Pictures sent to Flickr now have a Verizon Signature added to them. Help?

[nemrel]

The following text is added to my pictures when I send them to Flickr, Facebook, MobyPicture, MySpace, etc.. For ALL of these accounts I send my picture as an email. (For example my Flickr Email Address (to post pictures to Flickr) is something like pics@flickr.com).

The caption or comment section is filled in with this new signature from Verizon:

This message has been sent using the picture and Video service from Verizon Wireless! To learn how you can snap pictures and capture videos with your wireless phone visit www.verizonwireless.com/picture. Note: To play video messages sent to email, Quicktime@ 6.5 or higher is required.

This just started happening. It doesn't happen to ALL pictures, but seems like every third one has this message added to it. Why? And more importantly how do I get rid of it?

[SuzyQ]

Yep, it does that.  Annoying, isn't it?  And I don't know that there is a way to get rid of it--it's added after the pic is sent.  And you are right, not all pics, just some.  Verizon's way of getting in some advertising, but I don't like it.

[nemrel]

The fact that is what just added to my pictures one day and I didn't aprove it, kinda has me **bleep**. They (Verizon) just decided one day that they wanted to add advertising to a service that I PAY for. So do I get money off of my bill because I'm now advertising for them on my blogs and sites? grrrrrrrrrrrrr.....

I'm just asking for them to add an option to disable the signature. Some sites bounce my messages/pictures since it has over 140 characters. Actually that signature text has 286 characters in it.

[Monkfishy]

This is the same problem I started a thread about yesterday. I called Verizon customer service and talked to several tech support people. They say that they cannot remove the ad. Their only suggestion was for me to send the MMS message to my own eMail, then open up the eMail on the phone, remove the ad, and forward the eMail on to wherever I want to post it. I haven't tried that, so I don't know if it will work.

I did ask them to enter a complaint, suggestion, whatever, that the ad is a huge annoyance, and that it makes MMS messaging virtually useless. I got this phone to take on vacation with me so that I don't have to carry a laptop all over Alaska, and so that I can post pictures to my friends & social networking sites. This really screws up that plan.

A friend just told me that there might be a Facebook app for Windows Mobile. I'll look into that, too.

[nemrel]

Thanks Monkfish. So I have to pay ANOTHER $15 or $25 to get mobile web on my phone (added to the $130 I already pay them)? Really? They're actually suggesting that the only way I can remove their advertising is to send pictures while I'm away from the office/house to my email, go home log in to my email and THEN send it to Flickr - via my own email & with a huge time delay? Why the heck am I paying for UNLIMITED PHOTO & TEXT MESSAGING to anywhere in the US if I have to do the work for them? Kinda takes the fun & spontaneity away from blogging via text & picture messaging any important social events in the world. I think it's time to send a letter to Consumerist about this.

[Monkfishy]

I have found a solution, at least for my problem. I don't know if this is available on the LG enV2, but the Samsung Omnia has an application called Shozu that will let you post a picture to the web without the Verizon ad, or send it to an eMail address. You can also set up cc: addresses in Shozu so that you can send an image to multiple locations while only being charged for one text message. You can't set up phone numbers, but you could use a person's text eMail address (e.g., 1234567890@messaging.sprintpcs.com). I think most carriers have this kind of address where you can send text messages via eMail. I hope this helps.

BTW, I've also noticed that the phone sends all MMS messages through broadband or Wi-Fi, instead of the regular text messaging.

[dickmac999]

The advertisement appearing at the bottom of every picture I post is really infuriating.  I now have to edit every single post to remove that ad.  My contract is up next week.  This could drive me to another carrier.

[dickmac999]

I'm going to check-out ShoZu to see if it will remedy my problem. 

The more I talk to Verizon about this issue, the more offended I am.

When this first started, I just felt inconvenienced, but as I talk to Verizon, and as I edit scores of photo blog posts to remove the advertising from the pictures of my family, the more **bleep**-off I get.

I pay for this service, and they are attaching an advertisement to my posts.  If this was a free service, I would be understand the ad.

Anyway . . . either I will find a free/cheap solution, or I will change providers.

[GaryS]

This sounds like a change in the terms of service. I might be wrong, but I think you should be able to break your Verizon contract without an early termination fee because of this.

[nemrel]

Just sent an email to Consumerist.com. I'm putting in below:

Dear Consumerist,

I have been a customer of Verizon Wireless since 1998. Recently I upgraded my account and phone to a higher service with Unlimited Texting & Picture Messaging to anyone in the US and to ANY email address worldwide - I spend about $140 a month. About a month ago I started to notice that picture messages sent from my cell phone to Flickr, Mobypicture, Twitpic, and Facebook started having a signature added to them that basically advertises Verizon Wireless and their services.

Here's the newly added text:

This message has been sent using the picture and Video service from Verizon Wireless! To learn how you can snap pictures and capture videos with your wireless phone visit www.verizonwireless.com/picture. Note: To play video messages sent to email, Quicktime@ 6.5 or higher is required.

When I send pictures to various services, like Twitpic, any text that I enter as captions or comments end up being removed and the signature ad is pushed to my account. Usually it's added to EVERY photo I upload. By pushed I mean that various websites have places to add text for the name/title of the picture and some allow a comment to be placed as a caption/description for the picture. An example of this can be found on my Flickr stream here: http://www.flickr.com/photos/thenemrel/3815824725/. Other sites/services end up removing ALL the text from my picture message. Others just bounce my messages back to me.

I can't find anyway to turn off this 'feature'. And the ad itself is 236 characters long - well over the 140 limit for Twitter.

A week ago - after being frustrated by this - I decided to make a post on Verizon's Customer Forums. I'm not the only one this is affecting. Verizon's sales and technical support will not help ANY of us on this matter - except for the work-around mentioned above by buying even more of Verizon's services.

A lot of people are angry about this and it might even be a Terms of Service change that could prompt people to leave their contracts.

You can find the Verizon Wireless forum post here: http://forums.verizon.com/vrzn/board/message?board.id=Messaging&thread.id=3218

Do you have any ideas, suggestions or help?

Thanks,
Paul Hughes