Nonsense Charges
So I recently upgraded my phone, because my other phone was ancient and sad, and I wanted one with a camera*. I also wanted the option to browse the web while away from my computer. Overall it’s handy and I like it. I got one with a fold-out keypad, which makes my life easier when texting (esp. while driving! (No, no, I kid! (or maybe not))) and it was fun to send all my vacation updates straight from my phone to TwitPic.
The phone has more bells and whistles, which I don’t need or want – like mobile IM. Texting is immediate enough for me, really, I don’t need to pay per line to IM someone via phone. And if I was needing to contact someone I can’t text for some reason, I can email them from the phone too. I can do that:
- via my Google account
- send a text message to an email address
- or take advantage of their “mobile email” feature
This is where the nonsense charges come into play.
OK so they have this mobile email thing, and it’s only working with Yahoo! and AOL accounts right now. My main provider is AT&T/Yahoo! (Hi federal agents, you dirty spying bastards! *waves*) so I plugged in the details for two of my Yahoo!-related accounts. I didn’t ever check them though, because they’re all auto-forwarded to my main Gmail account, which I can check via the browser in the phone (which is free) rather than pay per email via their mobile-email thing. The only thing that happened is that I started getting these annoying “Mobile email requests to start! Yes/No?” messages all the time, to which I would say “No” and then get another immediate message “Mobile email requests to start! Yes/No?” (from the second account).
Today I went to check my account balance and saw a TON of text-message charges. Usually two in quick succession, and frequently at times when I was asleep, or knew I wasn’t using my phone. They all came from a 4-digit code I didn’t recognize. Now, since I just told you this story in this order, you will see what was happening, but I didn’t. I called my phone company and “Joe” the Bangladeshi customer service agent explained to me that each time the phone beeped “Mobile email requests to start! Yes/No?” at me, it charged me $.05, whether I actually started mobile email or not. And I got double the love because it had the contact details for 2 of my accounts. Awesome! So I had to go turn that feature off. I am not even adding up how much I got charged over the course of the month, because it would aggravate me, and it’s probably less than $15 all-told, so I refuse to get aggravated over it. But anyway, these phone companies are cunning with the nonsense charges, that’s for sure!
*also I thought I lost my phone last month, and I was on the way to the store to get a new one when I found my old one down the side of the passenger seat. And I was already excited in my head about the new phone I was getting, so after a few more weeks of “But you don’t NEED a new phone!” I succumbed.
Filed under: corporate malfeasance | Comments (5)5 Responses to “Nonsense Charges”
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It’s driving me nuts and using up all of my messages!
I’ve called Virgin Mobile, even they don’t know apparently. HELP and I’ll Paypal you $2….
according to their online usage, this thing is even sending txts on my behalf when I turn the phone OFF as I did all last night. it’s complete madness.
anyway thanks for the quick reply. bad ass!
here http://web.virginmobileusa.com/help/stuff/messaging/mobile-email
Does that help? I am not near my phone or I would check it. I am sure I turned this off via my phone and NOT via contacting Yahoo! though. What a dolt you talked to.