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t-mobile + t-witter = t-wat

Added 19:59 Thursday, 12 June 2008

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twi££er

I have just been stung by my latest mobile phone bill from t-mobile and the cause of this sting is apparently twitter.

It transpires that the mobile number UK twitter users use to send messages to – 07624801423 – is not included in my plan because t-mobile regards this number to be an international number. Why? Because the company that operates the number is based on that bastion of insularity, the Isle of Man.

My last mobile phone operator – Virgin – considered this number to be UK-based so included it in my free texts plan. Bizarrely though, Virgin operates their service on the back of the t-mobile network.

Anyway, I thought I would post this up in case anyone else out there is sending messages to twitter from their t-mobile mobile phones.

Postscript

One rather long call to customer services later (and some rather bad hold music – something at least Virgin had covered) I eventually got to speak to a manager and t-mobile have agreed to refund the amount charged but stated that any future uses of the number will be charged as previously

It also seems that twitter have posted a help page on this topic for UK customers

Comment

  1. That is absolutely ridiculous. I’ve just checked my O2 bill and they don’t charge extra for it, thankfully. Hopefully Twitter will see that they should be switching numbers or providers to avoid this, if they want more uptake in the UK.

    Andy – Jun 12, 09:42 PM

  2. You can also add Three to that list of networks who don’t cover the Isle of Man as UK coverage. I was stung an almighty bill nearly a year back when I later realised this issue. Twitter need to make it more obvious that it’s an Isle of Man number and most likely won’t be covered in your monthly free allowance but also charged at International rate. Are we better off texting the US number?

    Si Jobling – Jun 12, 09:57 PM

  3. I was panicking a bit when you told me this Cole, but as with Andy I just checked my bills and the number is free for O2 users.

    Definitely think Twitter need to be made aware of this and update their site accordingly.

    Sam Brown – Jun 13, 08:21 AM

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