... cbfsms.com, or cardboard fish sms.
The site is presented with slightly garish colours (orange and blue -blue sea and orange for a goldfish maybe?). The box in which you type your message is the white block halfway down the page, the narrow white box is for you to enter the phone number- ... Read review
Advantages: free text messages Disadvantages: not always reliable
Right so my fishy theme continues but this isnt an aquarium based product nor is it even vaguely related to the sea, it is in fact a free web based text messaging service.
So as Ive mentioned in other reviews I have recently moved and my contract mobile doesn't get a signal so I'm having to use a pay and go number, which as happens to many people ran out of credit about the same time as my bank account ran out of cash. Lucky really ... ...which means I can do a nice search for 'free sms'. This was the first site that came up. cbfsms.com, or cardboard fish sms.
The site is presented with slightly garish colours (orange and blue -blue sea and orange for a goldfish maybe?). The box in which you type your message is the white block halfway down the page, the narrow white box is for you to enter the phone number- crazily enough it even says so next to the box, preentered ... more
Right so my fishy theme continues but this isnt an aquarium based product nor is it even vaguely related to the sea, it is in fact a free web based text messaging service.
So as Ive mentioned in other reviews I have recently moved and my contract mobile doesn't get a signal so I'm having to use a pay and go number, which as happens to many people ran out of credit about the same time as my bank account ran out of cash. Lucky really that the accomodation I'm in has access to wireless internet which means I can do a nice search for 'free sms'. This was the first site that came up. cbfsms.com, or cardboard fish sms.
The site is presented with slightly garish colours (orange and blue -blue sea and orange for a goldfish maybe?). The box in which you type your message is the white block halfway down the page, the narrow white box is for you to enter the phone number- crazily enough it even says so next to the box, preentered in the box is 44 (the UK prefix) as the free message service is only avaliable for UK numbers, although you can send to UK phones abroad. As the 44 is pre-entered you need to enter the phone number missing off the 0 from the start. Below is the message box itself you can only enter 137 characters, phones send messages of around 185 characters. Once you have entered the message click the send button. This brings you to another page, here you have to check the boxes for delivery report, and whether you want replys allowed. Then the final box which says that to send the message you must not have a pop up blocker enabled. Once this box is checked you can hit send. Then a third page, this simply has a 4 digit pin code to ensure that it's a person sending the message not a spammer I suppose. it send again and it finally sends your SMS message.
The final page shows you the delivery reports and gives you the option to check for replies. All replies are sent to cbfsms and directed to you using the SMS code its given, as long as you don't close the window the reply will display automatically, if you do close it you'll need the reply code and a memorable word which you need to set when prompted.
The whole process while slightly longer than I expected makes sense if you consider the parts, the site is funded by advertising revenue so allowing it to open a single pop up to send a message isnt such a hardship, and entering a PIN also makes sense, so many things need them now to open accounts to stop hacking etc.
There are frequently delays on the site, when these happen you have to take notice of the time it gives you, usually no more than 10 minutes and try again after that length of time if you don't it will most likely make you wait another 10 minutes, and this can make sending messages a time consuming business, but luckily if you have hada reply to the cbfsms you sent you will have a guaranteed reply for even when the site is busy.
Or there is another option, the VIPSMS service. This is a paid version of the service, you can subscribe, and send texts whenever you want. You have to buy a minimum of 300 credits this will cost £15. Each message you send costs 5p, but if you buy a larger amount of credits (not sure how many about 1000 I think) each message works out at 4p. These can be sent to some foreign mobiles, there is a page on the site to check the countries avaliable, even when sending to foreign numbers it still costs the basic 4 or 5p. But you have to log in to the account at least every 90 days as is common. The main bonus is that you can send extended messages, but not so extended as from most phones. But as I have never used this service I don't know about its reliability or ease of use.
Personally despite its regular unreliability, I would recommend this service for occasional messages, particularly at the end of the month when the credit is all gone the same way as your salary money! Oh yeah and seriously if you have a bad head don't use the site the colours make my head hurt pretty much everytime I use it.
Advantages: It's free, delivery confirmation Disadvantages: lots of adverts, wait up to 10mins for some messages
CBF stands for CardBoard Fish and is a website that offers a free worldwide SMS (text messaging) service. However, the site and service are paid for by placing heavy advertising on their site, including popups which you have to check the box to be willing to accept, in order to use the service.
You also have to check a box to confirm that you will use no popup blocking software while using the site. Given that there is no login system, you have ... ...which can get a bit tedious and this is why I haven't given CBFSMS full marks.
The site is quite easy to use, you simply type in the phone number of the person you want to send a text message to and then enter the message in the form, though you do have a limited amount of space for characters, so you can only send fairly short messages. You will also get a popup advert with every single message you send.
Also, a lot of the time you may have to ...
sparksteroyd 08.02.2009
· Read full review
Ciao members have rated this review on average: very helpful Review of cbfsms.com
Advantages: Free texts message Disadvantages: Unreliable, slow, hit and miss on important dates
I first found this a couple of years ago and then lost it and only found it again last year.
What is www.cbfsms.com?
It's a place where you can send free text messages to any UK mobile number or if you want to be VIP, you can get cheap texts. I normally use this site when I've run out of my 10 O2 text messages and when I don't really want to use any money on the person I'm texting. Like my old boss used to make me text her or call her for various ... ...so I generally used this site for that purpose.
How does CBFSMS work?
CBFSMS has two different options. There's the free service and the VIP service.
- Free texts - For the free texts, you don't have to register. On the homepage, you will find an orange box. Just type the mobile number in box next to the word "number" but lose the zero from the number as the 44 is the international code for the UK and it won't work with the zero. For example, ...
galaxynicole 25.01.2007
· Read full review
Ciao members have rated this review on average: very helpful Review of cbfsms.com
Advantages: Completely free, great if you've run out of credit Disadvantages: May not be 100% reliable, you can only send short messages
...the site's logo, just saying CBFSMS.com (stands for Cardboard Fish SMS if anyone is wondering!), and underneath (overlooking the adverts of course) is a line of options, including 'Send Message', 'Confirmation', 'Replies', 'FAQ', 'System Status', 'Abuse' and 'Contact Us'...all the general pages you'd find on a website. The gist of the website is that you can send text messages for free to any UK network, or if you click on their linked website Fish ... ...out. When you type CBFSMS.com into a URL bar/search engine, you are brought immediately to the Send Message page. As I said before, this consists of the logo, links, adverts, and if you scroll a little further down the page there is are some message boxes. The top box you are probed to insert the number you wish to send a text to, and in the bigger box below you type your text. You are limited to 137 characters per text, which isn't a lot, given ...
Stephoohla 18.11.2009
· Read full review
Ciao members have rated this review on average: very helpful Review of cbfsms.com
Advantages: Free texts! Disadvantages: Waiting times, site errors, lots of advertising
I found cbfsms.com when I was trying to find a free text site months ago now. I use the site regularly, almost every day in fact - but that doesn't mean I like it. Here's the pros and cons of the site.
~~~ The Pros ~~~
The biggest pro you will ultimately see is the fact that it's completely free. Everyone loves free stuff, and texting being quite expensive for the length of messages you can send again their price (unless you're on contract), cbfsms.com ... ...time (GMT), you will find that you can send a text immediately, which will last until approximately 9am when things start changing. This varies; on Sundays I have seen this last until about 1pm.
Pros end there, however.
~~~ The Cons ~~~
Where to begin? Well, let's start with the site itself. Yes, the texts are free. But check out the amount of adverts there are. Tonnes of the things! They're distracting, and along with the adverts you also have ...
OddGodHMK 26.05.2006
· Read full review
Ciao members have rated this review on average: very helpful Review of cbfsms.com
Advantages: Free Text Messages = D Disadvantages: Lots of Advertising, Have to wait most of the time...
...-- Background Information --
Cbfsms.com is run by Cardboard Fish which provides lots of services including e-mail ( now discontinued ), Free Content for your mobile phone, Free Chat, Cinema Listings and (obviously) Free SMS sending. The websites that they run all have advertisements on them !
-- The Bad Stuff --
Ok, Lets get the bad stuff over and done with. The first disadvantage to cbfsms.com is the slowish loading time of they're pages. This ... ...The Good Stuff --
Cbfsms.com ( apart from most of the bad stuff ) is not a bad site once your message has been sent, It will be received by the person you sent it to within a matter of seconds. I tried sending some to myself ( I know, I'm sad ) and they got here amazingly fast. The other good thing is that you can send as many text messages as you want but that's only if you can be bothered going through the hassle.
They're is also a VIP section ...
DJ_Deano 09.01.2007 (10.01.2007)
· Read full review
Ciao members have rated this review on average: very helpful Review of cbfsms.com
