Text Payment Nonsense

[#1]

Tried today for the frist time ever to send a text to a 5 digit number and be charged £2 against my account.  It told me repeatedly that EE (PlusNet's provider) couldn't do it, with error code #0.

I spoke to PlusNet support who told me, "We don't do that, allow texts to 5 digits".  So I said, "Fair enough, where's that info on the website then, when I took out my contract?".  Eventually the answer came back that it says (somewhere, location unspecified) that they can't provide everything and that if they had a list of everything they don't provide it would be 500 pages long".

I kid you not. 

Presumably that list would include eggs, stamps, cement, chocolate, Christmas decorations, weapons of mass destruction and basically everything else you can ever think of.  I wager that a list of "stuff others do but we don't" might run to half a page, which isn't a lot to ask for, is it?

So the moral of the story is if you want to send some money to Children in Need one Friday night next November, you're going to have to back-heel PlusNet and switch to someone else. 

😖

[#2]

In the legal bit at the bottom of the mobile webpage here, it says "Plusnet Mobile does not support premium or short code text services" along with other services we may or may not provide.

Is there a way for you to donate online? Off the top of my head, UNICEF offer an online payment system.

[#3]

Hmm.......  Not crystal clear, is it?  But having read the legals I now know that my "unlimited" minutes is limited to 150 calls a month.  I'll definately be moving elsewehere on that basis alone, so thanks for the link.

And yes, of course, there's almost always another way to pay things but none of them as easy as a text message.  Unfortunately, going down to the post office wasn't an option for this particular purpose, it was text massage or don't bother.

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[#4]

Worth noting that the fair usage limit of 150 calls (or 500 minutes) a month is only to 070 personal numbering services, as these are premium rate numbers. 

[#5]

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@FrustratedElmer wrote:

  I'll definately be moving elsewehere on that basis alone, so thanks for the link.

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I recently moved to Lebara from PNet ( because of stupid price increases CPI plus 3.9% every March so an increase on the top of the previous increase like a snow ball ) via a special deal with USwitch 

U/L mins U/L texts 21GB data £7.95 a month reduced to £3.18 for three months

I now get many things PNet do not offer WiFi calling Short Texts etc  and a better  Vodafone signal where I live

This morning I had a short text from the Hospital and guess what I could reply free of charge

Best thing I did well worth a look

[#6]

Welcome to the world of scams and reverse charged texts. It looks like PlusNet do sort of support them now then?

Not supporting them is a good thing as I had a company send me reverse charged texts for something I never subscribed to. I had to complain and report them to ICSTIS. So in this good old country companies can scam you via these means, rob you via additional charges added to your bill against your consent? If £10 got added to your bill without your consent, you'd notice. £1.50 is a different matter, as you'd either not notice or bother to complain if you did. Rob the £1.50 off lots of people and you'll get away with it.

I haven't checked the news this morning, so I don't know who is the prime minister today, and who it will be come new years day but they should be banned.

He or she is not going to do that whilst the government are making additonal VAT on the scams.

I've never used short coded texts or ring into reality TV like some people. I am not going to fund ITV's "quality" programmes of Ant and Dec watching someone I don't know eating bugs.

But some people like to fund these programmes for some reason. Why is beyond me.