MTN does not respect the "STOP" instruction wrt SMS spam

Nobody Important

Nobody Important

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Dear @Newsfeed (cc @rpm and @Jan ),

I have a suggestion for an article with proof in support of my claim that MTN does not tolerate customers unsubscribing from their spam.

You recently did an article where the networks denied nefariously cashing in on WASP fraud. That got me thinking about other ways they cash in and/or do not respect their customers.

In my case I get these SMS's from MTN asking me to top-up or buy certain bundles etc:

IMG_0262.jpgIMG_0263.jpgIMG_0264.jpg

I know that I can simply block their number on my phone, but that does not have to be the way. They have an option at the end of the SMS saying SMS "STOP" to 30246. This I do, every time after receiving one of their SMS's:

IMG_0265.jpg

And each time I get a response back saying that I have been removed from their marketing list:

IMG_0266.jpgIMG_0267.jpg

Invariably, a few days later, it starts again as you can see. Now is this not a violation of some direct marketing legislation/regulation?

Is Shingi Mushipe their head of marketing? Is that why the stop/unsubscribe option does not work? Would you be so kind as to write an article and ask MTN what do they have to say for themselves?

I thank you.

Nobody Important.
 
Nobody Important said:
Dear @Newsfeed (cc @rpm and @Jan ),

I have a suggestion for an article with proof in support of my claim that MTN does not tolerate customers unsubscribing from their spam.

You recently did an article where the networks denied nefariously cashing in on WASP fraud. That got me thinking about other ways they cash in and/or do not respect their customers.

In my case I get these SMS's from MTN asking me to top-up or buy certain bundles etc:

View attachment 676785View attachment 676787View attachment 676789

I know that I can simply block their number on my phone, but that does not have to be the way. They have an option at the end of the SMS saying SMS "STOP" to 30246. This I do, every time after receiving one of their SMS's:

View attachment 676791

And each time I get a response back saying that I have been removed from their marketing list:

View attachment 676793View attachment 676795

Invariably, a few days later, it starts again as you can see. Now is this not a violation of some direct marketing legislation/regulation?

Is Shingi Mushipe their head of marketing? Is that why the stop/unsubscribe option does not work? Would you be so kind as to write an article and ask MTN what do they have to say for themselves?

I thank you.

Nobody Important.
Click to expand...

They really should fire the current "staff writers" and appoint you.
 
Nobody Important said:
Dear @Newsfeed (cc @rpm and @Jan ),

I have a suggestion for an article with proof in support of my claim that MTN does not tolerate customers unsubscribing from their spam.

You recently did an article where the networks denied nefariously cashing in on WASP fraud. That got me thinking about other ways they cash in and/or do not respect their customers.

In my case I get these SMS's from MTN asking me to top-up or buy certain bundles etc:

View attachment 676785View attachment 676787View attachment 676789

I know that I can simply block their number on my phone, but that does not have to be the way. They have an option at the end of the SMS saying SMS "STOP" to 30246. This I do, every time after receiving one of their SMS's:

View attachment 676791

And each time I get a response back saying that I have been removed from their marketing list:

View attachment 676793View attachment 676795

Invariably, a few days later, it starts again as you can see. Now is this not a violation of some direct marketing legislation/regulation?

Is Shingi Mushipe their head of marketing? Is that why the stop/unsubscribe option does not work? Would you be so kind as to write an article and ask MTN what do they have to say for themselves?

I thank you.

Nobody Important.
Click to expand...
Open your mymtn app and select your marketing consent options. Go via mtn services tab
512b6c88932edd4f51edf9d432d541c5.jpg
cfe7057a722dc8d32a99dd407a6bab6c.jpg
90a3e3c693f114c8e5a741345be66b4d.jpg
 
They must have seen your name and thought, ag, we won't bother, he's Nobody Important...

Hope you come right with them. Nothing I hate more than spam from companies that never stops despite opting out.
 
marioat1 said:
Open your mymtn app and select your marketing consent options. Go via mtn services tab
512b6c88932edd4f51edf9d432d541c5.jpg
cfe7057a722dc8d32a99dd407a6bab6c.jpg
90a3e3c693f114c8e5a741345be66b4d.jpg
Click to expand...
I will give this a shot. Why they don't just say this in their SMS's instead of having that non-functional "SMS stop" line then is beyond me. Let us see if I still get their spam after doing the above.
 
On contract you get about 2 messages a year. Change to prepaid and you get 2 message a hour. I also did the opt out, stop, MTN App. Tokk about a month before they started to disappear. MTN still feels the need to send out marketing crap about once a week.
 
Dairyfarmer said:
On contract you get about 2 messages a year. Change to prepaid and you get 2 message a hour. I also did the opt out, stop, MTN App. Tokk about a month before they started to disappear. MTN still feels the need to send out marketing crap about once a week.
Click to expand...
You are right. This rubbish started when I converted two of my contracts to prepaid.

The question to MTN still remains though, why do their systems not respect the STOP sms?
 
Dairyfarmer said:
On contract you get about 2 messages a year. Change to prepaid and you get 2 message a hour. I also did the opt out, stop, MTN App. Tokk about a month before they started to disappear. MTN still feels the need to send out marketing crap about once a week.
Click to expand...
SOT but worse is Vodacom sending me 'do you want to buy this extra 30meg for R5' or some schit like that when I've just bought a 5gb bundle for the month..
 
Nobody Important said:
You are right. This rubbish started when I converted two of my contracts to prepaid.

The question to MTN still remains though, why do their systems not respect the STOP sms?
Click to expand...

I have a dozens of messages with the MTN help desk where I tried to get them to stop sending me these spam. They sent me about twenty codes I had to type to unsubscribe, and I still got the spam. After the helpdesk messages got escalated three times and I threatened to take them to ICASA, the messages finally stopped, for now.
 
netcruiser said:
I have a dozens of messages with the MTN help desk where I tried to get them to stop sending me these spam. They sent me about twenty codes I had to type to unsubscribe, and I still got the spam. After the helpdesk messages got escalated three times and I threatened to take them to ICASA, the messages finally stopped, for now.
Click to expand...
That confirms that their system does not actually recognize and respect their own "do not market" list, and requires manual intervention. Is it by design or perhaps a "flaw" that they are happy to ignore?

I hope @Newsfeed does take this up.
 
Yep also get these messages, have sent lots of STOPs to their SMS number with responses, am on the optout database, and have done the requested stops via USSD. None of it matters, by design they continue to SPAM.
 
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