Constantly being charged double for overseas SMS

[Anonymous]

I'm being constantly charged double by O2 for overseas texts under 160 characters. Even when I sent message "That's fine. See you later" O2 charges me twice for the same text. I complained before and they credited overcharged amount back but then it happened again. I went to O2 shop where guy confirmed it should have not happened and asked me to contact Customer service. Do I have to contact them every bloody time when I sent text overseas until they fix it and make it right?

[Cleoriff]

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@Anonymous wrote:
I have sent many text messages abroad from various devices, (mostly a USB dongle, actually), and never seen this.

I do have a 3g desk phone which sent sms in a strange format, though, (16 bit unicode). The messages arrive fine on other UK handsets, but when looking at it from the network side, older equipment was displaying an ampersand between each character. These messages were rejected by foreign networks, and many short code operators here.

The message length was limited by the phone to about 80 characters.

So basically, I suspect that your phone is, (for some reason), sending out weirdly formatted messages which the service centre doesn't know how to bill correctly.

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Although there are two seperate posters on here with the same issue so it makes it even more peculiar?

[Anonymous]

Could it be an app that they have installed in common which has changed, (hidden?), settings?

[MI5]

You could check the message settings to see what creation mode is set. Unicode used to be an option on some phones.

[Anonymous]

Still is a user selectable option on my Note 3, and lets me send those graphic smilies without being charged for MMS.

Whoops, I just lost a huge revenue stream for all the mobile operators 

[MI5]

I thought it should still be there but gone are the days I bothered about sending smilies or worrying about MMS's

[Cleoriff]

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@MI5 wrote:
You could check the message settings to see what creation mode is set. Unicode used to be an option on some phones.

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@MI5  Having noticed this post, I have just gone into creation mode on my Note 3 I have 3 options...Restricted >Warning >Free. Currently it is ticked as free...should I be changing this??....

[Anonymous]

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@MI5 wrote:
I thought it should still be there but gone are the days I bothered about sending smilies or worrying about MMS's

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I just seem to have way too much time on my hands these days, and am trying to resolve these critical problems for mankind 

[MI5]

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@Cleoriff wrote:

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@MI5 wrote:
You could check the message settings to see what creation mode is set. Unicode used to be an option on some phones.

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@MI5  Having noticed this post, I have just gone into creation mode on my Note 3 I have 3 options...Restricted >Warning >Free. Currently it is ticked as free...should I be changing this??....

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Message app >Settings >Text messages > Input mode >Automatic.

[Anonymous]

@Cleoriff

Change it to warning.

Then make sure there is a tick in the box below MMS alert.

Then if you are sending a text and for whatever reason it converts to MMS your phone should vibrate and a written warning should appear.

[Anonymous]

Also @Anonymous and @MI5 mine is set to GSM Alphabet and since the last update smileys such as 😆 are no longer converted to mms. That said I do get a warning to say that the 😆 might get corrupted on the recipient's device and to date the only person who has told me this happens gets a ? Instead of 😆