my clients were convinced that I was a jerk for not responding. 
Mind you, MY iMessages were going through fine, every time.  It's just that every response I got never made it to my phone.
I eventually caught on, and shut off iMessage, as I was hoping it would propagate through the system that I no longer use it.
But it didn't.  They still were trying to send me iMessages, and those weren't going through, and they were not getting any error reports.
So I eventually caught on to that as well, and changed my email under my iMessage account.
And guess what.  Still not going through to me.
My ultimate fix, which worked, was going to Settings - Messages - Send and Receive - and unchecking the check marks next to all of the email addresses, so that JUST my phone number had a check next to it.  That SEEMS to have fixed it.  I now get messages from a few people who informed me they couldn't send me text before (because I didn't reply to them).
But how can I be SURE that every iMessage gets through to me?
And why can't I shut iMessage off, to JUST use text messaging?  When I do that, it still allows my clients to send me iMessages without any error reports, and I just never get them.
This is incredibly frustrating for a business owner, one of my biggest fear always is offending my clients, and not replying to their messages has to be up there.
Text messages just need to work.  Period.  Every time.  This could be my girlfriend trying to reach out to me because she's in danger.  Or someone asking me to come see my dying grandmother before she passes away.
Please please please fix this annoying iMessage inconsistency Apple.  I am not the first one to ask for that.
Sincerely,
Z.
iPhone 5s
v.8.1

Answer 1

Zebbler wrote:
How frustrating is it to find out that a good half of your clients hasn't been able to get in touch with you via texts for a few weeks?
Very.
Text messages MUST go through every time, or at least report an error message when not delivered.
Instead, all of my clients were convinced that I was a jerk for not responding. 
Mind you, MY iMessages were going through fine, every time.  It's just that every response I got never made it to my phone.
I eventually caught on, and shut off iMessage, as I was hoping it would propagate through the system that I no longer use it.
But it didn't.  They still were trying to send me iMessages, and those weren't going through, and they were not getting any error reports.
So I eventually caught on to that as well, and changed my email under my iMessage account.
And guess what.  Still not going through to me.
My ultimate fix, which worked, was going to Settings - Messages - Send and Receive - and unchecking the check marks next to all of the email addresses, so that JUST my phone number had a check next to it.  That SEEMS to have fixed it.  I now get messages from a few people who informed me they couldn't send me text before (because I didn't reply to them).
But how can I be SURE that every iMessage gets through to me?
And why can't I shut iMessage off, to JUST use text messaging?  When I do that, it still allows my clients to send me iMessages without any error reports, and I just never get them.
This is incredibly frustrating for a business owner, one of my biggest fear always is offending my clients, and not replying to their messages has to be up there.
Text messages just need to work.  Period.  Every time.  This could be my girlfriend trying to reach out to me because she's in danger.  Or someone asking me to come see my dying grandmother before she passes away.
Please please please fix this annoying iMessage inconsistency Apple.  I am not the first one to ask for that.
Sincerely,
Z.
iPhone 5s
v.8.1
If someone was in dire need, I would assume the last thing they would do is text you, when they should be calling you instead.
You mention you went into send and receive and unchecked all of the email address - how many did you have in there?  The only email address you need is your apple id.