There was a large thread on broadbandreports about how verizon’s phones will check monthly to see if the data connection works..whether it’s asked for or not..which in turn gets you the 1.99 fee. I have for the past two months gotten data charges of 8 bucks and 13 bucks on my bills from my phone. I never setup this phone for data.
Now it appears that if folks use the e-mail account setup for your phone which for sprint is phonenumber@messaging.sprintpcs.com that gets you data charges. This is irregardless of the fact that this “mailbox” is actually a text messaging gateway to your phone. This is one case whee unlimited texting isn’t so unlimited. Srpint’s solution? Institute a data block which for my accounts takes out data but also picture mail which is supposed to be free with the account. Sounds fishy to me. They are currently “trying to figure out where the data is being accessed from”.
It now gets better. I have picture mail included with my plan shared across all 4 lines. It turns out that if you receive a picture mail you can only view it in the original format in the text message. If you view it again…enlarge it..resend it..etc etc etc you now incur data charges for the picture mail. This is total BS. I now have to get a data block on all 4 of my lines to stop these spurious charges and now have to dispute the bill and the fact they are in breach of contract with them. This is going to be fun.