Facebook & AT & T Need To Be Regulated Better & Stopped From Sending Unrequested Text Messages

Yesterday I got the text message you see on the left. I did not open it til today.

Why did I open it today?

Well, I was having a pleasant conversation with a pleasant person when my phone made its annoying new text message noise.

I looked at the phone and saw it was a text message which said...

"Sheila (friends with Chris) also commented on Chris's status."

The rest of the text message was Sheila's comment on Chris's Facebook status.

What fresh hell is this I sat and wondered? The pleasant person I was conversing with then told me that yesterday she got the text message I also got yesterday, but did not open til today.

That is the text message you see above, informing me that Facebook SMS is now on. And that I'll be getting updates about friends on Facebook. And that I can make it stop by replying stop.

And so I stopped this annoying thing by replying stop.

Now, why did this start happening without me asking for this? A couple days ago I got a text message from AT & T telling me that my account from bankrupt Hawk Electronics had been transferred to AT & T.

The only way Facebook has my phone number is through AT & T.

How is this legal to start sending unrequested text messages? I don't do much texting. I am still on a phone plan where I pay for each incoming and outgoing text message. Needless to say, I will not be paying for these Facebook text messages.

And does this mean that comments I have been making on Facebook have been being sent to people who have AT & T accounts?

This is an abominable outrage and something really should be done to fix it.

And Facebook really needs to go the way of MySpace....

My Out Of Control Cingular AT & T Text Messaging

I hadn't bothered to look at my cell bill til this morning.

Before I get to that, I have to tell you I don't send text messages. I have gotten a text message or two. But I've never sent one. I don't know how to send one. I don't want to know how to send one.

So, when I looked at the bill I saw there were $3.05 in toll charges. What fresh hell is this, I wondered? Then I found the Toll Call Detail section of the bill. For Text Messages.

As you can see in the above scanned version of that part of the bill, on October 30, from 12:41pm until 1:10pm, the bill is alleging I sent or received 15 text messages. One of them International. Several were to the same number, some within the same minute, to the same number.

During the entire billing period it is only during this 29 minute time frame that text message tolls occur.

Clearly, something is wrong.

And then there's the Green Thing. Last month a new charge showed up on my bill, that being $1.79 for the "Mailed Bill Option." This was the first I'd heard of the "Mailed Bill Option." Supposedly there'd been messages telling customers to switch to electronic billing or they'd be charged to have a hard copy mailed to them.

So, I switched it to electronic bill pay, last month. But the bill still came via hard copy and still with the $1.79, "Mailed Bill Option," added on.

Another thing, my one longtime reader may remember that I go hiking regularly at the Tandy Hills. Unless it is raining, which it rarely is, I go there every Thursday, from around noon til past 1. The day those 15 text messages occurred was a Thursday, during the time frame where I would have been at the Tandy Hills. Apparently text messaging like a possessed teenager.

Charter Communications Missing Channels Solution

Well. I've had me a day. It started with dealing with an off shore WaMu bank customer service center that specialized in gibberish.

It ended, well, it's not quite the end of the day yet, but by late late afternoon I'd solved my problem with Charter Communications lack of communicating as to why I can no longer watch Bravo or TCM.

Oh, Charter had explanations. But they were GIBBERISH.

So, this guy knocks on my door. He's from AT & T. Selling their new cable tv, phone and internet service. He quickly made quite a good case as to why I should dump Charter.

The number one thing that sold me is when the guy said AT & T does not use off shore customer support because they don't want to piss people off, they want to create good word of mouth. Like this blog.

Come October 14, AT & T will show up here and will install DVR's for 2 TV's. Converter boxes for 2 TVs. The Internet connection stuff and anything else needed. For way less than I've been paying that inept Charter Communications.

Once I'm up and running with my new AT & T system that is gonna be one fun call to Charter overseas to tell them I'm cancelling their crappy service.