Ok, so I have Cingular as my wireless provider and every once in awhile they send you marketing promotions via text messaging. I find these annoying and never participate in their giveaways, nor do I vote for the next American Idol (which would be difficult considering I don’t watch the show!). However, despite the opt-out message tacked on to the end, I never took the time to do so, not wanting to spend the time or money on the effort.

Today I finally decided to opt-out when I got a message saying to send as many text messages as I could in order to win $$. To opt-out, it said, send a message saying “end” to the number 3711. So I type a message saying “end” to number 3711 as specified. I then receive a message back saying “Sorry. Didn’t understand your request. If you want to stop receiving promotional text messages reply STOP.” (Their emphasis, not mine. I’m not sure if they are pointing it out to show my inability to follow proper directions or just to draw attention to the key phrase needed)

So I then reply to THAT message saying “STOP” (Done all in caps, because heaven forbid it wind up being a case-sensitive opt-out.) and get back a reply saying that my request is being processed.

Good lord though! This almost seems like a conspiracy on Cingular’s part to take as much money from you as possible before allowing you to opt-out. Thank goodness I was an ATT customer and so don’t pay for in-coming text messages or else this exchange would’ve cost me $.50 instead of $.20 (though if I were being charged I would’ve opted out long ago). Ok, so I know that it’s not a lot of money. But that really isn’t the point. I suppose the point is that their initial message was misleading and I can only hope that it was by accident and not design.

At any rate, I hope to never get those lame promotional messages again, though I’m sure the people at American Idol will be sad to lose the opportunity of having my $.10 opinion.

Posted at 3:58 PM |