Being charged for emoticons (smiley faces) as MMS/picture messages

[Anonymous]

I have had a good look through the forum but can not see anything like this problem.

A friend of mine had a large bill come through this month and contacted 02 customer service.

Basically she was told her bill was so high because she had used above and beyond her MMS/picture message qouta which she refused to except but was told that a Emoticon (smiley face) counted as a MMS/picture message.

Has anybody encountered this or confirm or decline this??

Thanks in advance

[Anonymous]

im being charged £3.80 for the same sort of thing   but i dont send smiley faces or such.   for 1 i dont know how to.....i sent just ordenary txts christmas day and new years day  but am being told they were mms. !!!!   very strange...  the message read.   HAPPY CHRISTMAS  HAVE A GREAT DAY....  how can that be construed as an mms ????

[Anonymous]

If you are using an Android handset, on your keyboard bottom left is a smily face. If you click on that it converts to mms.

Like wise if your text messages are more than 160 characters some phones convert to mms. Other handsets allow up to 480 characters and split them for you into individual texts but over 480 they convert to mms.

Hope that helps

[Bambino]

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@Anonymous wrote:

im being charged £3.80 for the same sort of thing   but i dont send smiley faces or such.   for 1 i dont know how to.....i sent just ordenary txts christmas day and new years day  but am being told they were mms. !!!!   very strange...  the message read.   HAPPY CHRISTMAS  HAVE A GREAT DAY....  how can that be construed as an mms ????

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How many people did you send that message to at the same time? I believe that if it's more than four it counts as an MMS.

[Anonymous]

I sent similar messages in batches of 10 on my S4. They went as texts. What handset do you have OP?

[perksie]

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@Anonymous wrote:

im being charged £3.80 for the same sort of thing   but i dont send smiley faces or such.   for 1 i dont know how to.....i sent just ordenary txts christmas day and new years day  but am being told they were mms. !!!!   very strange...  the message read.   HAPPY CHRISTMAS  HAVE A GREAT DAY....  how can that be construed as an mms ????

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Check out the possible reasons here:

http://service.o2.co.uk/IQ/srvs/cgi-bin/webcgi.exe?New,KB=Companion,T=guruCase,VARSET_COBJID=52283,Problem=Obj%2852283%29,question=ref%28User%29:str%28Mobile%29

[Anonymous]

Another here who has been charged 😞 not happy

[Anonymous]

I have just found out I was being charged for using these S4 smiley faces, haivng moved from the iphone where you are not charged (still with O2). I have asked O2 to record an official complaint but it needs lots of people to complain before any investigation is initiated so I won't hold my breath.

Samsung and O2 need to sort this out once and for all or Ofcom need to get involved and force their hand.

[Cleoriff]

I have an S3. Am I wrong in thinking I DON'T get charged for the smilies that are inbuilt into the phone?

I have always understood that it's only if you download an app for smileys/emoticons that you get charged?

So.... I would be interested to know for definite, the answer to this one

[MI5]

So many threads on the forum about this.
Turn off auto conversion and select the tick box to give a warning when sms is converted to mms.
Also the little green smilies are sent as a standard sms but the picture ones get converted (if not switched off).
There really isn't anything to investigate as it is how modern phones work.
The reason iPhones don't convert is because they are sent over iMessage (otherwise they would do the same) but you can use Whatsapp or BBM on your Samsung and send them for free too.

[Cleoriff]

Well thank goodness I wasn't wrong.

Not as good an explanation as MI5's... but its a start...:smileywink: