SMS Spam and Nokia E71

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dpw

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#29083 22-Dec-2008 15:47

Hi folks,

I was trying to decide where is the most appropriate to post this and decided, since my partner is with Vodafone, this may be the best forum.

The details of how is somewhat fuzzy by now but somehow she was subscribed to some kind of SMS service, as was I. We were told that txt-ing UNSUBSCRIBE or REMOVE or some such would remove us from this service. I did that and was actually removed and never received any further txts.

Unfortunately my partner kept receiving txts from this service - coming from a number 5415. These charges of course keeps appearing on her bill. She has asked Vodafone about this a couple of times and was told a couple of options. None of these did the trick and the CSR's latest suggestion was to block the number on her phone. Apparently even though the txt will keep coming she won't be charged if her phone blocks it.

We have a couple of questions about this of course. First, is the point about blocking a number and not being charged true? After our previous experiences with CSRs on various issues we have come to question their suggestions.

Secondly, we can't actually figure out a way of doing this blocking on the Nokia E71. Has anyone done this before? Any suggestions would be great!

Cheers,
Dany.

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freitasm

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#185699 22-Dec-2008 15:52

You have to reply STOP to that number... Anything else is ignored.

dpw

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#185700 22-Dec-2008 15:57

freitasm: You have to reply STOP to that number... Anything else is ignored.

Just remembered - that's the word I used and I assumed she used the same. Will confirm that...

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#185733 22-Dec-2008 20:43

dpw: We have a couple of questions about this of course. First, is the point about blocking a number and not being charged true? After our previous experiences with CSRs on various issues we have come to question their suggestions.

No, blocking the number won't do anything - it will just prevent your handset from showing the message, but the billing is done when the message is sent, not when the message is received. It means you don't see the message but still pay for it.

Obviously the CSR didn't think his cunning plan through and gave an advice that would be useful for nuisance messages - not for spam.

manhinli

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#185734 22-Dec-2008 20:49

Follow up on: http://forum.vodafone.co.nz/index.php?showtopic=1000

It's getting more serious and the problem is that it's not registered here, so you're pretty unlucky to get randomly picked for this.

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freitasm

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#185735 22-Dec-2008 20:54

I see you ask in the other discussion how to have those spam outfits investigate...

A lot of people have posted about this around here (myself, Juha and others) and the fact is that this kind of services makes money...

I am sure both Vodafone and Telecom could simply refuse to accept these companies in their ranks, but nothing is never done.

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#185736 22-Dec-2008 21:05

freitasm: I see you ask in the other discussion how to have those spam outfits investigate...

A lot of people have posted about this around here (myself, Juha and others) and the fact is that this kind of services makes money...

I am sure both Vodafone and Telecom could simply refuse to accept these companies in their ranks, but nothing is never done.

At least Paul found out what company was behind them.

Obviously these subscription TXTs are easy sources of revenue - no doubt about it. The problem is that they're spamming random numbers and also subscribing them to these TXTs without consent and it's something that the end users don't want nor need.

They're also overseas. That makes things worse as well.

I haven't experienced subscription TXTs myself, but I would never want to have myself in such a nightmare!

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#185737 22-Dec-2008 21:08

manhinli: At least Paul found out what company was behind them.

Yes, but the CSR is obviously not prepared to deal with this kind of situations - and it appears didn't offer to escalate the issue, instead offering an innefective solution.

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#185738 22-Dec-2008 21:15

freitasm:
manhinli: At least Paul found out what company was behind them.

Yes, but the CSR is obviously not prepared to deal with this kind of situations - and it appears didn't offer to escalate the issue, instead offering an innefective solution.

True true.

I do understand that it's probably the CSRs first encounter with a person who doesn't know why subscription TXTs are flooding in, but if checks should show that they're not registered with them and they should have immediately escalated it (if they actually checked).

Ah if it wasn't for open discussion forums on the internet.

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dpw

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#185739 22-Dec-2008 21:17

freitasm:
dpw: We have a couple of questions about this of course. First, is the point about blocking a number and not being charged true? After our previous experiences with CSRs on various issues we have come to question their suggestions.

No, blocking the number won't do anything - it will just prevent your handset from showing the message, but the billing is done when the message is sent, not when the message is received. It means you don't see the message but still pay for it.

Obviously the CSR didn't think his cunning plan through and gave an advice that would be useful for nuisance messages - not for spam.

Yup, that's pretty much the conclusion we came to before posting here. There's the issue about keeping these companies in their books, but this is also another issue. I posted the question here because I could no longer trust what the CSRs are saying. What's the point of having this service if you can no longer rely on their help?

Previously we had a persistent problem which went through 3 CSRs, each saying the same thing, none noticed the problem were not fixed at all. In the end JohnR fixed it after we asked the question here.

Have helpdesks always been like this? or have they gone downhill while I wasn't looking?

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#185740 22-Dec-2008 21:21

Going off topic now, but I personally don't trust any New Zealand help desk these days - not only Vodafone. It seems that whatever company you contact they always want to rush out of the call, promise to call back later (not done), promise to have solved the fault (not done) and so on.

Very frustrating - but service quality is not something you can easily find in this country.

andyb

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#185906 24-Dec-2008 09:23

I find http://www.vodafone.co.nz/services/txt-and-pxt/premium-interactive-txt.jsp useful, it has a pdf of Premium SMS providers and their contact details.
If STOP doesn't work, then try QUIT.

dpw

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#185910 24-Dec-2008 09:42

@andyb, thanks for that - we have txt in STOP and will give it a couple more days to see if it truly has. The txts usually come every 2 to 3 days. I'm sure we've txt STOP before though...we'll see.

@freitasm, yup - it's off topic but I do despair at the state of helpdesk service these days. Strange though - I knew quite a few people back in Wellington and in ChCh now who have gone to helpdesks - they didn't strike me as being that daft! Perhaps the people I knew were the minority in the call centre/helpdesk industry.

Android user, software developer, a semi-typical (not a gamer) geek, and a Bernese Mountain Dog nut!

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