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UFONE should be sued over UTunes – but atleast they got the shortcode right

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Osama A.

Osama runs a Social Media Marketing Agency and a Software Product Company. He has been involved in building online communities since 1997 and his major strengths are understanding how people choose to come together and work as strong cohesive units that believe in brands or causes. His team's flagship product offers highly innovative ways to get professional teams to work better together - resulting in significantly saved time in common tasks around getting people on the same page; and also resulting in a greater sense of trust among virtual teammates. You may contact him at hashmi@cdfsoftware.com with inquiries.

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I’ve been trying to stop myself from ranting here about this – but this is important enough to point out.

UFONE apparently doesnt seem to believe in or understand consumer choice and seems to think that as customers we’re inherently sheep, bound to baa at whatever the overlords in their offices think is the truth – that perhaps the only meaning in our lives comes from waking up everyday to construct effigies of their corporate leadership and dance around them all day singing songs of their praise.

I’m talking about their completely unethical and downright brazen, anti-competitive, anti-consumer-rights act of automatically subscribing people to the utunes service – you know, the service that makes you hear extremely annoying songs when you’re trying to call and reach someone.

I personally hate that idea – the only time I’m calling someone is if its something serious, when I’m thinking about something important in my head about the conversation I’m about to have with the other person… to hear a random love-song or jingle at that time I think is a completely rude interruption.

However, I’ve never spoken about it because I figured that it was the choice of the person I was calling – who was I to complain about what someone does or does not choose as their call-in tone.

But where I absolutely draw the line is Ufone – a dumb carrier I just use to connect with others – interfering in my life by automatically subscribing me to this brazen service too.

This is a consumer rights violation, because (1) I never ask them to subscribe (2) I dont like the service and dont want to ever subscribe as a conscious well-informed choice and (3) This isnt even part of my individual lifestyle or phone behavior. My phone is primarily for business and the absolute last thing I want is for a client to call me and say “Yeah… so why do you have *so and so romantic song* as your tone on your phone number… I didnt think you listened to music like that”

And it doesn’t seem to help that I’ve unsubscribed several times now – it just keeps resubscribing every month… the overlords at Ufone seem to insist that I *must* do as they say – why, because everyone must agree with whatever they believe to be truth?

The only consolation in their unethical behavior is that the number you call to access UTunes is 666 – YES, seriously… atleast they are self-aware enough to know that this service is the manifestation of the devil himself. I guess the only advice I could offer to you then is that if you’re thinking about Ufone… er… repent?!

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8 additional thoughts for this post.

  1. Fariha Akhtar Said:

    I’m wondering if Ufone is the only telco guilty of this.I’ve lately experienced the same thing in case of Telenor and Mobilink as well. However, they have probably picked up some numbers randomly and auto-subscribed them to this service so u get to hear Telenor/Mobilink jingles when u r calling on those numbers.

  2. ali Said:

    Sue them.. !:)

  3. Munir Said:

    I had similar experience with Mobilink which was very annoying but their support center responded to my complain quite well and apologized for the mistake. Yes they said my number was mistakenly added into free Mobitunes service.

  4. Mohiuddin Said:

    I also experienced the same with Mobilink, I tried contacting thier helpline twice to InActvie the mobitune, and they put me on a long hold, and finally I cut the call. don’t know what to do…

  5. Maria Said:

    With the recent advertisement , this may become the most “hip hop” feature in mobile industry :)

  6. Usama Said:

    @Maria

    Yeah :) but that is probably the only thing they’re good at.

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  8. Abdul Said:

    Most mobile providers have started this facility

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