Please or to access all these features

Add post

Watch this thread

Save thread

Start a new thread

Flip thread

Hide thread

My feed

Active Unanswered threads

Getting started FAQ's

Unanswered threads Acronyms Talk guidelines

Hide shortcut buttons

Talk

AIBU?

Share your dilemmas and get honest opinions from other Mumsnetters.

Flip

1 2

Original poster

To be shocked Facebook just tried to CHARGE me for messaging someone?

49 replies

NeoMaxiZoomDweebie · 04/04/2013 00:04

I went to message someone who is selling soemthing on a sellling page...I always PM people on FB as I don't want everyone knowing what I'm considering purchasing.

Anyway...went to PM her and a thing came up saying it would cost 78 pence and if I wouldn't pay, then they would put it in her "other" box.

I wondered what "other" was for in your inbox! They've had this planned! how long before it will be 50p to upload pics?

OP posts:

Trills · 04/04/2013 08:31

Is the page open for you to make a public post?

Post on the page wall saying "Please check your "other" inbox" (with instructions on how to do so) "because some messages from people wanting to ake orders may have ended up there".

MonstrousPippin · 04/04/2013 08:45

Threadworms you could friend him then add him yo your restricted list. That's basically the same as not being friends. They can only see public things.

differentnameforthis · 04/04/2013 09:12

Other folder is a bit like the junk box on your email account.

The person you are sending it to doesn't get alerted that they have that message & they do often go unchecked if you are writing to someone who doesn't check their other folder.

I rarely buy on fb anymore, but if I do I always comment on the item "PM'd you, please check other folder"

Not a lot you can do about it, really. Hope the person checks the other folder, alert them that you have sent message, and hope for the best!

differentnameforthis · 04/04/2013 09:16

FB has been a social thing...we put up with ads and use it to keep in touch

Exactly social....they don't have to let you sell/buy on there. I don't have ads, installed ad blocker on firefox & don't get ads.

You don't have to use it. Essentially it is free, you have to pay to use facebook for what it is meant for.

differentnameforthis · 04/04/2013 09:19

I sent someone not on my friends list a pm and did not get charged

They don't charge you for messaging people you are friends with. (and probably never will), just those you are not friends with.

As far as I know, there are no costs involved with running a page on there, I know that my friends who run pages on there haven't paid for anything!

phantomnamechanger · 04/04/2013 09:22

As long as there are no plans to start charging us to post on AIBU, eh?
I'd soon be broke!

notsofrownieface · 04/04/2013 09:26

when you look at it it makes sense

CuttedUpPear · 04/04/2013 09:26

FB is a business like any other. They employ lots of people and have considerable running costs. I know it started as a free socialising thing but they are big fish now and there's no reason why they shouldn't charge us - they are NOT a public service, people seem to forget that.

Catchingmockingbirds · 04/04/2013 09:31

I was messaging someone who isn't on my friends list last night and didn't get charged, no warnings appeared about it or anything either and it was going into my inbox not my other folder. I wonder why some are charged and others aren't.

Trills · 04/04/2013 09:33

From the BBC link it looks as if nothing has been taken away from you (your message would always have gone into the "other" inbox, as you are not friends), they are offering you the opportunity to pay to get something extra.

Bramshott · 04/04/2013 09:46

Seems odd that the charge would be borne by the customer and not the business/seller?

badguider · 04/04/2013 09:52

Messages from non-friends go into other so that strangers cant spam you. Its a good idea.
People who use fb to sell stuff or for any business reason must know about their "other" box - they can't expect all their messages/customers to be friends.

badguider · 04/04/2013 09:53

mockingbirds once you reply to somebody they move out of "other" into "inbox".

Catchingmockingbirds · 04/04/2013 10:08

But they weren't charged to message me in the first place iyswim?

MadBraLady · 04/04/2013 10:10

Essentially, Facebook can unilaterally decide to impose any conditions on your use you can possibly imagine - including the very worst ones you can imagine.

Stop using it.

RenterNomad · 04/04/2013 12:22

What a rubbish business model for someone promoting through FB. But don't they pay for a commercial page, and that's it? Making a customer pay won't work!

KobayashiMaru · 04/04/2013 12:27

A business, looking to make money, from their customers? Stop the fucking presses!

RenterNomad · 04/04/2013 12:56

Facebook can try to make money, of course it can! But what it seems to be offering here is not a good business proposition for any sort of crafty/ one-man-band kinds of businesses. If FB wants their business, it has to not choke their business.

FB's business acumen may be pretty rubbish, though. Maybe they deserved the problems with their IPO...

Original poster

NeoMaxiZoomDweebie · 04/04/2013 13:00

Maru yes, yes but the price is stupid.

OP posts:

yaimee · 04/04/2013 13:01

got to make money somehow
Erm Facebook is worth billions and was before it ever started to charge users for anything! They make a fortune from advertising.

badguider · 04/04/2013 13:03

FB is not for selling products, if businesses use it it's for building brand and sharing news not selling.
I'm happy that anybody on fb who is not connected to me cannot PM me directly into my inbox.

If you are a small business using fb to sell then you will regularly check your 'other' box.

I don't see the issue. Much better this than spam from anybody in my inbox.

RenterNomad · 04/04/2013 13:51

I guess it's been a sort of cheap alternative to a website, which suits casual/ starter businesses? I guess not anymore.

DoJo · 04/04/2013 13:58

If you are using a service and you aren't paying for it, then you are the commodity.

TotallyBursar · 04/04/2013 14:28

Facebook has never been free though they have always made money by information mining & advertising, games. The money didn't directly go from you to fb but there was plenty of cash.

Now they are making a move that may send them down the shit chute. Many are leaving for Twitter, very few will hang around to be actively charged so there will be just what? Business pages? EBay & others already have that well covered & do it better imo than FB will as a paid service.
It has always been implicit that every user is a cash cow. But now instead of shearing their sheep they're slaughtering them - one very soon runs out of sheep.

Flip

1 2