29p for a smiley ? I'd rather frown

[Anonymous]

Same subject again, charges outside normal allowance.

When I queried charges for messages I had not sent using the online chat facility with an 02 advisor, was told that if a smiley is sent it's classed as MMS message and costs 29p !

My hairdresser has a contract Blackberry with 02 ( she pays more monthly than what I do ) and she never gets charged outside her allowance for anything.

Anyone else had this problem?

[MI5]

No, I think they were pulling your leg

[Anonymous]

Pulling my leg on 02 chat ?

You got to be joking, why would they do that, the advisor seemed genuine enough but I didn't think he was leg pulling, pffft.

I haven't sent any since, I'd rather frown.

[MI5]

If you send a smiley in a text (SMS) message it is just letters " : - ) " It is the phones display that converts them to pictures. You DO NOT get charged for sending a smiley. CS have been known to be wrong.... Occasionally, you know

[Anonymous]

MI5 is right.

[Pickles]

I have to say the subject of this keeps making me giggle.  Not because of the message content, but just the title made me laugh.  Think its the "I'd rather frown"

Anyway back to topic, no I think think they got it wrong.  You won't pay any extra for smileys.  I send them all the time and never had to pay. 

[jonsie]

Just throwing this into the conversation!

On the iphone, writing a text with the normal character number showing, if you enter a smiley using the Emoji keyboard it automatically knocks the character number down from 160 to 70 so instead of using say 25/160 it then shows 26/70 used.

How does that equate?

[Pickles]

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@jonsie wrote:

Just throwing this into the conversation!

On the iphone, writing a text with the normal character number showing, if you enter a smiley using the Emoji keyboard it automatically knocks the character number down from 160 to 70 so instead of using say 25/160 it then shows 26/70 used.

How does that equate?

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It's a good point.  I was thinking that maybe the smileys use up more spaces and you go over your character count for one message.  My character count doesn't show, so couldn't test it hehe

[Anonymous]

I've sent smilies in texts either by entering : ) or by using the Emoji keyboard and I've never been charged. I think you've got a less than knowledable chat agent.

If you go into Settings, scroll to Messages, touch this, scroll down and where it says "show subject field". If this is on, it is possible to enter text etc in the Messages app where it shows Subject. If you do this, the message will be sent as a MMS message instead of the standard SMS text message, if it gets sent has a MMS message, it can incur a charge if you do not have MMS messages on a bolt on. This is perhaps what's happened in your case?

I always have the Show Subject Field switched off has I don't send any MMS messages

[Anonymous]

Yes. I've had the same problem. I used emoticons for the first time with my iphone4 - my trusty old Nokia N73 didn't have them. Got my first bill this morning, which showed £2.92 for media messages. I knew I'd only sent one picture, but the rest of the cost was for emoticons in messages, so I've de-selected the Emoji keyboard. Apparently the phone does convert the SMS into an MMS. O2 have waived the charges on this occasion. I won't be using emoticons again, not a 35p a throw !!