Etisalat-schmisalat

There is a storm brewing here in the UAE about a software upgrade to mobile devices that Etisalat issued recently via SMS. Some sources are saying it downloads suspicious software onto the mobile device, the operator says it is a network enhancement patch. I'm not going to comment on the story, but you can read The National's report here if you're interested.

I think I saw the SMS that told me to watch out for a download. Emphasis on 'think'...because Etisalat is a serial spammer and it drives me to distraction.

I can enjoy days without a peep from them and then one day I get five within the space of an afternoon. And three of them will be in Arabic. My bill is in English, I "press option 2 to continue in English" every time I phone the service centre, and I have British clearly stated on my records - so why is there not a little box to tick on the marketing dashboard that says 'text this customer in English language or it's going to be a waste of time'.

Etisalat frequently feel the need to communicate with me at 1, 2, 3 0'clock in the morning. When my phone goes at those times I normally think it's a drunken friend or someone from England that has forgotten all about time differences - both excusable actions - but for a home-grown network operator to think that this is an appropriate time to catch my attention is just nuts. Although I guess I'm not doing anything important at the time....except, oh yeah, sleeping!

You don't have to sit through as many marketing lectures as I have to see that all of this makes for a very irritating experience. Wasting time and money on behalf of the operator, and alienating an audience with potential to be engaged. If I see Etisalat has texted me, I rarely even look to see what they want to tell me. When O2 texted me back in the UK it was about things I had asked to be informed about - music gigs, shoe sales, travel updates...

As a final thought, aren't we always hoping that little SMS bleep is something more interesting from someone else?!