Well it looks like my not-even-a-month-old new cell phone number is already out in the wild somehow. I received this unsolicited text message from a 718-area phone number, which Nicholas tells me is Brooklyn or Queens, New York (I’m in Boston).
Couple problems here. First, I don’t own a home and I’m not looking to buy one anytime soon. Second, I’d probably look for a reputable lender. Nicholas also said, “You can basically assume that if someone has a 718 area code they at least have a small knife on them at all times.” I’m just not comfortable meeting with knife-wielding mortgage lenders at this stage in my life.
Third, I’m not going to blame AT&T for this particular message. I can’t say for sure that they sold my phone number – I doubt they did. If anything, my new number is someone else’s old number – a number that could have been entered into one of thousands of web forms, reputable or otherwise. Whatever the case, it’s out there now.
I will, however, blame US wireless carriers in general for charging people to receive text messages, wanted or unwanted. If I didn’t have an AT&T texting plan – I do, I pay $5 per month for 200 messages – then I would have had to shell out 20 cents to receive this unsolicited text. So it’s either add a texting plan or pay for every text message that gets sent to me. What a racket.
Now to be fair, I could turn off text messaging completely by calling up AT&T customer service and telling them to nix all text messages to and from my account. But what if I was a guy who wanted the ability to send a few text messages each month? I’m exactly that guy.
I’m okay with spending 80 cents to send four text messages every month, I’m not okay with paying 20 cents for each text message that my dumb text-happy friends want to send me and I’m really not okay with paying 20 cents for Liberty Mortgage to invite me to a Beat It-style knife fight over a mortgage I don’t need.
If someone calls me and I don’t answer, I don’t use any of my plan minutes. That makes total sense. If someone sends me a text message I don’t want, my options are to either pay 20 cents or to add what I believe to be a wildly-overpriced texting package.
Doesn’t seem right.
That’s the main reason why I cancel AT&T. I was a Cingular costumer and I was used to check my emails in my phone and I did not have to pay for that, then they got bought by AT&T and in the first month my bill came with 400 dollars in text messages. Me emails were counted like text messages and they never warned me about this change. I disputed but the best they wanted to do for me was to split the bill. So, I payed my 200 dollars and an extra 200 more to cancel my account with them.
Also one of my biggest pet peeves of AT&T .vs. US Cellular. I don’t mind paying for incoming calls because, as you mentioned, I can choose NOT to answer. Texts are one of those things you CAN’T block or hide yourself from.
And how can a Celluar provider determine what text is spam, which is not? They probably can’t nor should you be responsible for paying for a text which you would not want. I am too in the boat of having text happy friends with unlimited texting, I’ve even gone the 1500 route w/ my iPhone plan which is $15 but would rather cut back to $5/200 if it only counted towards sending messages, I can manage that, but incoming is an undetermined amount.
Where’s the FCC on this one!? I could care less about Google Voice…
On average, my total combined (in and out) txt messages total around 2,500. I don’t even know the sound of my own mother’s voice anymore.
haha.
I completely agree Doug. This seems to happen to me almost any time I get a new number. I would definitely support a way to not pay for texts I don’t want.
I’m amused by the racist undertones of this post. Anyone from the 718 area code probably carries a small knife? Your friends are idiots.
How is that racist? People of all races carry knives.
Yep, I’m amused that someone considers an area code so densely-populated by one race that the comment has “racist undertones”.
Get real, FU (Facebook User)! 8-D
i’m german and live in brooklyn. what’s wrong with having a knife? … and why choose a small one?
You sir are the idiot. Doug writes funny posts and undertones are an important part of a lot of good jokes.
Get over it!
Agreed…Thank you Johnny.
The ones a I hate are the text messages sent to you by your phone carrier that they make you pay for. That’s the reason we stop texting on our phones.
The wireless carriers need to find a way to control this and soon. I’ve gotten a few spam text messages and I’m worried soon I’ll be getting as many as I do junk emails. I don’t care about them counting against me because I have a text messaging plan…but I don’t want 25 junk text messages buzzing in my pocket.
This is just the tip of the iceberg when it comes to unwanted text messaging. My 11-year-old son decided he wanted to download one of those ringtones you see blared all over MTV about six months back, so he sent the text message required to get it (without asking either of his parents, of course!). He apparently did this three times, and one time for one of those god-awfully gawdy background images, receiving the ringtone he wanted without any issues.
The problem with this is that he didn’t read the extremely fine print at the bottom of the ads stating that this automatically subscribes you to their “premium” text service offering you more ringtones every month. Each of the “premium” “services” costs anywhere between $5.99 (the background image one) and $9.99. Per month. Every month. Until you respond with the correct “remove me” message. So our Verizon Wireless bill was about $40 more per month for four straight months, until we realized (after the first month’s bill) what had happened, he sent the correct “remove me” message (the third month’s bill, after yelling at him about it for two months), and they finally removed his number from the “service” (the fourth month).
He also thought it was great fun to record a video of himself and his friends doing some rediculously goofy stuff and a snippet of audio from the TV and send them to about four people. Sending each cost us another $10 a piece as a “premium” text message. He sent the audio to both me and my wife, costing us another $10 each to receive them (and I definitely didn’t want to receive it). And that’s WITH the 200 Pix/Flix messaging plan that we pay $5 per month for! Needless to say, he would have not only lost his phone, but also his hands if he didn’t absolutely need it for emergency reasons (we live in a mountainous area where pretty much every street is dangerous to walk on due to nearly every driver’s belief that they are in a NASCAR-sponsored vehicle racing to win half a million dollars even if they are, in fact, only going for milk).
Anyway, none of this was truly “unsolicited” due everything being done or requested from our son’s phone, but being charged $10 for sending AND receiving messages that have a 15-second video or audio recording that are at most 100kb in size (his phone’s multimedia capabilities are rudimentary at best) is patently insane. It’s because of this that we have forced our son to now turn his phone on ONLY when he needs to call or text us, and if he texts us to ONLY send text; no pictures, no video, no nothing.
Does this sound right to anyone? Anyone at all!?
Scott E,
You should look at contacting a lawyer regarding your issue with your son. A company is NOT allowed to enter into a contractual agreement with a minor.
AT&T and Verizon give you a way to eliminate most text spam messages. Sprint and T-Mobile don’t go quite as far, but they do offer some text-spam filtering options. You can find out how at http://pogue.blogs.nytimes.com/2008/06/12/how-to-block-cellphone-spam/
I got that exact same text message last week and I’ve had my phone number for many, many years. I think either AT&T sold their list, or someone hacked the system.
Thats crazy. Here in Ireland (& over in the UK & most of Europe as far as I know) we dont have to pay for any incoming calls or texts. I have a phone that I hardly ever need to make calls on & most of the people who call me have free Vodafone to Vodaphone calls so I can be hours on the phone & not have to pay a penny. Add to that the 300 free web text messages and I can get by on only spending about €10 (~$15) per quarter. I have a pay-as-you go plan & dont need to top up for 6 months before getting disconnected. Dont think I’ll ever get a contract so doesnt look like I’ll be getting an iPhone soon.
One of the reasons I like WA state. Unsolicited txt msgs are against state law. $500 per offense.
Also, the national do not call registry covers unsolicited SMS
I was on Verizon for a few years – hated their service, at one point I had to change numbers a few times before they finally gave me a clean number. But one of those numbers I got hit with 20 spam Text Messages and I was on the phone with them for hours before they finally removed it and the only way they believed they weren’t my messages is when I finally demanded they ban my account from getting any text messages.
Oh yeah, Verizon never removed the charge, I still got stuck paying $5 but it was one of the “final” straws for me with them.
I’m in the UK and, like Ronan, I think it’s utterly crazy that you have to pay for incoming texts. I’m on Pay as you Go and only top up £10 every few months. If I had to pay for incoming calls/texts I would cancel my sim card, it just wouldn’t be worth it.
We can be charged for incoming texts though if they’re commercial ones (e.g you sign up to some service for ringtones, or stupid ones like “should I date this guy based on just our first names”) but they have to tell you when you sign up how to cancel them and let you cancel at any time.
It just doesn’t make sense to change people to receive on phones – it puts people at risk of someone they know going psycho (teenage friendships for example) and costing you a huge amount by spamming you with texts (which would be fine for them if they are on a contract and you’re not, or if they’re desperate enough to get revenge that they don’t care)
Doug, you should do the 750 txt for $7.49 with AT&T go to the Wiki http://wiki.howardforums.com/index.php/AT&T/Feature_Codes then call in and add it.
I use AT&T with no text plan, but my phone (a Motorola V190) doesn’t instantaneously display text messages, and if I delete them they apparently don’t show up on the bill. Of course my phone is like pre-texting era, so I guess that’s why it has this noninstantaneous display feature (unlike my newer, much more hated, Samsung SGH-A237 which pops them up without warning).
I joined AT&T using my jailbroken Moto V195 (yeah, I’m a dinosaur), and noticed that the text messages, adverts from AT&T, were being billed at 20¢ per. WTF? I asked a rep at the local store. He said, “You aren’t billed for those,” contrary to the line items on the bill. Solution: Turn it off. (and F you AT&T)
Well, you could just move to Australia where all mobile phone carriers do not charge you for receiving calls or text messages (same as Europe and UK too for that matter). I can never figure out how USA cell phone customers put up with such nonsense. Do you pay for people calling you on your landline – i think not!
rsarnold: we put up with it because we Americans are largely sheep at the mercy of a corporate-controlled government which usually is complicit with any corporate malfeasance. Just look at our recent banking debacle and the current health care reform “debate”.
I am from the UK , i use an iPhone Contract with o2 and i have to say the service is comparitively 100 times better than the US providers, We get around 1000 minutes and 600 texts and unlimited internet for £35. and all of those texts and minutes are only spent if u make a call or send a text, unless u put ur number in some dodgy site to get a reverse billed text message.
Even the data usage is unlimited truely and is never capped, although we use fring over 3g or whateva
Don’t most plans allow you to block incoming texts? I may be wrong, but I thought this was an option.