Does anybody else have Viber or Whatsapp charges on their AT&T phone bill?

Question

Level 1

4 points

Does anybody else have Viber or Whatsapp charges on their AT&T phone bill?

I got my phone bill for my iPhone and noticed charges of $79.00 for using Viber and/or Whatsapp texting Apps. I have WiFi in my home and AT&T data processing when I'm i.e. in my car driving around and calling my Viber friend. Is that the reason I got charged? I called AT&T and they told me to contact Apple. They said it's a FREE CALL so they deducted it but wondering about my next bill. Can somebody help me?

iPhone 3G, iPhone OS 3.1.3

Posted on Mar 23, 2011 3:32 PM

Reply

Answer 1

Jun 12, 2011 3:58 AM in response to pratana

@pratana

We understand the inconvenience that was caused here, but in fact we most certainly do have a warning message that pops up when you try to place a regular cellular call.

Moreover, in accordance to user demand, we have added a checkbox that allows users to control whether or not they would like to keep seeing that warning message, or make it stop appearing once they have learnt when the calls might be switched to being non-Viber calls.

So to your question - yes, we do have a warning message. You might have disabled it and forgotten about it.

Reply

Answer 2

Tamara

Level 6

13,744 points

Mar 23, 2011 5:32 PM in response to swissgirl

Viber is a free call if you call someone else that has viber. If they don't have viber, you are going to use ATT's data or calling plan.

Mobile carrier charges apply for calls on whatsapp.

You may want to read the FAQs for these apps to understand how they work.

Reply

Answer 3

Mar 25, 2011 6:54 AM in response to swissgirl

Hi,

This is an official representative of Viber Media.

Viber requires 2 things:
1. both sides need to have Viber installed.
2. both sides need to be connected to the internet, 3G or WiFi.

About the cost:
Viber itself is a TOTALLY free service. Payment for 3G internet usage is determined by your cellular company, and this is something we (Viber) cannot control, nor do we benefit from, AT ALL.

Using Viber on WiFi, however, is free for sure, so we don't really understand why AT&T charged you for using WiFi (or even how).

Reply

Answer 4

Mar 25, 2011 7:01 AM in response to swissgirl

There are texting scams that allow a company to charge you for a service that you used through your carrier. You basically respond to a text, and a charge appears on your bill. AT&T can block these charges, or can require you to confirm that your really want to make the payment before accepting it. Call AT&T to enable this feature. Could this be what happened?

Reply

Answer 5

Mar 25, 2011 7:24 AM in response to swissgirl

swissgirl wrote:
I have WiFi in my home and AT&T data processing when I'm i.e. in my car driving > around and calling my Viber friend. Is that the reason I got charged?

Bingo - in your car, you do not have wifi so are using the carriers cellular data network.

Reply

Answer 6

Mar 25, 2011 7:28 AM in response to Michael Black

Michael Black wrote:

swissgirl wrote:
I have WiFi in my home and AT&T data processing when I'm i.e. in my car driving > around and calling my Viber friend. Is that the reason I got charged?

Bingo - in your car, you do not have wifi so are using the carriers cellular data network.

I don't follow. If you have AT&T on an iPhone you have some number of minutes and a data plan. If you go over the limit on your data plan you will be charged, but that apparently wasn't the case here, as it was a single call, And $79 is not a data plan charge that makes any sense.

Reply

Answer 7

Mar 25, 2011 7:40 AM in response to Lawrence Finch

Actually, from the OP I don't know whether they were overages or not. If they had the minimum 200MB ($15/month) plan, it could be overage data charges (they never wrote that it was a single call, they just referred to use of).

Regardless of the numbers involved, while the apps (Viber and Whatsapp) may be free to use, if using AT&T's network to use them, the data is not free. Any data sent to or received from AT&T's cellular network is subject to charges - either applying towards your plan limit or in overages. The app using the data is not material to that point (neither, for that matter is Apple - they didn't make the apps in question, and they don't control the carrier's network).

Reply

Answer 8

deggie

Level 10

167,519 points

Mar 25, 2011 8:01 AM in response to Michael Black

From the OPs first post they said they noted a $79 charge specifically for using the app. A charge for overage would be just that and be labeled that way. I would be more inclined to believe the OP got scammed by someone.

Reply

Answer 9

Mar 25, 2011 8:07 AM in response to deggie

I never said nor implied that I disbelieved anything the OP wrote. I just said that if they were using those apps on AT&T's cellular data network, despite being "free to use apps", they were subject to data charges. In the absence of any details or clarifications from the original brief note, I have no idea whether the charges were legit or not, overages or not, whether for a single instance of use or multiple, or anything else about them.

Reply

Answer 10

Mar 26, 2011 3:18 AM in response to swissgirl

The important bottom line is that it wasn't Viber that charged for the service.
It is also very strange that the AT&T bill specifically said "$79.00 for using Viber" - the cellular company shouldn't 'know' what you use your data minutes for.

Reply

Answer 11

Tamara

Level 6

13,744 points

Mar 26, 2011 4:16 AM in response to theViberTeam

I doubt it said that and the OP has not been back to clarify.

Reply

Answer 12

pratana

Level 1

4 points

Jun 10, 2011 10:40 AM in response to theViberTeam

Both my sister and I have viber installed. We've been using this app for a while without issue. Until this past Saturday, I called her via Viber for sure. But somehow I got AT&T charge for all 3 hours.

I noticed on the call logs that viber call out get cancelled, but it shows up on AT&T.

I have to settle the case with AT&T and pay them 50+ (original bill was 830!!!).

I will never use Viber again until I know for sure it's absolutely free.

I used the app when I was at home via my own wifi.

Reply

Answer 13

Jun 11, 2011 2:08 AM in response to pratana

Hi @pratana

This is an official representative of Viber Media.
The bill you are describing couldn't have been issued by Viber as you're describing, especially when it's WiFi that was used.
Viber works over the internet, and for this reason AT&T 'couldn't have known' that Viber was used.
What probably happened was that your internet connection was temporarily low, so a regular call was placed instead of a Viber call. You can notice the different between the two by the fact that Viber's purple screen switches to iPhone's regular grey interface.

There is unfortunately nothing we (Viber) can do to help.

If you have more questions - please feel free to ask,

Viber.

Reply

Answer 14

Jun 11, 2011 3:17 AM in response to theViberTeam

It might be worth using Skype. Has the same key feature as Viber plus it wont switch over to the cellular network. Its data or nothing with that. You also have the added benefit of being able to call skype users on other platforms. Win win.

Reply

Answer 15

pratana

Level 1

4 points

Jun 11, 2011 12:34 PM in response to Guybrush-Threepwood

I totally agree, which I will do. since both my sister and I have skype as well.

Reply