It charges you for data usage, not for sending a picture message. Right in the ToS:

Messaging (text, picture and video): Standard message rates are charged when a message is sent or received, whether read or unread, viewed or unviewed, solicited or unsolicited. Unused monthly plan messages do not carry forward. Certain messages, including those to 3rd parties to participate in a promotion or other program, will result in additional charges. International messaging rates may vary. There is no guarantee that messages will be received, and we are not responsible for lost or misdirected messages. Most text messages are limited to 160 characters. Messages may incur an additional data charge of 3¢/kb.

So the messages? They're free. The data isn't. It's the same with AT&T and I can't even remember how many calls I got about it, but I made sure to tell people explicitly "This plan offers unlimited messaging, but for pictures and videos you will be charged x cents per kilobyte of data transferred unless you have a data package that covers it."

Then by Sprint's logic, every phone plan has unlimited calls, text and data. Because they "let" you do as much as you want, of course you have to pay for it.

when I got a text plan, and paid extra for it, then my internet was no longer unlimited and part of my plan..they were billing by data.. it was bizarre- we finally had to cancel messaging...

@Ratty: Then she shouldn't have been refunded the first time she called, if that is the case.

@batsy: I refunded it a few times as a courtesy. only once per account though, that was the rule. So this doesn't seem out of the ordinary.

But the ToS/ToU linked right here in the article says the charges are very much valid.

I went through that also when i first got the same plan. I called a few times and finally got reimbursed, and have had no problems since. I had to keep calling though.

Where is the Consumerist flickr post?

You should definitely call your state Attorney General's Consumer Protection Division and file a complaint.

@Ratty: Can you clarify this? I'm sorry, I'm not understanding. Is Sprint saying that they won't charge for the act of sending a message, but they will charge for the data used? I've never seen billing split up like this between capability and data.

@Chris Walters: Okay, wait, so they're saying that text messaging is unlimited, but adding pics or video to a text message will incur an additional fee? If so, this seems to directly contradict the description of "unlimited... text, picture, and video messaging" that a customer signs up for.

The word "unlimited" has a pretty clear definition, and Sprint doesn't get to change that at whim. And there are no exclusions on the page the OP linked to.

Yes, there is mention of the 3¢/kb surcharge on another page, buried in a bunch of text, but it's not clear what that refers to, or exactly how it applies to anything.

Sprint *could* have clearly said, "Unlimited text messages. Multimedia messages are subject to a 3¢/kb data surcharge." But that wouldn't be as attractive, eh?

This is pretty much like going to a restaurant with a big sign advertising "All You Can Eat Buffet $9.95", and then they charge you extra to let you leave because there's a hidden charge of $2 per plate for dishwashing, posted on a tiny sign hidden behind a potted plant.

I smell a class-action suit here.

I'm on the same plan (just with an extra line) and unlimited data should be included. I've never had extra charges...

rofl, well considering the economic climate I wonder how long it will be before they are looking for a bail-out.

@Chris Walters: Yes, this is what I'm saying. Follow the package information link you posted, at the bottom there's another link that's the FULL Terms of Service/Use labeled "Important Service/Product Specific Terms". It explains that data transferred, be it from browsing or MMS, can incur a data transfer fee. AT&T was this way when I worked there in 2007 so Sprint doing it like this doesn't shock me. I disagree with the practice but it is spelled out in the contract you have to sign to even get service to begin with.

It might be in the fine print, making it legal. But that doesn't make it right, nor does it make it a good business decision.

@bobert: You have to sign the paperwork with information outlining the 3 cents per kilobyte of data to get service. That's information on the contract. As much as I disagree with the split billing practice, it is outlined and you do need to sign a contract to even get the services.

Stupid policies like that made me rather happy to get the hell out of the industry.

Okay, this is how it works with these plans...

I have had the plan, sent and receive picture messaging and never got charged for it...the key is this...

You can send and receive unlimited picture messages w/o being charged $.03/kb. If you go to the "online" picture mail site on your phone, or upload/access your "online albums", you're going to get nailed with the data charges....

Accessing it on your computer does not impact it what so ever - it's when you do it on your phone.

The problem is while regular text (SMS) message use only the text messaging part, picture (MMS) or video messages use the text messaging part and then a data connection to download the picture or video. You aren't being charged to send the text message, but as soon as you phone basically connects to the internet and downloads the message you are charged per kb. I know most of the world is like this, and was especially like this when MMS first launched in 2002. I know for a fact that all the UK Carriers treated it this way. It was 35p per message + data charges.

Your only solution in the US I think is to try T-Mobile. If you have no data, you have no data (and they don't charge by the kb, they just block your access). So MMS messages don't cost extra as that data part is never blocked.

@Ratty: Thanks. Then I don't see how that can be considered "unlimited text, picture, and video messaging" in any way at all. Which is how they describe the service.

When I complained about this very thing, they gave me a year of unlimited data for free.

Interestingly, (before we got the free year) when I sent picture mail from my phone, I incurred no data charges. It was only when my son sent pictures from his phone that he incurred data charges on our account.

"It charges you for data usage, not for sending a picture message."

Right, but if you can't send picture messages without incurring data usage charges, then you don't have unlimited picture mail, which is what their sites and advertising advertises. No reasonable person when seeing "Unlimited messaging: Text, pictures and video" in the advertising and whatnot would think anything other than that unlimited text, pictures and video messaging were included.

@Chris Walters: well, like I said, the msaaging is unlimited. The data for attachments you send isn't. I wish they'd do away with it.

T-moblie, to the best of my knowledge, does not split these charges.

@LJKelley: Yeah, T-Mobile doesn't do the same as Sprint/AT&T and potentially other companies. I'm happy to use them.

@bobert:

I'm assuming you haven't been to a buffet in a while. Many of them now have addon extras that are conditional. Some will charge you for 'wasting food' for example. There's always a sign somewhere. At least in this case it's all spelled out in one place and you actually have to sign it.

@Ratty: We have Sprint's fair and flexible plan which rises in smaller increments as you go up. It's great for months when I send a lot of text, email and pix mail.

I work for Sprint as an RCC, and have people wondering about this all this time.

With any of the "Everything Messaging" plans, or with any of the new stand-alone messaging add-ons, you can send unlimited(or 1000, or 300 if you have those plans) pictures and videos from you phone and receive them to you phone. You will not get charged any data usage from this because anything that is connecting to pm.sprintpcs.com will not incur any data charges.

ANY other web usage including uploading images to sprint.com(which is not pm.sprintpcs.com), or viewing online albums will incur a $.03/KB charge.

Just like an earlier article, "unlimited" means unlimited ability to use what ever you want, you just have to pay what we charge you. I do not subscribe to any data plan or message plan simply because the cost is simply absurd and the experience is not good. I use my cell phone for voice only, yet I still feel over charged.

@Ratty: @Ratty: Not sure about AT&T's unlimited plan, but with the regular $5 200 messages pack, you do NOT get charged for data even if you send or receive picture (MMS) messages. The data charge for those sessions show up as 0 on my bill.

@Ratty: I thought there were laws that basically say that the fine print cant change what is promised in the "big print". Unlimited messaging is pretty clear.

I have the same 1500 unlimited talk/message share plan and knew about the .03 fee on data usage.

Sorry that you didn't read or know about it, but you wont get any support from me, since it is in the ToS clear as day.

The TEXT message is free, the data for the picture is .03 cents to view it what costs, why is this hard to figure out?

It is like if you were to view your email and if you didnt have a data plan on your phone... same thing.

@georgi55: Like I said, this was when I worked there in 2007 for the unlimited messaging packs. Maybe they've smartened up about it.

@Aladdyn: Not familiar about any laws regarding this.

A lot of people who called were also not JUST messaging either, and got charges for viewing pictures that were links in a message. And that's 100% data on top of a message.

@Ryan Paige: Your messages themselves are free--transferring and downloading the pictures isn't.

Reasonable people should read the contracts they sign, but they don't.

@AaronN322: I know I've got a lot of messages before that, rather than having a picture in the message, have links to a picture in the message. People got confused by those all the time so this may be where data charges are racking up.

I've also seen a lot of people effectively e-mailing pictures, which then goes to data usage.

@Ratty: Just an interesting fact though Ratty, the fine print you are referring to is not intended for the "picture message." The fact is, that if you have unlimited text messaging, and you send a picture message, then you get no charge for the sending, and a 3 cents per kilobyte charge for the data of the picture. That is what that line in theTOS is refering to. Their definition of picture messaging, listed in their own site documentation, and the claim that picture messaging is unlimited, means that they cannot legally charge you for the data usage to send that picture message. Because without that data, it's not a picture message, it's a text message.

with my virgin mobile service i get unlimited text and picture messages. no other charges on that. when they started the package i currently have there were some kinks - for a month i would incur the 25 cent fee for the picture message and then it would be automatically refunded in an hour. it made my usage page look weird but as long as i kept a buck or two on account with them it didn't matter.

this may be changing soon though - i got a text last week from virgin mobile that says:
"as of 2/15/09 the basic rate to send or receive txt, IM, or email in the U.S. will be $0.15 per msg. messaging packs start as low as $2 per month for 30 msgs."

at least when they change things you get notice, and in a way that isn't hidden in the fine print - but i can't preview what the options will be as of 2/15/09 anywhere i could see on their website.

of course being virgin mobile, i don't have a contract and i can choose to go to Tmobile [now that it's finally in my area] or cricket which is similarly priced, if i decide i don't like the messaging packs available

@Ratty: I don't believe Alltel does this either.

I would like to switch to T-Mobile, though, but they are not in my area. :(

I've actually been leaning toward Sprint. I would have an unlimited data plan, so it doesn't seem this issue would affect me.

@madog: Nor does it make it non misleading. I'm sure an Attorney General's office somewhere will agree.

@Ratty: Reasonable companies should advertise their plans correctly, but they don't.

AT&T, Verizon, and TMobile do not do this. Leave Sprint. They can't figure out how to run their business, it's time to leave them in the dust.
Every carrier will say that unlimited doesn't mean unlimited everything. Data downloads will likely be capped. You'll have to read the TOS to figure out what it is. But I've never heard of anyone selling unlimited service, and then charging per usage immediately thereafter. Sprint is running a bait and switch program, and you should report this to the Attorney General, the public utility commission, and the local news wherever you live. Sprint needs to stop this shady behavior.

@lodleader: Depending on what pages you visited, you can either believe you'll get charged for data, or that it will be free.

The text messaging page says that text messaging requires a plan, or is $.20 otherwise: [www.nextel.com]

The picture/video messaging page says that you must have a plan in order to send picture/video, but says nothing of charges at all, either with or without a plan. If you've read the text messaging page, you'll notice that the pages are laid out similarily, with the only difference being that the text page spells out how much a text message costs without a plan, where the video and picture page does not explain how much pictures/video will cost without a data plan: [www.nextel.com]

The plan page for messaging shows that without a plan, picture and video are unavailable, however, it also shows that text messaging is unavailable, even though it can still be used, albeit for a surcharge, which seems to contradict the text messaging page, making this page confusing: [www.nextel.com]

Finally, the generic terms and conditions page states that there may be a cost for data usage at $.03 as you and others have mentioned, but it also states that standard rates are applied to text messages, making this page even more confusing, as the same defense you use for $.03/kb could be used to charge $.20/message based on this terms and conditions page.

The problem is that there is not one single place that says, "Without a data plan, picture and video messages are charged at $.03/kb like there is on the text messaging page." The text page clearly lays out the cost for not having a text plan, but the picture and video page makes no mention of needing a data plan to avoid charges, or even implies that you should get one, instead implying that video and pictures are unlimited.

I'm not going to say that Sprint is entirely wrong in this, but their advertising makes it very hard to tell whether or not you will be charged for sending pictures and video.

"It is like if you were to view your email and if you didnt have a data plan on your phone... same thing. "

No it isn't.

It's like if you bought a plan that was advertised as "Unlimited Email" only to find out that they charged you to send or receive email.

They sell a package that says it includes Unlimited Picture Mail and Video Mail. The ToS says that you "may" incur data charges, but it also says all sorts of things that don't apply to the particular plan (it appears to be a general ToS). A reasonable person would believe that when they subscribe to a plan that has unlimited picture mail and video mail, they would be able to send and receive picture mail and video mail as part of the plan.

"With any of the "Everything Messaging" plans, or with any of the new stand-alone messaging add-ons, you can send unlimited(or 1000, or 300 if you have those plans) pictures and videos from you phone and receive them to you phone. You will not get charged any data usage from this because anything that is connecting to pm.sprintpcs.com will not incur any data charges.

ANY other web usage including uploading images to sprint.com(which is not pm.sprintpcs.com), or viewing online albums will incur a $.03/KB charge. "

That makes sense if it was what actually happened in practice (like I said before, my son's phone was charged data charges simply for sending a picture mail directly to my phone. Mine was not charged when I sent picture mail. We are on a shared account). When I called to complain, I was told that there was no other way (granted, I'm given the wrong information at least half the time whenever I call Sprint, which is actually better than my "correct bill" percentage, which is sadly only running at 10% of the time) to use the picture mail at all resulted in data charges.

For me, the free data plan was enough to appease me until my contract runs out (though it took repeated calls to get that discount correctly billed. like I said, I'm only running 10% on correct bills).

@henwy: well, lots of people signed contracts with verizon thinking they were getting unlimited data, when it turned out to be a 5gb cap which was spelled out in the fine print of the contract. They sued and won. How is this situation any different?

@warf0x0r: best comment of the day!!!

@bobert:

Unlimited text, picture, and video messaging!*

*not unlimited

I'm glad my unlimited plan from verizon doesn't charge me extra for data usage. Sprint might put it in the fine print but that doesn't mean they aren't lying about it being unlimited.

@cromartie: They should, and they don't, and I happily vote with my wallet and never give them my money.

Pre-paid all the way!

Sadly this is typical of the needless over complexity of Sprint's billing, and their absolute lack of simple, easy to find, easy to understand, plain English explanations.

When Sprint in bold print advertises "unlimited nationwide, text, picture and video messaging to anyone on any network" one would truly expect to receive unlimited text messaging, unlimited picture messaging, and unlimited video messaging as a part of their plan with no additional charge.

BTW, all the talk about "having to sign a contract with the details spelled out" is patently untrue. The last time I physically signed any contract with Sprint, or was handed a contract to read was nearly eight years ago, and the contracts, services, and handsets I've gone through since then have all been verbal. That includes the random changes unilaterally made by Sprint to the established Terms and Conditions that I originally signed (which I still have a copy of).

Somewhere is a book called " How to legally misguide your customers for fun and profit and not get sued or go to prison " and only CEO's and top level lawyers get to see it. I think Enron got the first edition.

@Ratty: Verizon doesn't split these charges either.

@Tijil: When my mom signed her new contract with Sprint, her TOS was printed out on a multi-foot long piece of receipt paper, which they folded up so she could sign on the signature line.