Didn't like to receive unsolicited marketing on my mobile

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freitasm

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#802 11-Dec-2003 20:41

Rocom NZ launched a new SMS service for business users. I've received three e-mails from the company on my spam catch e-mail account. That didn't bother me much.

What really annoyed me was them sending SMS to my mobile phone - without my permission. Now this is SPAM, but not only that - I'm in the United States this week and I have to pay to receive this SMS.

Really bad marketing I'd say.

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#2418 14-Dec-2003 16:57

sounds like we need some kind of spam assassin for sms. If only it was that easy.

SMS, in theory, is trace-able, and they may be breaking NZ's privacy act by using the cell number they collected from you for another purpose.

I hope you give rocom a piece of your mind when you get back.

freitasm

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#2423 15-Dec-2003 14:00

It's traceable... Instead of sending with a text in the sender's id, they sent with a mobile number. So I contacted Vodafone and this is now on their hands: they'll talk to Rocom about this.

icebabe

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#2870 20-Jan-2004 09:50

hi ... just to set your mind at ease. you dont pay for incoming sms, even when you're overseas on roaming

freitasm

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#2871 20-Jan-2004 09:59

Thanks icebabe... But it's the principle of the thing. I've talked to Vodafone after that, and asked why this SMS wasn't blocked by their SMS control, and they promisse to follow up with the sender.

Do you know you can configure your Vodafone NZ account by using some boxes were you define what you want to receive or not? The operator wants all the marketing companies using their gateway to follow these settings - of course doesn't work if coming from other networks.

This is, by the way, one of the points Vodafone raised when it started blocking messages coming from Telecom New Zealand's new SMS services. Of course it's not only for that :)

icebabe

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#2872 20-Jan-2004 10:22

Hi

yeah I understand, it can be quite annoying. Unfortunately vodafone need to be aware of a senders number before being able to block the sms. They cant just set up a spam filter as such. The smsc is setup to be able to receive the messages and send them onto the correct phone number, not set up as a filtering system as such.

For vodafone marketing messages you can stop these, but as you've said, coming from outside providers it causes issues. Because if they keep blocking more and more types of messages, then eventually we wont be able to receive overseas mesages because it may get to the point where they have to block everything outside nz, and we dont want that.

the easiest way to avoid it is to not give your mobile number out online i guess.

freitasm

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#2874 20-Jan-2004 10:29

Absolutely. Not giving the mobile number on-line or the e-mail address associated with that number. The thing is that e-mails are "free" to send, but spammers would have to pay for SMS to be sent, because they can't find a free gateway these days. This is why there is less spam on SMS then e-mail.

taniwha

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#2884 20-Jan-2004 12:14

sms is so close to free now, that cost isn't going to deter spammers for much longer.
all you need is an 027, and the most a spammer will pay is $10. you can pick up a prepay annoymously.
other providers internationally provide other cost capped services..

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freitasm

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#2889 20-Jan-2004 12:26

Taniwha, I agree with you on the $10 cap. I know how it works because, er... I wrote it

. Yes, I work for a company providing voice services to Telecom New Zealand. Actually not only for them but can't say much more.

We already had long discussions with Telecom on this...

taniwha

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#2890 20-Jan-2004 12:27

yeah, i know how it is :-)
i just got back from a road map meeting, and i gotta be quiet to...
still ,if your your looking at jumping to vodafone from tcom anytime soon.. all i can say is don't be hasty.

freitasm

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#2895 20-Jan-2004 12:32

Oh, don't worry. In real life I'm a Vodafone NZ customer. I have a professional relation with both anyway.

taniwha

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#2897 20-Jan-2004 12:39

vodafone's strange rules, outages and other monkey-ing aroudn have made me a firm tcomcustomer for a long time to come.
but, my twin sister on the other hand is really annoyed at telecom, with the bugs in the cdma phone phone she bought 3 weeks ago, as well as lack of support and after sale service, so she's wishing she never jumped ship.

icebabe

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#2901 20-Jan-2004 13:16

im a vodafone customer, and always will be. there's no way id go to telecom, even if someone paid me to

taniwha

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#2902 20-Jan-2004 13:27

Vodafone's credit limit was final straw for me.
i opened a new account, and my access fee was $70/month + $30 of GPRS
but they gave a credit limit of $80

so, everytime they charged my month fee (on a friday) my account would be barred. and it took them at least till wednesday to take off the bar again.
and i didn't recieve the bill by mail until wednesday either. add that the sim2 balance checker doesn't work while barred (even though it's free). So i never knew how much to send them until the bill arrived anyways.

pretty lousy way to treat a customer. I had to do all this jumping through hoops to keep the account going.
Just wanted the smooth, pay the bill on pay day service i used to have on telecom - so i went straight back to tcom.

freitasm

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#2903 20-Jan-2004 13:41

Wow! Never heard of this before. Mind you my bills on Vodafone come around NZ$250 every month, and I use the phone overseas - Australia, US, South America. Never had a problem. I guess it's really a case of YMMV...

icebabe

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#2904 20-Jan-2004 13:42

did u ask them to change your credit limit? if you have an access fee of $70 a month then they would give you a different credit limit, may have been a setup error.
plus, for acct balances, they r open 24 hours so u can call them

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