About every two weeks, Ohio University sophomore Scott Woodrum receives a text message offering him deals on calzones from local delivery service Delivery Dough.
They were pretty annoying at first
but they've grown on me. They offer pretty good deals Woodrum said.
Such messages are sent about twice a quarter to customers who signed up for the company's VIP Club, said owner Matt Dough Ball Pearson.
In September, the text message list contained about 1,500 people but since has dropped to 1,000, Pearson said, adding that most people who opt out of the club leave because of the texting fees from their phone companies.
These messages cost Delivery Dough about 30 cents each in addition to fees it must pay to EZ Texting, the Internet company that sends out the messages.
EZ Texting does not investigate how companies gather phone numbers but will take legal action if unsolicited messages are sent out, sales manager Amy Baglon said.
Baglon said she could not confirm or deny if Delivery Dough was a client, although the Web site is linked through Delivery Dough's Web site.
A 2003 ban from the Federal Communications Commission made text-message spam illegal unless the receiver agreed to receive the messages. FCC representatives said they could not comment on whether specific cases were illegal.
It doesn't seem legal. If it was legal wouldn't everyone be doing it? Woodrum said.
Pearson said that receivers did agree to get these messages after they signed up for the company's VIP Club, a promotion advertising that new members can buy one $5.94 calzone and get one free.
An ad for the club that ran in September editions of The Post did not specifically say that clients would receive text messages if they joined, though Pearson said that agreeing to receive messages is one of the conditions for joining.
Sophomore Amy Nypaver said she has never ordered from Delivery Dough or signed up for the club, but receives the messages every couple of weeks.
Although she has unlimited texts and is not charged, Nypaver said the messages are still annoying.
If customers pay by individual text messages, their service providers will charge them to receive the messages.
If they want the deal
they should be willing to pay the price
Pearson said.
If customers receive unwanted text messages, they may be eligible for reimbursement from most phone companies, said Laura Merritt, Verizon spokeswoman.
Clients of some phone companies can also request to block messages from e-mail numbers by going
through the company's Web site, Merritt said.
Clients can remove themselves from the Delivery Dough text list by texting OPT-OUT,-
17
Archives
Brigitta Burks
