23 November, 2009

Etisalat talks back!

Update on the annoying Etisalat text message saga. The good thing is that I got a reply from Etisalat's Customer Care Centre by email the very next day. Somebody must have got the message (17 times)…

The bad news (in bad English) is that “In reference with your case, we would like to inform you currently there is no provision to block incoming SMS from Etisalat.”

Maybe I didn't clean my ears properly this morning but to me this sounds like an admission of providing an incomplete amateurish service.

But behold; apparently “a solution for your request is currently under development and you will be informed accordingly once the solution is developed and approved. We apologize for the inconvenience faced by you.”

Apology accepted. But I wonder just how long it will take them to develop a solution to the problem of blocking SMS from a particular source, because at the same time the message from the Customer Care Centre goes on to give me precise instructions on how to block SMS from a particular source:

“Note: To stop incoming message from the company, simply send the message b followed by the content provider's short code or name of the message sender to the number 1011. The message is "b (4 digit short code)" to 1011”

Etisalat's SMS do not show a short code, but a name. Although I completely trust Etisalat's admission of applying the blocking command to any other company but themselves, I thought I better check and immediately sent “b etisalat” to 1011.

“Sorry can’t process your command. Unknown request.”

7 comments:

Anonymous said...

They started this blocking system in 2006... But never actually worked!

Nitesh Khatri said...

Etisalat messages are really annoying. I have this old cell phone which is stuffed with messages and is low on memory. My inbox gets jammed every other day due to etisalat messages. I have heard du is even worse.

Anonymous said...

did anyone try blocking software?

samuraisam said...

serious recommendation: email the TRA.
Not sure under what aspect you should communicate the issue, but the TRA does have options for consumers to email (+ Etisalat can get fined)

Mohammed UK said...

I'm gonna do this right now for the other messages at least!
I've had messages from banks that I don't even bank with: "dear customer..." !

Mohammed UK said...
This comment has been removed by the author.
Mohammed UK said...

Just tried it with some of the 4 number coded ones. Didn't work! Same error message "can't process request"

Close. No cigar.

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