Continuous SMS sale promotions irk public

Companies send a large number of text messages and call potential customers numerous times a day to market their products much to the annoyance of many of those recipients. Many wonder where those companies got their phone number.
“When I see a phone call on my mobile from a landline, I instantly know it is sales personnel trying to promote their products. They never give me the chance to say that I am not interested and continue to market their product,” said Hanan Bahari, a stay-at-home mother. “I am really tired of these phone calls.”
Most salespeople lure to listen by opening with a congratulatory statement on winning something.
“They go about it smartly. They make people want to listen by telling them they have won and they end up listening to a lady who gives all the ins and outs about a beauty product after being told they have won a facial,” said Seba Tayyeb, a college student.
Businesswoman Intisar Abed had accepted the free facial offer only to end up paying for it. “The large number of phone calls I received gave me no chance but to accept the free facial. The beautician visited me at home and gave me a 30-minute facial treatment,” she said. “After we finished, she introduced me to the products and said that I had to buy something. She took her invoice book and charged me for the free facial and two products. I had no choice but to pay SR 1,000 for them.”
Wives equally get annoyed when saleswomen call their husbands.
“This lady keeps calling my husband which annoys me a lot,” said Daniah Banaja, a housewife “My husband later decided to put the lady on speaker phone so I could hear why she was calling. I was really angry with the way she spoke to my husband; she kept referring to him as ‘dear’ instead of addressing him with his actual name.”
Zainah Abduljabbar, graphic designer, wonders from where the sales companies obtain details in their database.
“I really don’t know how they know our full name and phone number. We are not registered in the phone book so I guess it has to do with filling applications somewhere,” she said. “It might be from shops, salons or simple applications to win a certain product at a contest in a shopping center. When you try connecting the dots you will think of someone who sells the database to those companies.”
A beauty salon and spa owner said that she got a full contact sheet from one of the telecom companies in Jeddah. “I just asked them to provide me with one, when a man behind the counter asked if I wanted numbers of women or men and informed me that I would pay according to gender,” she said, choosing to remain anonymous.
“I couldn’t believe it and felt like I was doing something wrong. I couldn’t proceed and just walked away.”
Arab News visited a telecom office branch and asked about a database but the costumer service employee replied that he had no access to the database and that it was against company policy.