Never did - never will. Incidentally, after such scam offers cam our way, China Mobile and China Unicom cracked down hard on 'sms spammers'. Folks whose services were suspended (for days to months)included some of the biggest portals in the PRC.
$720M of yearly revenue is nothing to sneeze at. Just because we don't stand for this by American standards hardly makes it a "mafia". Many Europeans would never stand for how we handle our energy or health sectors, that hardly makes them akin to a mafiosi.
Adding services without the knowledge or consent of users, and making the process to remove them needlessly complex or impossible? It's generally considered to be criminal to charge someone for something they don't want (and haven't asked for).
They did ask for it, they texted to a number or clicked a pop-up.
Scott Adams wrote an article about this, in America it's a lot more profitable.
To the Indian poster it's not worth cancelling a 60cents/month service, to Scott Adams or a middle class American iPhone/Blackberry user it wouldn't be worth spending an hour each month arguing with customer service minions to cancel a service that might cost $20-30
The truly scary thing? There's a lot of money to be made in determining who the "customers who will call in and cancel it" and "the customers who won't notice or care". My cable company has now twice added a "premium bonus" $15/month for a little more bandwidth, without having been asked.
Poor fellow, one should never take the help along on trips or, indeed, have them anywhere near the living quarters for terribly long. I well recall the termination of my last scullery maid: she took a nasty head cold and would most stop sneezing at all hours. Being most inconvenienced by the--I couldn't sleep!--we had to let the maid go. Though the head butler carried out this nasty bit of work, the poor wench's sobs did ruin a perfectly good tea time.
I think you should attempt to understand the culture before being sarcastic. Most people don't own cars and don't drive in India. Getting a driver in India is more like getting a ZipCar for the afternoon here in North America.
Well, kind of. The difference being that a much larger fraction of the American population can afford to rent a ZipCar than the fraction of Indians who can afford a driver.
Edit: I just realized that your statement makes more sense if one counts taxi services as "hiring a driver".
I dont think you have ever been to India. My driver has been with me for 10 years and his job has allowed him to fund his daughter to attend high school (in her village) - something that is unheard of in rural India. Also my driver sends a nice stipend to his family every month. India has 1 billion people - if they all became drivers, we would be 10 times richer than any nation in the world.
I don't understand what you're trying to say. I wasn't claiming that being a driver is a bad job in India. My point was that most Indians cannot afford to have a personal driver (or even a car), whereas most Americans can afford to rent a ZipCar.
FWIW, I was born in the US but go to India regularly to visit family. My dad grew up in a mud hut in a rural village in Tamil Nadu, where much of my extended family still lives.
(Sidenote: How did the son of rural farmers get the kind of education that allowed him to immigrate to the US? It started with government programs that were put in place to bring affordable education to everyone.)
This is the reason class action lawsuits in America exist and should exist. That kind of behaviour would be quickly punished by class action lawyers in the States.
To an American, the tone of this article is beyond bizarre.
"Yadav aka ‘Maharaj’ is a rather decent bloke. He is demure, soft spoken and usually never has an opinion. All he loves to do is drive and polish the car."
So the definition of a decent person is one who doesn't have an opinion or get in the way?
"Yet, when I call him on his mobile phone (provided by me) for logistical coordination and other errands, the caller tune he forces me to hear makes me go insane. He has chosen the choicest of bawdy, vulgar and obscene bollywood songs available as his caller ring back tunes."
The truly infuriating thing about this driver is that he dares to have thoughts and a personality of his own (which the author only says he can get behind if he's drunk)! I get the distinct impression that the author would quickly fail Tony Hsieh's airport test.
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[ 2.0 ms ] story [ 43.6 ms ] threadScott Adams wrote an article about this, in America it's a lot more profitable. To the Indian poster it's not worth cancelling a 60cents/month service, to Scott Adams or a middle class American iPhone/Blackberry user it wouldn't be worth spending an hour each month arguing with customer service minions to cancel a service that might cost $20-30
Edit: I just realized that your statement makes more sense if one counts taxi services as "hiring a driver".
FWIW, I was born in the US but go to India regularly to visit family. My dad grew up in a mud hut in a rural village in Tamil Nadu, where much of my extended family still lives.
(Sidenote: How did the son of rural farmers get the kind of education that allowed him to immigrate to the US? It started with government programs that were put in place to bring affordable education to everyone.)
"Yadav aka ‘Maharaj’ is a rather decent bloke. He is demure, soft spoken and usually never has an opinion. All he loves to do is drive and polish the car."
So the definition of a decent person is one who doesn't have an opinion or get in the way?
"Yet, when I call him on his mobile phone (provided by me) for logistical coordination and other errands, the caller tune he forces me to hear makes me go insane. He has chosen the choicest of bawdy, vulgar and obscene bollywood songs available as his caller ring back tunes."
The truly infuriating thing about this driver is that he dares to have thoughts and a personality of his own (which the author only says he can get behind if he's drunk)! I get the distinct impression that the author would quickly fail Tony Hsieh's airport test.