Incoming messages are counting as outgoing messages

[SomeDad]

We just signed up for PM, and are very excited about it. We only needed a simple plan so we purchased the $10 plan for the 50/50 of calls and texts. We purchased the plan on the premise that incoming text messages were free.

After activing the SIM I sent a test message to the phone to confirm it has been set up correctly, and we received 2 messages from PM about the PIN. When I logged into the account online it says I've used up 3 of my 50 messages. I thought all incoming messages were free? Am I missing something?

Thanks,

R

[srlawren · Accepted solution]

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@SomeDad wrote:

I checked the account and I see 3 messages from a weird 6 digit number: 474663

No idea what this number is.

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@SomeDad that's iMessage.  It will eventually stop after about 20 or so messages.  

More info:

https://productioncommunity.publicmobile.ca/t5/Getting-Started/New-10-mo-5050-plan-How-do-i-stop-iph...

https://productioncommunity.publicmobile.ca/t5/Discussions/outgoing-messages-to-474663/m-p/66707

https://productioncommunity.publicmobile.ca/t5/Phones-Hardware/iPhone-5-send-txt-message-to-474663-i...

https://productioncommunity.publicmobile.ca/t5/Getting-Started/5-outgoing-texts-to-474663-shown-in-m...

https://productioncommunity.publicmobile.ca/t5/Getting-Started/How-do-i-stop-iphone-from-sending-tex...

[srlawren]

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@SomeDad wrote:

Hey @srlawren I didn't send a test message from the new phone. It was from one of the other phones to make sure it was receiving messages.

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@SomeDad sorry I misread your original message.  My apologies.  @popping has raised a good point--do you have an iPhone?  If so it may be trying to set up iMessage by sending SMS messages without you knowing (thank you, Apple!).  It may be a coincidence that you saw 3 messages which was the same number that you have received (the two from PM and 1 test message) when in fact the 3 were outgoing from iMessage.  If you don't have an iPhone, this obviously is not the cause and something else is going on.

[SomeDad]

Hey @srlawren I didn't send a test message from the new phone. It was from one of the other phones to make sure it was receiving messages.

@popping it is an iPhone, but what would it be sending. 

I checked the account and I see 3 messages from a weird 6 digit number: 474663

No idea what this number is.

[popping]

@SomeDad

Login to your account and check on your usage history to find out why.

Do you have an iPhone?

If yes, iPhone is known to do something after switching to a new network.

[srlawren]

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@SomeDad wrote:

We just signed up for PM, and are very excited about it. We only needed a simple plan so we purchased the $10 plan for the 50/50 of calls and texts. We purchased the plan on the premise that incoming text messages were free.

After activing the SIM I sent a test message to the phone to confirm it has been set up correctly, and we received 2 messages from PM about the PIN. When I logged into the account online it says I've used up 3 of my 50 messages. I thought all incoming messages were free? Am I missing something?

Thanks,

R

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@SomeDad no your understanding is correct, incoming should not count.  Was your outbound test message paritcularly long?  Messages are broken up into 160 character pieces.  So if you typed somewhere between 321 and 480 characters, it would have been sent as 3 160 (or less) character messages and would count as 3 outbound messages.