Image redacted.
text messaging
Advertisers Want to Text You
By 9.26.06
The do-not-call list added hurdles to telemarketers trying to cold call to sell you vinyl siding. Then Tivo slowed down television advertising. Spam-filters, as much as they still kinda suck, are constantly being tweaked to limit the influx of marketing to your inbox. That leaves texting, the last great frontier in intrusive advertising.
You Pay For the Unintended Consequences of Cell Number Recycling
By 8.9.06
As cellphone use explodes, the number of times a number is recycled increases. This used to just mean a few “sorry, wrong numbers” but now it might mean a big billing headache.
T-Mobile Rep Parries Consumerist Complaint
By 5.31.06
Back in February, we ran Sam C’s complaint about a T-Mobile price increase for text messages, raising it from five cents to ten cents per message. On the page detailing the change a footnote remarked how long the “discounted” price would remain in effect. Our complainant compared it to the novel 1984, wherein, “Winston notes that people had demonstrated to thank Big Brother because their chocolate ration had been increased to 20 grams. (when it had actually be reduced to 20 from 30).”
HOWTO: Block Text Message Spam
By 4.20.06
On Tuesday, several readers wrote in complaining about receiving text message spam. Toby says that T-Mobile’s customer service refunded the 20 cents the spam cost as well as showing him how to keep future unwanted messages away. He writes:
Nu Txt Msg Scm
By 4.18.06
We received two complaints today from Elizabeth and Melba who received a a new text message spam/scam.
Consumers Protest Exorbitant Text Message Prices
By 3.17.06
Here in America, we’re in the digital stone age, at least as far as how widespread the adoption of some cool new technologies are. There’s not universal broadband (which the US Government paid the telcos to implement; instead they built up more DSL because there’s more money to be made on it), wi-fi coverage is intermittent and text message use is a lot less pervasive than in most European countries. In Italy they have tons of teenagers showing up in hospitals with repetive stress injuries directly resulting from punching out reams of text messages.
T-Mobile Hikes SMS Price, Calls Old Price ‘Discounted’
By 2.1.06
Sam C. writes in with this heads-up for T-Mobile subscribers, especially those that use a lot of SMS:
Here’s a bit of marketing-speak for you.
