Original URL: https://www.theregister.com/2003/08/18/online_gripe_forum_tackles_mobile/

Online gripe forum tackles mobile spam

Grumbletext

By John Leyden

Posted in Legal, 18th August 2003 15:39 GMT

Site of the Day If you've being ticked off by poor service or peeved by annoying mobile spam messages, help is at hand.

Grumbletext provides a forum to publicise UK mobile phone scams. It's a Vmyths for the mobile generation, with more interactivity built in.

So next time you receive an annoying mobile spam messages that tells you that you have won something and that you should phone a premium rate phone number to claim your prize, you can search Grumbletext to check its provenance, before shelling out good money on call charges for virtually worthless discount vouchers.

The site relies on people sending information in, so the more people that are aware of it the better.

You can submit your grumbles by texting (07810 83 83 83 - normal rate), an online form or via email (to grumble@grumbletext.co.uk). Grumbletext plans to charge 25p per message to send SMS messages to the site but is yet to introduce this charge.

LiveWebs Ltd, the firm behind Grumbletext, says it will publish these gripes on its website "within minutes" (we hope they apply some fact checking), forward these reports to the companies concerned and "get as much publicity as we can in the media". Messages on the site have already shamed a number of companies into action.

Grumbletext, which began in February and branched into mobile spam complaints in June, is targeted at serving the needs of British consumers.

The site is designed as a forum to "grumble about UK companies when they've got you seething with poor customer service, flaky pledges, intrusive marketing, aggressive selling, general thoughtlessness and carelessness". Big companies behaving arrogantly are the chief target of Grumbletext but its not averse to going after either public figures or politicians.

Banks, airlines and BT are amongst the most grumbled about organisations on Grumbletext.

The site, which is attractive and well designed, aims to make it easier for people to complain - rather than suffering in silence. Instead of sending a complaint directly to a company, Grumbletext wants to create a forum to build a collective voice of complaint that some companies will be more likely to act on.

"We want to shame companies into making 'top-down' changes to their service and processes which benefit their customers," LiveWebs explains, in the Grumbletext FAQ.

Grumbletext recognises that individual complaints have a role and point to Web resources on putting gripes to companies directly. It also recognises the role of regulators, like the Independent Committee for the Supervision of Standards of Telephone Information Services (ICSTIS), in fighting premium rate spam scams. ®

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