Free Texts: Includes virtually free texts from mobiles Discussion

spal123

Asda mobile dropping their PAYG prices from 1st Sept to 8p/min voice calls (and 4p/text) but has anyone got vyke to work with an Asda mobile?

I think this will be the cheapest PAYG/min rate but happy to be corrected!
(currently with Tesco PAYG @10p/min, 5p texts)

31redland

as i was in a no reception area i logged on to this - mse site about two months ago to find out how i could send cheap/free texts from my pc. I followed the links to 'free' and they were listed as 'free' tho the warning was that ads might appear at the end of the message. I went to a site called free smsntxt.co.uk where they clearly stated that all you had to do was put in your mobile tel and the no of the mobile you wanted to text and that the message was free. I used the service once. Since then I have been getting texts to my phone either from 66033 or headed Freemsg and advertising that there are loads of txt messages to be sent via this site this week. I then get my bill from Vodafone and there are £16 of charges for RECEIVING these text messges. Vodafone are authorising this 'service' which i did not subscribe to to raid my bank account by sending unwanted texts that it is very difficult to stop to my phone. Phonepayplus are investigating the company behind this - they are called Zamano and they don't answer messages left on their tel no 08712316993 - but there is an auto option to stop the texts. I used this. got a confirmation of 'unsubscribing' but two hours later got another 'Freemsg' text for which I will be charged £2.50. You can text STOP to the number they give you - i tried this but since vodafone have put some kind of blocker on my phone the message bounced back. I do not understand why vodafone is allowing companies like zamano to steal money from people nor do i understand how phonepayplus are still allowing zamano to carry on behaving in this way. BE WARNED - the links on this site to 'free'texts are dangerous.

redux

31redland wrote: »

... i logged on to this - mse site about two months ago to find out how i could send cheap/free texts from my pc.
[...]
BE WARNED - the links on this site to 'free'texts are dangerous.

I think your alarmism risks misrepresenting things.

There are no links on this site to the service you are discussing, and certainly no recommendation of it either by Martin Lewis in the article, or in this discussion thread about it or the subject in general.

A search of this forum has no results for smsntxt. A search for zamano has a number of results, most of which appear to be complaints or warnings about it.

By all means add to those warnings if appropriate, but don't impugn the reputation of this place when you did not actually get referred to this service from here.

Yes, people should be careful about using unknown free services, as some do indeed behave less than scrupulously, sending chargeable messages either to the subscribing sender or to the phones they nominate as recipients. And that is why some research has gone into the article before recommending some that do not behave like this. Always read the terms and conditions carefully, particularly in respect of privacy policy

Wolverine

Well, what with the article being republished it's probably worth rebooting this discussion too...
Is anyone using Vyke Lite able to send an SMS properly? As in, the recipient sees the proper number not the Vyke one?
If so, how did they solve the problem....I'm getting more and more annoyed every day with this and I still have £4 of credit to burn through...grrr

Wolverine

Hold the phone! (no pun intended...)
Just tried downloading Vyke Pro again even though it's never worked before, and they must've changed the software because it works now! Full functionality at last!

musicmonkey1

I've installed this on two phones - both sony Ericssons and it works well for texting. However I'm supposed to be able to access my address book and this just does not work which means I have to remember the phone number I'm texting to. As my memory isn't that great this is a severe restriction. I know that I have to set the read write data permissions on Vyke to make this work but when I try to do that I get a message that says user permissions not configurable. They are configurable with other applications so this does look like a Vyke issue and its driving me crazy!

My phones are a Sony Ericsson W810i and a KK810i

Wolverine

Very strange....I'm on a SE as well but haven't experienced this problem...
Vyke say that a small minority of phones won't allow you to access your phone book, so that might be the case, but it's worth giving the program as many permissions as possible in its Permissions folder

musicmonkey1

I have set all the accessible permissions to 'never ask' but I still cannot access my address book from Vyke. It really is because I need to be able to access the read /write permissions and my phone just says they are not configurable. I'm with orange and I'm wondering whether the firmware orange have bundled with the phone is the reason for this. Apparently 'cingular' users in the US have the same problem.

I'd have the phone unlocked if I thought it would guarantee access but I don't want to pay a tenner if the permissions for read/write data are going to remain beyond my reach.

There is apparently a hack to get round this but it isn't straightforward and I'm not confident enough to try it - I don't wish to risk bricking my phone(s). However without access to the address book the Vyke application is of very limited usefulness.

Wolverine

I don't think unlocking your phone would do very much - I'm on Orange too...

musicmonkey1

Got it! I sent Vyke support a query and they eventually told me how I could access the address book. It wasn't that obvious but now I can do it I'm a happy bunny. Their FAQ page could usefully do with an update to provide more of an explanation.