charged for pxt txts even though no pxt was sent

Forums › 2degrees (including Slingshot, Orcon, Flip, Stuff Fibre, MyRepublic, 2talk and Vocus) › charged for pxt txts even though no pxt was sent

rossmcm

111 posts

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#260183 14-Nov-2019 20:42

I have a weird thing happening with 2d txt. I'm on a free txts plan but I'm not a big user. I've noticed that each monthly bill sometimes has charges for pxts that I don't remember sending (I avoid using SMS for photos when WhatsApp is free). My current 2d account for the month so far shows:

Drilling in:

Now I only sent one message on 11 Nov, and one on 4 Nov, but there are 2 for each date showing. Looking at the 11 Nov pair:

I seem to have been charged twice for a PXT I never sent in the first place. Note that these two entries are identical (apart from one listing my number, and one listing the number I called). The timestamp is identical and corresponds exactly to the time I sent the txt. SMS's could get really expensive if this keeps up.

Now I have been mulling this over as I typed it, as you do, and I offer these thoughts, (but comment is of course welcomed):

I have a gravatar attached to my GMail account. I am using the Pulse SMS app for Android, and I notice that my avatar shows next to my conversation contributions, whereas some of my contacts show their avatar, some just show the coloured circle with an initial inside. Maybe I'm getting charged to send my avatar as a PXT?
Sometimes when I reply to a message, Pulse seems to think I might like a copy of the text sent to me, even though I just sent it. This could explain the doubling up.

Any thoughts please?

sidefx

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#2353551 14-Nov-2019 20:46

Do you send group texts?

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rossmcm

111 posts

Master Geek

#2353558 14-Nov-2019 21:01

Rarely, but the one in question is showing in Pulse as having two participants - i.e. the header at the top of the screen in the conversation view shows "<My name>, <the other guy's name>", whereas normally it's just "<the other guy's name>". In fact looking back on my texts it seems as if Pulse suddenly decided that I was another person.

I'm thinking I might research Pulse's behaviour a bit more.

Linux

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#2353571 14-Nov-2019 21:23

You must of sent a PXT / MMS some SMS will convert automatically to MMS

mudguard

2120 posts

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#2353593 14-Nov-2019 22:30

Some emoji icons change a text message to MMS. I think.

rossmcm

111 posts

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#2353597 14-Nov-2019 22:53

Could be something there. I have occasionally added a textified emoji (i.e. with ";" and "-" and ")" for example to give ";-)" and most messaging apps convert those to images.

wibble

85 posts

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#2353641 15-Nov-2019 08:06

Some handsets convert long sms messages to an mms. Check if those messages were long (longer than 160 characters I think).

Stu

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#2353647 15-Nov-2019 08:24

And if that's the case (convert long messages to MMS), disable that setting in your messaging app.

Also, sending ":-)" should not send a picture emoji. Your app may display it as so, but only the text characters should be sent. The conversion should only be done in-app for display purposes. If you select an actual picture emoji from your keyboard's emoji feature, however, this may actually send an image.

People often mistake me for an adult because of my age.

Keep calm, and carry on posting.

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jonathan18

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#2353670 15-Nov-2019 08:42

Stu: And if that's the case (convert long messages to MMS), disable that setting in your messaging app.

Which isn't always possible in certain apps; I had this long SMS to MMS conversion problem with the pre-installed Samsung messaging app on my S10+, and was told in this post:

That limitation is because of carrier requirements. These requirements only apply to the stock app not to any other one you can download in the store.

... which means one is forced to move away from a stock app simply to get around this problem. (Not always a big issue, but in my case meant a loss of full text integration with my Galaxy watch.)

Stu

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#2353713 15-Nov-2019 08:47

I'm talking about this discussion. The OP is using Pulse, not a stock app.

People often mistake me for an adult because of my age.

Keep calm, and carry on posting.

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rossmcm

111 posts

Master Geek

#2353770 15-Nov-2019 10:04

Thanks for all the comments. The txts in question were less than 160 bytes. I have found the option to turn larger messages into MMS and turned that off. That behaviour probably does explain some of the random PXT charges I have seen in the past but the doubling up still has me perplexed.