How do I stop getting international text messages?

Question

Level 1

8 points

How do I stop getting international text messages?

i have an iphone 4s on t-mobile..and i am being charged for international text messages when i am not sending or receiving any. I found out that is was for facetime because t-mobile doesnt have a apple server or whatever. I stopped and turned the facetime on my phone completely off and told my friends not to facetime me anymore...but every once in a couple of days i'll get one more for no reason.. can please somone help me solve this problem??? These charges are ridiclous and t-mobile here is saying "oh sorry we cant block those international texts and we cant refund" like ***! im not doing anything!!

Anyway if anyone can help, please & thank you!

iPhone 4S, iOS 5.0.1, White, Brand new

Posted on Mar 4, 2012 5:31 PM

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Answer 1

jennaynay Author

Level 1

8 points

Mar 4, 2012 7:25 PM in response to KiltedTim

Yea i have t-mobile USA and its telling me i have incoming text messages from a UK number. AND really? iMessage is the same thing? It requires an apple server too, are you sure? My cousin says she uses iMessage all the time(well whem she has wifi that is) and she only has 2 charges and thats it, i have like 9.

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Answer 2

KiltedTim

Level 10

226,008 points

Mar 5, 2012 4:12 AM in response to jennaynay

Sorry. Thought you were referring to seeing them show up on your bill, like the activation messages that go out from your phone to set up facetime.

Incoming is something else entirely.

You shouldn't be getting charge any more for an incoming message from the UK than you do for an incoming message from next door. At least not as far as I know. What are these messages? Is it just someone with a wrong number?

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Answer 3

jennaynay Author

Level 1

8 points

Mar 5, 2012 4:36 AM in response to KiltedTim

I don't have any international text messages in my message folder. I go check online my usage and it says incoming text from like a 44something number,sometimes it says smoint. I have turned FaceTime off completely but I do use iMessage sometimes. But the thing is my cousin uses it for than I do and she isn't being charged for it I not think. See her charges stay at 2 but mine went from 0 to 9...I mean the messages don't exactly show up on my bill, the charges do though .

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Answer 4

Mr Leo Sir

Level 4

1,645 points

Mar 5, 2012 6:34 AM in response to jennaynay

t-moblie should be able to block a number for you if you get the phone number that is texting you then give that to them and say you want to block that from coming to your phone.

also what i know about imessage it goes over data to apple servers and then they send it off to who it is meant to be for. (if that is ipad, ipod, iphone, mac or all).

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Answer 5

jennaynay Author

Level 1

8 points

Mar 5, 2012 4:11 PM in response to Mr Leo Sir

Thanks for the suggestion but i already tried and they told me they can't block inetnational numbers. & as you mentioned iMessage goes over data to apple servers, does that mean it will charge for a international text charge as well just like facetime(because t-mobile doesnt have a apple sever and whenever facetime is activated it sends a "silent text" to the server in the UK)? And by the way, sometimes i activate iMessage over EDGE and sometimes over my WIFI...does that matter? Like if i activate iMessage using internet then it'll charge me..and if i activate it using WIFI it wont?

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Answer 6

KiltedTim

Level 10

226,008 points

Mar 5, 2012 5:46 PM in response to jennaynay

Supported carriers will not charge for these activation messages. Unfortunately, this is one of the downsides of using an iPhone on an unsupported carrier. If the charges and/or reduced functionality are a problem, switch to a supported carrier. In the US, the only supported GSM carrier is AT&T.

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Answer 7

jennaynay Author

Level 1

8 points

Mar 5, 2012 6:27 PM in response to KiltedTim

So Facetime and iMessage both use the apple servers and require an activation fee if not on a supported carrier? (And if so, you are POSITIVE iMessage requires a server and is going to charge for activation?)

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Answer 8

KiltedTim

Level 10

226,008 points

Mar 6, 2012 4:18 AM in response to jennaynay

iMessage ties into your phone number just like FaceTime. It makes sense they would use the same activation method and servers.

Apple isn't 'requring an activation fee' or 'charging' for activation. Just like Apple doesn't charge you 'postage' in the form of data charges, to send an e-mail.

There are 4 nationwide supported carriers in the US now with the iPhone. Are you under contract with T-Mobile? If you're not locked into a contract, tell them if they don't waive the charges you'll switch to a supported carrier. They've made a big deal about wanting to provide actuall assistance to their customers with iPhones... maybe they'll move on this.

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