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skippy1974 Author

Level 1

11 points

Repeated Facetime SMS

Hello,

I found this unacceptable!

I bought an iPhone 4S for my wife.

She received a message that my operator may charge for the use of facetime at activation. So far, so good.

But I received the bill yesterday and this is not one activation SMS, this SMS is sent "all the time"!!

Type	Date	Time	Calling number	Called numper	Country	Rate	#	Price Excl. (€)
SMS	26/07/2013	13:05	******	447786205094	U.K.	Full rate	1	0,3720
SMS	26/07/2013	13:11	******	447786205094	U.K.	Full rate	1	0,3720
SMS	26/07/2013	13:50	******	447786205094	U.K.	Full rate	1	0,3720
SMS	26/07/2013	13:56	******	447786205094	U.K.	Full rate	1	0,3720
SMS	05/08/2013	17:15	******	447786205094	U.K.	Full rate	1	0,3720
SMS	07/08/2013	11:36	******	447786205094	U.K.	Full rate	1	0,3720
SMS	07/08/2013	18:56	******	447786205094	U.K.	Full rate	1	0,3720

What the *** is wrong with apple ? How will I get my money back ? I can agree on one SMS but not all the time ... Am I supposed to stop facetime? What will happen in the next months?

Thanks for your help,

Olivier

Posted on Aug 17, 2013 6:34 AM

Best reply

HonzaP9

Level 1

4 points

Posted on Dec 7, 2017 11:49 PM

I am having this issue too and it looks like I found at least a workaround...

I have an iPhone SE and after upgrade to iOS11 it started to send these SMSs at least once per 24 hours. Before the upgrade it was say twice a month. Apple support said that the problem is on my carriers side (T-mobile Czech Republic) and probably my number is blocked from receiving some background confirmation SMS from the UK operator who processes these iMessage registrations for Apple. Doesnt sound very logical if I had no other issues, but ok...

I called T-mobile and surprisingly the support technician said it is probably true and they will send a request to the UK to somehow do the association manually (and that it will take about 2-3 weeks). Guess what ... four weeks passed and the problem was still there. I tried to swap for a different SIM card and it was still bad. So I decided to try this:

I turned off GPS assisted signal search, turned off Wi-Fi calls and also turned off LTE and, voila, no more iMessage activation SMSs. Unfortunately also no more 4G, so after a week I turned on LTE for DATA ONLY and things were still good. After turning on LTE for both data and voice after another week I already was prompted three times within two days for iMessage activation, so this is probably the cause. Now I am back to LTE for data only and will be testing more combinations in the upcoming weeks.

Now just to make sure everyone understands: The above mentioned facts do NOT tell me where exactly the problem is (phone HW, iOS, Apple servers, T-mobile or the UK carrier), it is purely a statement of what combination of settings seems to work for me now :-)

View in context

26 replies

skippy1974 Author

Level 1

11 points

Aug 17, 2013 7:16 AM in response to IdrisSeabright

I fully agree, my carrier did charge the facetime sms.

I've no problem with that, I was warned with a pop-up.

But I did not expect all the other SMSes.

Was one (on my previous bill) not enough? Will it send a (very) expensive SMS at random time like that forever?

Aug 17, 2013 8:17 AM in response to skippy1974

If you turn iMessage off, and then back on again, you'll probably see this.

skippy1974 Author

Level 1

11 points

Aug 17, 2013 8:20 AM in response to IdrisSeabright

Ok but I never did and anytime you do that, you have the warning popup that neither I or my wife got for all those SMSes.

martacl

Level 1

0 points

Feb 22, 2016 9:05 AM in response to skippy1974

Did you get a solution? The same it happens to me.. I have sent 100 sms for month, my cellphone company says it's Apple and Apple says it's my carrier.. so?¿? nobody is responsible?¿ I wake up at 3AM-4AM... to activate the facetime?¿ 😕

kjz61

Level 1

4 points

Feb 24, 2016 3:19 AM in response to martacl

Same problem here with t-mobile Austria. t-mobile tries to be helpful, Apple is ignoring me.

martacl

Level 1

0 points

Feb 25, 2016 8:38 AM in response to kjz61

What we should do? It seems that all companies are wrongs less Apple

May 22, 2016 9:55 AM in response to skippy1974

Hi,

I am in Spain and after replacing my iPhone 5 with an iPhone 6s I find I have exactly the same problem. I just checked my bill and as soon as I got my new phone in March it started sending SMS messages to the UK and I am charged €0.60 every time, 4 messages in the last 10 days alone.

I tried using Facetime on my old iPhone and it didn't work but I wasn't ever charged for an SMS, now I wish I didn't have facetime at all but my phone says Facetime hasn't been successfully activated anyway and I therefore can't use it.

What exactly triggers a message, this should be like the windows user account control, everything should stop and the user should need to tap yes before every international SMS is sent.

Jul 5, 2016 4:19 AM in response to maria tania

hi i have the same issue as your did you find a solution please tell me ?!

dmtrchr

Level 1

8 points

Sep 5, 2016 4:32 AM in response to Michael Allbritton

my iphone sends messages to the same nr in uk from greece. so, i figured out that it was the provider's matter, as you said and i called my provider -vodafone greece - twice so far, in order to stop it, but they told me it's apple's matter, they cant do anything. they cant even block me from sending messages to spesific numbers, as this uk one. unfortunately.

dmtrchr

Level 1

8 points

Sep 5, 2016 4:35 AM in response to IdrisSeabright

i never turn on my imessage nor facetime. i keep them constantly deactivated, yet still, the charged messages from my iphone in greece to that uk number are always there!!

inapis

Level 1

4 points

Dec 29, 2016 6:26 AM in response to skippy1974

FWIW, the only permanent solution to prevent these sms's from being sent is to disassociate your cellular number from facetime and imessage and only use your apple id or email ids. as a last resort turn off both the services on your iphone. I still do not know the cause yet.

Repeated Facetime SMS