Question on text messages:

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Scooterflex - 28 Mar 2005 06:58 GMT

I bought a Samsung i500 about four or five weeks ago and added the vision
plan to my account so I can get access to pop3 email and the internet from
the phone. The rep gave it to me for two months for free and after that she
told me to call in to have the price adjusted to $10 per month since I can't
use any of the downloads. No problem so far, right? Then she said I have
access to 100 free text messages. I told her that I wouldn't use that
feature at all (that's what email is for) so it means nothing to me. Anyway,
I noticed I'm starting to get ads sent to my phone. First question: Am I
charged for a text message coming in to the phone that I did not initiate?
and next: How do I block SMS text messages all together?

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Isaiah Beard - 28 Mar 2005 17:28 GMT

> I told her that I wouldn't use that
> feature at all (that's what email is for) so it means nothing to me.

Yeah, that's what I said too, about... three months ago. Now I'm
racking up around 250 text message a month. :)

> Anyway,
> I noticed I'm starting to get ads sent to my phone. First question: Am I
> charged for a text message coming in to the phone that I did not initiate?

It depends. If it's orgiinated from another mobile phone, then yes,
especially if the originating phone is a non-Sprint phone. IIRC though,
messages coming from the website or from e-mail are not counted.

> and next: How do I block SMS text messages all together?

1. Point your web browser to www.sprintpcs.com

2. Log into your account (PCS number, password)

3. On the welcome page, there should be an item called "text messaging"
on the lower right hand corner in a box titled "my online tools." Click
on it.

4. You'll be at the "compose a message" page, but you don't want that.
On the left hand column, click "settings & preferences."

5. Scroll down to the box titled "For SMS only." Under "message types,"
uncheck all boxes.

This will block all of the likely sources of SMS spam: namely the web
interface, e-mail, and via the TAP line (a toll free number that you can
dial up by modem and send text messages to phones that way). It will
NOT block SMS messages sent via other mobile phones. However, those 100
free text messages that you're stuck with will probably come in handy
there. Ultimately, if you find that someone is sending you a lot of
unwanted text messages, you can go back into the blocking interface via
the steps I've described above, and enter the offending phone number in
the "SMS Blocking" field on that same page.

Hope this helps.

Signature

E-mail fudged to thwart spammers.
Transpose the c's and a's in my e-mail address to reply.

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Scooterflex - 28 Mar 2005 21:58 GMT

Thanks for the help.

> > I told her that I wouldn't use that
> > feature at all (that's what email is for) so it means nothing to me.
[quoted text clipped - 37 lines]
>
> Hope this helps.

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Scooterflex - 28 Mar 2005 22:38 GMT

I tried to uncheck all the boxes bnut only two of them were able to be
unchecked. The rest cannot be. I'm going to call Sprint and ask that they
remove SMS capabilities from my phone. Do you think they'll be able to do
that?

> > I told her that I wouldn't use that
> > feature at all (that's what email is for) so it means nothing to me.
[quoted text clipped - 37 lines]
>
> Hope this helps.

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