MSE News: Got a Samsung phone? You could get charged extra for sending emojis

graspthenettle

Phantom_Flan_Flinger wrote: »

If I add an emoji to a text on my S4, I get a small message popping up to say that the text is being converted to a multimedia message. It is easy to miss though.

Yep, same thing with my S4 mini. Luckily, mine buzzes as well, which is a little harder to miss.

What I find annoying (apart from them calling my new phone 'old' ) is that they weren't on my phone when I got it, only after I did an update which it said I needed to.

I originally had 3 pages of numerics now I only have 2, so not sure what they have removed, plus an extra key showing the charged for emoticons (or whatever they are calling them now).

I can enter 'smilies' as they call them from a different key but they are so squashed up they are impossible to see what is meant to be happening on them anyway.

I stick to manual if I find I really want to include them ;o) (like so)

Incidentally, as soon as I found out this was happening to my messages - around Christmas - I told all my friends & relations to be careful and they all said - oh, that won't happen to me.....

matelodave

It baffles me why anyone should want to send silly piccies of any sort.


Mind you I only use text very rarely anyway and cannot understand those who walk around the streets, sitting in pubs, clubs and meetings texting furiously.

susanthunt

How can Apple claim this isn't a problem with iphones?
We have an iphone 4 and earlier this year, we were charged more than £40 by T-Mobile for picture messages - hadn't sent any, don't use emojis but do use bracket and colon for smiley face.
T-Mobile said there was nothing they could do - it is a manufacturer problem.
To avoid it happening in future, they said they would add 100 free picture messages per month to the account.
Next month, charged £10 for "picture messages" which had apparently already been sent before the 100 free mms was applied.
Disgraceful - but be warned, it can and does happen on iphones!!

susanthunt

Oh - and nothing to do with picture messages but I rang EE yesterday and they are now asking if you want to pay 50pence for your call to be answered more quickly!
I chose the standard option and got through within 2-3 minutes (which to be honest was unexpected since at times I have queued for 40 mins before giving up) but it means they are offering the 50p option even when they aren't really too busy.
It's disgraceful - we need new mobile operators so that these companies have to offer a better service.

AshleyBones

matelodave wrote: »

It baffles me why anyone should want to send silly piccies of any sort.


Mind you I only use text very rarely anyway and cannot understand those who walk around the streets, sitting in pubs, clubs and meetings texting furiously.

1) It's convenient to be able to send an occasional pic when there is no wifi and without having to have data enabled.

2) I couldn't agree with you more - a vast percentage of the population now obsessively live their lives through their phones, on social media, whilst walking, sitting, eating, drinking, driving, bathing, in theatres, cinemas, cafes, restaurants, shops, checkouts, etc., etc., to the exclusion of social interaction, good manners, safety and common sense.

Hence the reason I don't want or need to be data-enabled and permanently connected to the interweb.

jorgecox

graspthenettle wrote: »

I can enter 'smilies' as they call them from a different key but they are so squashed up they are impossible to see what is meant to be happening on them anyway.

I have a S4 mini too and noticed the new Smileys button on the keyboard since the latest Android update which also converts my text message to a MMS.

However, before the update, I always entered smileys by the menu button instead as the 3rd page of the symbol menu, as this only contained a few smileys. Thankfully the menu button method still works!

Whilst typing in your text message, press the Menu key - this is the touch sensitive key/area to the left of the big oval button at the bottom of the Phone which lights up when touched. This brings up a pop up menu of which one option is Insert Smiley. There is a list of text based smileys from Happy through to Poker face using the normal :-) method.

No need to replace your messaging app or turn off MMS as long as you remember not to use the new smileys button ;-)

tronator

When I watched "Click" on BBC last weekend, I thought "O boy, this will hit some people". They reviewed this app called "drawtype" in Webscape, where you can draw you own emojis and send as "text".

Here's the original quote from this program: "express yourself artisticly ... use the brushes and colours to draw and then copy and paste it to send as a text. The receiver doesn't need the app installed as the message will be sent as an image."

You could clearly see on the screen, that there were the words "New MMS" on the phone. Big fail BBC, no words of warning about it.

gfaulks

I also fell for this one, just upgraded from a Samsung S3 Mini, with no billing problems, to an S4 my first bill was £5 higher as I'd added smiley faces to a few texts and sent a group message twice - both of these were converted to MMS and I was charged. I phoned EE who explained they'd been sent as picture messages, I expressed my disgust that this had NOT been made clear and I was given a refund. Now I know I won't be doing this again! I've found a setting where group messages can be sent as texts which helps but annoying that the default cost!

Tony5101

gfaulks wrote: »

I expressed my disgust that this had NOT been made clear and I was given a refund.

Why would you be disgusted with EE, when it was both YOUR phone and YOUR lack of understanding that caused the additional costs?
I really can't understand why the networks just roll over and give out refunds in cases like this. It has absolutely nothing at all to do with the network that people don't know how to work their new shiny toy!

P400enx

So I have a Samsung S4 and my contract is on O2, I will be honest I never checked my bill, until a vacation late last year when I was curious of my charges. Then I noticed I had paid for an mms as opposed to sms prior to my vacation, in fact I was charged for lots during that month. I started to go through my bills and found I had been charged almost £300 in mms. I challenged this and it turned out I was charged for emojis. Granted this was in the small print of my contract, however I did not know what and emoji was. To me it was a smiley face or other wise know dots and brackets. I challenged O2, I asked the, to explain to me what and emoji really is, they explained to me it is a combination of characters or punctuation which can resemble faces. On some phones they appear as yellow faces and on some as characters and punctuation portraying a face depending on phone orientation. So I then asked, can you detail which combinations are chargeable. They could not answer. I asked for a refund they said no. I said what have you charged me for and they replied for emojis I repeated my question slightly different, Can you tell me which characters and punctuation is chargeable and in which orders and I will ensure not to do this again. They again could not answer, apparently they did not know all possible combinations. So as I explained to them, you are charging me for combinations otherwise known as emojis, when you do not know what the combinations are and you can't tell me. That's like getting a speeding ticket without knowing the speed of the road and the person providing the ticket not knowing either. They cannot force a charge on you if they cannot prepare you with a method of knowing what you may be charged for.

GUESS WHAT, i recieved a refund to the value of every mms I sent in the last 18 months.

Fight your case everyone.
:beer::j:mad:;):o:T:)

Because I can :j