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I’ve mentioned my hatred for ads pushed to notification bars before. They’re downright intrusive, and I’ll uninstall any app that does it, no matter how good it is.
Unfortunately, you don’t quite get that kind of option with your carrier, so I really hope all of them learn from T-Mobile’s little error. The carrier sent out notifications to users regarding their free VIP zone, mistakenly by the sound of their response. As expected, the user complaints flew in, and the issue was resolved.
In a mail to TmoNews, they said:
‘During a recent software update, a message to promote T-Mobile’s free VIP Zone was mistakenly sent to certain customers and appeared on the notification bar for some Android devices. After T-Mobile was made aware of this mistake, the company stopped the notifications. T-Mobile apologizes for the inconvenience this may have caused customers.’
[TmoNews via Electronista]
TMo can’t claim this as a mistake. In order to send ads to the notification bar, it had to be coded into the app. And that doesn’t happen by “mistake”.
That doesn’t mean that actually sending the message wasn’t a mistake. I mean, I’m skeptical (I suspect it’s more likely they were testing the waters), but I disagree with your suggestion that it’s *impossible* that it was a mistake. Obviously having the potential for them to do this wasn’t a mistake, though.
yeah they were testing the waters and it accidentally got pushed out. this does not bode well if this advertising tactic is part of their future evil plans! did we just see a glimpse of the future????? F T-Mob!
That was my first thought. While they may not have intended to send out THIS notification, they intentionally created and included the code necessary to do so. This tells me that somewhere in T-Mobile, at some time, somebody thought notification bar ads were a GOOD IDEA, and THAT is what bothers me.
I wish Google would make it so notification bar adds were impossible.
Fail
There should be a way for an app to block these on a rooted phone. More importantly though — as I am reminded every time I see the unremovable AT&T Navigator in the update list — carriers are extremely callow and stuck in a decade old mentality when it comes to customer relations with smart phones. It was particularly ironic when Sprint’s CEO lamented the fact customers view their devices as disposable and do not value them more; if customers had more ownership over their own devices, his wish might come true.
Pretty sure it was T-Mobiles ceo
I really wish people would drop the word fail. Its so stupid and annoying. But to post a comment related to the story, that’s just one more reason I’m gladly moving cell carriers this year
Fail.
wasn’t really a big deal. Carriers send out Text messages all the time, so almost the same. At least it wasn’t advertising someone else’s product. Also, it might have been written in to the software because the US Government has told all carriers that it needs to be able to send alert messages to all customers in case of an emergency
Inadvertently yeah right, as if an ad will run inadvertently, ads cost money, no company accidentally sends them out without approval.
You fail!
I did in the past. Not anymore
Fail nick