My Thought

Poor timing of SMS ads can be offensive

When a vibrating phone wakes you up in the night, you immediately tune into an emergency mode by guessing that whoever is trying to send a message at such an awkward hour must be too pressed to wait for sunrise.

So, in that state of slumber you struggle to open your eyes to pay attention to that message, only to find that it is from a service provider advertising one of its services or notifying you about how cheap it is to make a call to some place abroad.

I don’t know if it feels any better when you have an interest in one of the listed countries, but when there is none, and your hard-earned sleep has been robbed in such a worthless manner, you feel abused and infuriated.

Much as mobile companies have unlimited access to their subscribers, they do not have a right to wake people up at odd hours to read adverts that can as well be sent during the day.

It is indecent for mobile service providers to abuse their power and ability to send out adverts or other messages to customers just because they can. Being on the receiving end, there is very little the customer can do apart from being enraged at the disturbance.

But this practice is out of order, just like it is to randomly call subscribers who, upon answering the phone, are connected to some recording which briefly welcomes them before outlining the various services a mobile service provider has on offer.

The idea of being ambushed by such calls is annoying to say the least. It is one of the selling techniques that take customers for granted and assumes that an idle someone would just be waiting to hear from their service provider on their offerings.

But does it not occur to such service providers that someone would actually be mourning a beloved one in that instant? Wouldn’t someone actually be fighting for their life on a hospital bed as such a call comes through?

The fact that mobile companies are operating in a competitive environment where they are facing stiff and growing rivalry is common knowledge just as it is obvious that the companies ought to devise innovative ways if they are to survive in such an environment.

But the competition argument should not make a customer the casualty; hence, the need for mobile service providers to carefully weigh their advertising techniques before they impose awkward adverts on customers or push them through during odd hours.

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