Virgin Mobile is charging for "pic & Vid sharing" on picture messages, check your bil

[Thaco]

Just a friendly heads up, i got $8 ($0.50/ea) worth of "pic & vid sharing" on my bill, i have a 6gb data plan, and unlimited picture/text messaging, i assumed that'd cover me for anything i'd ever need... apparently i was wrong, so i decided to investigate to see what constitutes this "pic & vid sharing"

my first step was to call virgin, the chick that answered said it was whenever you choose the "share" option from the gallery, you're now "shaing" not "picture messaging"

so i invesitaged it, and it seems this was the case for text messages... any facebook or other "sharing" did not charge me this... HOWEVER, if i was in a text essage thread, and chose to attach a picture, that was considered a picture message and not charged......

so i was pretty annoyed how 2 different ways of doing the same function could produce different costs, so i did what any pissed off techy would do, i took it to twitter... here's my convo.

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@virginmobilecan "pic & vid sharing", $.50 ea. biggest scam since PPU txt... I have 6gb data, and unlim txt, but this is diff? #nickel&dime

@T3rry12 Sonds like a video message Terry! Those aren't included with picture messaging. Sorry! ^pr

@virginmobilecan Nope, pics only, if I "share" from gallery I am charged, "insert" from txt thread, and it's a "pic msg", which is included

@T3rry12 Hmmmm odd. Shoot us your mobile# to [email protected] and we'll check it out! ^pr

@virginmobilecan email sent, a quick response and resolution would be appreciated. thanks.

@T3rry12 Cool, thanks Terry! ^to
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So, on to the email

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So, i was tweeting you about being charged pic and vid sharing on a
pic message... being charged all depends on how i share it... I looked
at my bill, and at my messages, and i determined that if i go to the
txt thread and click "insert>picture" it's not charged and considered
a picture message, but if i go to my phones gallery, and choose the
sideways V "Share" icon, and share it to messaging, then i get
charged...

some examples, i was charged 6 times

Regardless of how these are "chosen" to be sent... they are just
picture messages, and should not be charged.

see the attached screenshots for proof...

---

Hey Terry!


Hmmm... sorry about that! We'll have our billing team look this over to double check that these are not charging in error. In the meantime, we've removed the charges for you on this bill. Just note that video messages are not included, but if this was in fact all picture messages they'll get you fixed up no problem for the next bill!


The balance should update in your online account shortly, with these removed


Thanks!

Lots of Love,
Virgin Mobile

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So just a reminder, check your bill... may apply to bell mobile and other bell companies as well...

[BrknFngrs]

They sign their billing support emails "lots of love"?

[schocker]

I have never been charged for it, sharing from gallery or attaching a picture from within the text app

[Thaco]

Originally posted by schocker
I have never been charged for it, sharing from gallery or attaching a picture from within the text app

could be related to the type pf phone and how it reports, i dunno... just throwing out the warning

i have a google nexus

[schocker]

Originally posted by Thaco


could be related to the type pf phone and how it reports, i dunno... just throwing out the warning

i have a google nexus

Hmm, I have an sgs2 so they are fairly similar so I dunno. I recall on my legend it would account wifi use in with my data and I would always then have to actually turn off mobile data then wifi on to make sure.