Hippie Says

Hello,
Don’t know if anybody has been receiving annoying text messages with offers from companies you’ve never signed up with. I do, at all hours of the day and night and thought I’d let you know an effective way to stop them.
I got one just today from Laura Ashley. Annoyingly having never shopped there I had no idea how they got my number. The text said that if I wanted to stop the messages I should send one to the number 88811. So, before doing this, I thought I’d check whether the text was genuine or from some snide company trying to confirm that my number is in use, so I rang Laura Ashley. The lady I spoke to at customer services confirmed that their sale, as their text said, does indeed start today (if you’re interested, there you go, another free fact for you- doh!) however as expected she had no idea why I got that text seen as I’ve never even shopped with them. I had to prod and poke a bit to get her to admit that they do use marketing companies. So that was a small victory, step one.
Next step was to ring my network provider, in this case O2. I explained the situation to the helpful chap who informed me that texts to 88811 go to a company called Mobile Marketing Group Ltd. It was surprisingly easy to find their contact number on line, which is 0207 873 2421. I rang this and demanded to be taken off their mailing list. The nice lady took all my details and within minutes I got a call back from a friendly man who assured me that my number would be put on their ‘blacklist’ which I guess sounds a lot worse than it is. Basically this will stop my number from being distributed to any company that uses them for sending texts to people for marketing purposes.
I guess it all sounds like a very simple and painless solution to something that has been doing my nut in for a while and perhaps not all companies are this easy to deal with. I did however think that this system can be used to trace other marketing companies and other steps can possibly be taken.
If what I’ve done so far fails, the companies’ websites usually have their contact address so I guess a request in writing sent by recorded delivery with a threat to sue for harassment should do the trick. I believe that marketing companies are obliged by law to stop contacting you if you request them to do so.
Obviously if this is not enough to deter the more aggressive companies there is always the militant way: Companies House showing names and addresses of their Directors. I’m sure an angry letter to Mr CEO won’t go unnoticed!
Anyway, the bottom line is, ringing the number 0207 873 2421 to ask Mobile Marketing Group Ltd to stop texting you should work for all those annoying texts that you can reply to on 88811.
Good luck everybody! x

Having read this article on today’s MEN’s website -> http://menmedia.co.uk/manchestereveningnews/p/1592867 I feel like I need to write a few words, just in (the likely) case my comments below said article do not get published by the MEN’s clearly very selective editors.

What an absolutely despicable piece of journalism this article is. Not only is it sensationalistic, selective and heavily biased but also untruthful!
I have worked for Manchester City Council for nearly 10 years and was only given access to the internet less than 4 years ago (in 2008) because I needed it as part of my job. For 99% of employees access to sites such as YouTube, Facebook, Twitter, Ebay etc is BANNED. They even block any video streaming widgets and many employees don’t even have internet access still.
Usage of any visits to non MCC websites is very closely monitored and only allowed outside of working hours. We have to agree to a very strict internet and e-mail usage policy on a regular basis or else are not allowed access to them.
In a time where public sector jobs are under attack dear Manchester Evening News you should be ashamed of yourself for using a story like this to sell a few more papers. If you wanted to write about what people are really up to in work, why not look at the internet usage habits of private sector workers in large world corporations? I can assure you that those findings would make a much more interesting read,
Articles like this put you at a level with the Daily Mail, you should not be allowed to call yourself the official Manchester newspaper.
Shame on you. You just lost yourself more than one reader.

One word for last night’s Roses gig: wow.

I know many of you think they are doing it for the dosh (which is probably true), it was better in the 80’s (again, who am I to argue) and so on. But for me, I was too young back then, and I did not live in the UK.

I first discovered the Stone Roses as a teenager living in Italy, songs like Made of Stone and Sally Cinnamon are what really pushed me to learn English. I was laughed at in school for wearing flares, at a time when it was not fashionable to wear flares.

Being lucky enough to meet and hang out with Mani and John Squire when I was 17 were and always will be some of my life’s highlights. And ultimately, my love for Manchester music and most of all the Stone Roses is what made me take the biggest life changing decision of my life of moving to Manchester aged 18.

Since discovering the Roses aged 14/15 I have often dreamt of seeing what I saw last night. I don’t care if they are now old, not that good, sell outs, whether Ian Brown can’t sing in tune and all that. Last night was a very, very significant moment of my life.

Everyone is entitled to an opinion, and all I can say is if you got to see them the first time, good on you and lucky sod. But that will never take anything away from my love story with the Roses. I just hope it’s not over yet.