T-Mobile Started a WAR.....!!! Possibly no more text messages on your Vibrant from sms providers!

[SamsungVibrant]

ChaCha Says They’ll Bail On T-Mobile)
WOW, this may be pretty bad for us, the end consumer. T-Mobile wants to start charging an SMS tax.

For example, Twitter, Facebook, Bank of America, Chase, Wells Fargo, ChaCha, etc...all those companies who use sms text messaging will be taxed, they will have to pay a fee to send you those friendly text messages, that you already pay T-mobile for!

This is bad. Really bad. Imagine if Bank of America says "well we are cancelling free notifications via text to T-Mobile customers, T-Mobile is taxing us now, so sorry, bye bye T-Mobile customers"....or worse yet Bank Of America starts charging T-Mobile customers for notifications via text.

Imagine the millions of angry Twitter customers who use the sms features. Yikes, no more twitter sms on your Vibrant, just because you are using T-Mobile! No more Facebook sms either, oh goodness. What about ESPN texts, oh oh.

Well guess what, chacha, is in uproar! They are one of the top sms providers, and they have promised to drop all T-Mobile customers if T-Mobile goes ahead with their tax.

One less feature on our Vibrant.

I'm calling T-Mobile and letting them no I'm not happy about sms providers dropping T-Mobile customers. Have your voice heard also!

Maybe T-Mobile should change their $20 Text Messaging commercials to include a disclaimer. *No ChaCha, No Facebook, No Twitter sms*

On a serious note, I don't use twitter/facebook sms. What troubles me is important texts. For example emergency texts, Amber Alerts, library texts, banking texts, not to mention many universities communicate with students via texts, especially for on campus emergency notifications. Twitter aside, I think this can have many serious implications, especially for govt organizations or state run schools that just don't have the funds for something like this.
link:
ChaCha Says They’ll Bail On T-Mobile)

 

[Kwintar]

ChaCha Says They

 

[mavictb]

I agree that this is rather irrelevant to us who have a Vibrant but this is still good useful info... thanks OP for posting.

 

[SamsungVibrant]

If you have a smart phone, "there's an app for that" LOL. Why would you want a txt message when you can just use the app. ChaCha only service they provide is to answer peoples questions via a txt message, I never used it so who cares. The only txt messages that I get are only from friends, so another who cares.

If you didn't have a smart phone then yeah, can see the frustration, but you have a smart phone and there is most likely an app for that. Hmmm, facebook has an app, bank has an app and twitter has an app. Instead getting a txt message from then set up to recieve an email. LOL

Relax bro, not the end of the world.

LOL you are so funny, I can't stop laughing at your "Theres an app for that" comment. You must be a comedian? Anyways....

Actually I get banking notifications via text all the time, I don't care if there is a Bank of America app or NOT, I don't want T-mobiles sms negotiations to stop my banking sms messages.

I don't use twitter/facebook sms, but I do use sms for more important matters.

Also I subscribe to emergency notifications, I've recieved very important emergency messages in the past, it would be a disservice to have such vital and important emergency services cut.

Also lets hope a child in your family is never kidnapped, you can kiss Amber Alerts via sms goodbye. But then again, you would probably look that child in the face, or the devastated parents and tell them "dude theres an app for that."

Or maybe you are on campus, and there is a student gone crazy, a gunman taking over one of the buildings, since T-Mobile charges a tax, you won't get the text from your university warning you not to enter North Tower West Biology Building, and since the gunman just took over, you were in the vicinity before campus police could arrive, and you walk into the building like an idiot, ohh look you are a hostage now, wheres the app for that?

 

[howetechnical]

If you have a smart phone, "there's an app for that" LOL. Why would you want a txt message when you can just use the app. ChaCha only service they provide is to answer peoples questions via a txt message, I never used it so who cares. The only txt messages that I get are only from friends, so another who cares.

If you didn't have a smart phone then yeah, can see the frustration, but you have a smart phone and there is most likely an app for that. Hmmm, facebook has an app, bank has an app and twitter has an app. Instead getting a txt message from then set up to recieve an email. LOL

Relax bro, not the end of the world.

Your statements conflict with eachother. "I never use it so who cares". You imply that your use reflects identically with everybody elses. There are many T-Mobile users who do not have smartphones, I would venture to say over 50% of their clientelle. Just because you don't care, and this problem may not be as impacting to most of us on these forums, it shows exactly what T-Mobile is willing to do to crawl out of the hole they're in...forcibly charge other companies micro transactions that will lead to big profits for T-Mo. Chain of effect predicts that said big companies will then either drop T-Mo customers from such notifications, or charge them a monthly rate. In turn, T-Mo's customers end up paying the price, and T-Mo is then essentially raising the price on those who keep them in business.

They need to figure out another way to solve their financial woes, not by passing additional fees and taxes to their customers indirectly through associated companies. They're only going to piss a lot of people off.

 

[reddragon72]

T-Mobile Won’t Tax Twitter Or Facebook, Stop Panic’ing | TmoNews - Unofficial T-Mobile Blog - News, Videos, Articles and more

don't go crazy....

And if your still not entirely sure then get a Google Voice account. It's better anyways because you can get the alerts on your PC too....

 

[SamsungVibrant]

Sign up for Amber Alerts, directly to your Vibrant via sms, it could save a childs life.

https://www.wirelessamberalerts.org/index.jsp


lets hope T-Mobile stays apart of step 4 of this link:
Wireless Amber Alerts

lets hope T-Mobiles logo continues to appear:

http://wirelessamberalerts.wirelessfoundation.org/partners.htm

 

[Kwintar]

Your statements conflict with eachother. "I never use it so who cares". You imply that your use reflects identically with everybody elses.

I merely meant I never used ChaCha, and your right I should haven't stated who cares.

And your right there are a lot of people that don't have smart phones, but have regular cell phones, that can only receive txt messages.

For those of us that have smart phones, maybe this will cause companies to create better widgets for our phones, so that we don't have to worry about getting txt.

I also didn't think about the amber alerts using txt messaging, but they use the radio and electronic billboards to display emergencies. That is an important part, but I am under the impression that this is only to charge companies a fee and not services like Amber Alerts, I pretty sure the Federal government could put a hold them putting a charge on emergency alert txt messages.

 

[Aiyan]

Fast question since I'm a newbie.

How will this affect me with the Vibrant, as I'm on no contract for the moment and will most likely slap in a random cheap Canadian payonthego, so not decided on carrier.

So my question is as I said, how will this effect me or will I be under different rules say if I use the carrier called Virgin?

 

[SamsungVibrant]

Fast question since I'm a newbie.

How will this affect me with the Vibrant, as I'm on no contract for the moment and will most likely slap in a random cheap Canadian payonthego, so not decided on carrier.

So my question is as I said, how will this effect me or will I be under different rules say if I use the carrier called Virgin?

If you use your Vibrant on a different carrier, it should not have an impact on you. Maybe other Vibrant owners will follow, and take their unlocked Vibrant over to At&t.

 

[TuesdayClub]

This has no bearing on my life--consider yourself lucky you get/got to use it til now.

I see no real-world impact for the MAJORITY of T-mobile users. :?

 

[smutek]

Also lets hope a child in your family is never kidnapped, you can kiss Amber Alerts via sms goodbye. But then again, you would probably look that child in the face, or the devastated parents and tell them "dude theres an app for that"

I understand this is important to you but wow, what an incredibly dickish thing to say.

 

[SamsungVibrant]

I understand this is important to you but wow, what an incredibly dickish thing to say.

What did i say that was dickish?
Was it the part when I said "lets HOPE a child in your family is NEVER KIDNAPPED"...... was that my dickish comment?

 

[mavictb]

my God people.... this has to be one of the most immature forums I have joined. SO MUCH negative feed back, comments, and bad info.

if you don't have some sort of constructive criticism or positive feed back then hold your tongue.

 

[Aiyan]

If you use your Vibrant on a different carrier, it should not have an impact on you. Maybe other Vibrant owners will follow, and take their unlocked Vibrant over to At&t.

Ok, thank you for answering.

 

[smutek]

What did i say that was dickish?
Was it the part when I said "lets HOPE a child in your family is NEVER KIDNAPPED"...... was that my dickish comment?

"You would probably look that child in the face or the devastated parents..."

I've read a lot of your posts. You seem pretty intelligent, why resort to imagery like that to make your point?

On the flip side calling your response dickish wasn't a shining example of a measured, mature, or intelligent response either so my apologies there.

 

[TuesdayClub]

For the people that use this stuff--write it and fight it.

And yes...let's all relax and try as a community to keep all phone options alive. No reason to resort to name-calling.

 

[MrsSmartyPants]

Uhm .. as someone who used to work for ChaCha in my spare time answering those very text queries, this isn't the first time this type of thing has happened, trust me. I remember a few years ago when Verizon tried to do the same thing - it never happened and the histrionics surrounding the announcement were for the record books.

On the ChaCha side everyone thought they were losing their 'work at home' jobs ... never happened.
On the SMS user side everyone thought they were going to be capped at a certain number of texts to ChaCha/month or pay per text ... never happened.

ChaCha used to be awesome - now it's pretty lame and 1/2 the time the answers are incorrect.

I say "wait and see" because this will never happen - and if it does? There's always that google SMS thingy where you text GOOGLE (I don't know the numeric - but it's 'google' on your keypad) your question

 

[TuesdayClub]

On a related note:

T-Mobile Censoring Text Messages | Threat Level | Wired.com

 

[SamsungVibrant]

"You would probably look that child in the face or the devastated parents..."

I've read a lot of your posts. You seem pretty intelligent, why resort to imagery like that to make your point?

On the flip side calling your response dickish wasn't a shining example of a measured, mature, or intelligent response either so my apologies there.

Well I accept your apology. Upon self reflection and examination of my choice of words, I do see how one would consider my choice of verbiage a harsh way to get my point across. I guess, I just found his/her "There's an app for that" comments to be smart alec in nature. I personally depend on sms messages from different providers, regardless of owning a smartphone with aps or not. Nevertheless, I apologize as well, I just wanted to share the news, that is all.

 

[SamsungVibrant]

On a related note:

T-Mobile Censoring Text Messages | Threat Level | Wired.com

Uh ohhhh. As much as I disagree with the use of any type of drug, I would rather have my cell phone carrier stay out of politics. I don't want my cell phone carrier deciding who I may or may not get sms messages from. If I decide to sign up for sms messages from an organization that supports the use of marijuana, that's my choice! I pay for unlimited texts, DON'T DECIDE WHO MAY OR MAY NOT SEND ME TEXTS T-MOBILE. Next thing you know, in the next election, T-Mobile is going to censor which candidate we are allowed to receive texts from, uh ohhhh.

 

[nemesys06]

considering i already pay for unlimited text messages, i feel that tmobile has no right charging for messages. i receive sms messages from my bank for every single adjustment made to my account... every transaction, even if only a penny, is sent to me instantly via text. it tells me the transaction time, date, ammount and location. gives me the company name and address. i don't think it's right for tmobile to step in and start charging them.

 

[TuesdayClub]

They shouldn't--BUT if there is money to be made someone will inevitably fall down the path. And as for censoring...CUT IT OUT!!!! Who is to say what we want/do not want to hear/support.

Gah, leave politics alone.

 

[spiz]

my God people.... this has to be one of the most immature forums I have joined. SO MUCH negative feed back, comments, and bad info.

if you don't have some sort of constructive criticism or positive feed back then hold your tongue.

Amen. That's the main reason I avoid these forums now days and a huge reason why the devs left this place.

 

[rickcain]

Is the sky really falling? Don't think so.........