Dear Businesses: Enough With The Irritating SMS Promotions – They Are Just Plain Annoying

This is an open letter to whoever gave my number to all these businesses, the businesses themselves, and any business considering doing it.

Enough with the promotional text messages – I hate them.

Every day, my phone is littered with text messages from food providers, caller tone offers, competitions, discounts and all kinds that I genuinely don’t care about, don’t want, and don’t read.

Here’s a quick look through just a few I’ve received in the past week

I don’t know where these businesses got my number (I’m looking at you du)

But I’m sick of it.

The way these businesses have gotten my details is unethically obtained – I never consented to receiving these messages, and I don’t want them.

If anything, these messages make me less likely to give you my business.

And it’s not just me, it’s an ongoing issue that many residents flag

Sure, we all make light of it, and joke about the annoyance of it as a trial or tribulation of living in the UAE. But enough is enough, it’s harassment – and we don’t want it.

So leave me alone, and do marketing the ethical ways.