Sunday, June 20, 2010

Mobily strikes again!

It's bad enough to get spam in your e-mail, so why is my telecoms provider sending me a steaming load of promotional spams on my mobile phone?

I've complained about Mobily before, specifically lack of any credible customer service. but this is a new low in customer relations: spamming your own customers!

Consider what they either sent or let through:

1. Mobily: message in Arabic announcing a promotion for getting extra minutes.

2. MOWE: promotional message in Arabic directing me to the website of the Ministry of Water and Electricity.

3. Mobily: another message in Arabic. (I get these a lot from Mobily.)

4. BodyMASTERS: message in Arabic -- how did they even get my mobile number?

5. Mobily: "Now win 20 kilos of gold by using Mobily roaming services."

6. Kilana: message in Arabic. One of my Saudi colleagues thinks this is a charity promotion but I think it's a message from the humanoid Vorta commander from Star Trek.

7. kke.com.sa: message in Arabic directing me to an Arabic website seemingly sponsored by the King Khalid Foundation.

8. 3351: "Message cannot be displayed." (I get these all the time.)

9. GDP: message in Arabic about protecting my passport

Is there no refuge from telemarketers and spammers?

You could say, "Mr. Man in the Sand, what do you care if you occasionally get an irrelevant message on your mobile phone? It doesn't cost you anything to receive an SMS. Why not just delete and move on?"

But see, I get a private, if small, jolt of delight when someone texts me because I think I'm getting a personal message from a friend with some SMS drollery or other important breaking news. Instead, I eagerly open the message only to find "Message cannot be displayed" or "Win 20 kilos of gold." (I believe I'll leave the gold and silver speculation to the notorious "G" -- a loud, oafish man who believes that the local souq merchants are fools who don't know the value of their goods.)

It's a bit like going to the mail box and finding a package only to discover that someone has sent you some dead batteries or a wad of cat fur.

SMS to Mobily...
Veeds of Arabia: cut it out please.

Thursday, June 10, 2010

Why Saudi Arabia will never produce any NBA stars


It's a shame the bank can't supply a wastebasket for the ATM receipts.


Al Rajhi Bank ATM lobby, Pepsi Rd., Riyadh, 9:30am

Headline, courtesy of Anonymous reader...so much better than the original.
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