Charged to receive texts?

matty_hunt

Hi. I recently joined Ovivo and sadly, only got 16 days use out of them. However, as I rarely use the phone I have yet to port away. Fortunately incoming calls still get connected but there is a surprise with the texts. Ive had a couple of text come in, from M&S and very.co.uk, just marketing message I guess, as I cant read them. The message I get is, "you have received a premium text from...you do not have enough credit to read".
Does this mean I have been charge in the past to receive texts from companies? As I said, I rarely use my phone so £10 credit lasts up to six months so keeping track of my usage is not viable so I would not notice if my credit was being depleted by receiving texts.
Many thanks.

john1002

No it just means that as ovivo our no more, any text,call or data allowances no longer exist so you get the standard vodaphone text to say you need to top up to receive them. The sooner you switch the sooner you can get these messages or be able to use the web or call.

In the past you would have got these messages as part of your ovivo bundle, the only time texts were charged were if they were short codes or you went over your text allowance. As for your credit with ovivo that is almost certainly been lost like everyone elses.

HTH

John

Kernel_Sanders

So can you ever be charged for opening a text in the UK, e.g. if it was sent from the Isle of Man?

thetightone

I think it just counts all short codes like that. I'm still able to receive texts on ovivo but Facebook texts say that, normal ones don't. But I got them all ok and free when it was up and running.

matty_hunt

john1002 wrote: »

In the past you would have got these messages as part of your ovivo bundle, the only time texts were charged were if they were short codes or you went over your text allowance.

So are you saying they are chargeable but come out of the 400 texts/moth allowance Ovivo had? So when I move to Threes 3-2-1, which has no allowance, I will be charged for every text I receive from advertisers? What is short code?

Many thanks

redux

Kernel_Sanders wrote: »

So can you ever be charged for opening a text in the UK, e.g. if it was sent from the Isle of Man?

No, never, receiving texts from an ordinary type of number is always free, even if it's a foreign number or while you or the sender are roaming.

Only messages from a premium rate text service are chargeable

matty_hunt wrote: »

john1002 wrote: »

In the past you would have got these messages as part of your ovivo bundle, the only time texts were charged were if they were short codes or you went over your text allowance. As for your credit with ovivo that is almost certainly been lost like everyone elses.

So are you saying they are chargeable but come out of the 400 texts/moth allowance Ovivo had? So when I move to Threes 3-2-1, which has no allowance, I will be charged for every text I receive from advertisers? What is short code?

Many thanks

No, john1002 is mistaken, and receiving texts is nothing to do with having a bundle or not, or credit or not.

There are some premium rate text messages which work in conjunction with 5 digit numbers. There are also some free ones used for charities, 5 digits beginning usually with 7.

To subscribe you send a message to the number, and sending this message is not included in a bundle but costs 10 or 12 pence, and is sometimes slightly confusingly described as standard message rate. I assume the charity ones are free to send though.

If there is enough credit on the account, then a reply comes back, with the wanted content, maybe a ringtone or game download link, or thank you for subscribing or etc, and this is when the charge is taken, £5 or whatever.

Sometimes people get subscribed to such services without their knowledge or consent, and this of course causes disputes, which can be resolved by asking for a refund or ultimately complaining to Phonepayplus.

Why you've got the two messages you mentioned, or why they appear to be chargeable, I'm not quite sure

matty_hunt

Thanks. I did create an account online with very.co.uk recently, and made an online purchase at Christmas with M&S but I certainly have no knowledge of agreeing to pay to receive text messages from them.

redux

Maybe it's some odd glitch on Vodafone's system to wrongly describe them as premium rate while Ovivo is being closed down.

notbritishgas

I am a very low user, not many texts received, but whilst Ovivo was functioning I noticed some of my incoming texts were logged on the Ovivo call log as "SMS:750" or "SMS:950" in both cases the dialog said "covered by allowance".
Texts received from friends and family did not show on the call log.
This made me think that those texts could have been chargeable but I never got anywhere near my text limit so it did not bother me.
One of the texts was from Briishgas services and another from a delivery company verifying the delivery time.