Apparently, Sprint PCS has taken to sending text messages to their customers in order to *alert* them to a very important and pressing need to buy random products. After being up rather late last night, I was awakened this morning by an insistent message from Sprint: It was very important that I buy some premium sports-related service they were offering! Right now!!!

Needless to say, I was not blessed by being awakened from a deep sleep in order to receive this tremendously important news.

If you're a Sprint PCS customer, and you've started to receive junk solicitations from them, I'd suggest the following:

1. Make sure you call their customer service department and register a complaint. If you just silently agree to it, you can be sure that you, I, and the rest of their customer base will be seeing much, much more of these annoying, interruptive junk solicitations from them. (If you're really irritated, take a lot of time to register your complaint, as that will up the expenses associated with their desire to send their own customers junk messages.)

2. Complain publicly, (as I'm doing here) to help prospective customers know they will be targeted by junk mail and useless alerts if they sign up for Sprint PCS, unless Sprint changes their policies.

3. Contact their technical support department. When I did, they asked who the message had come from. I said it mentioned ESPN, but suggested that Sprint was behind the message, since I'd never given my phone's information out. They said, no, Sprint would never sell my information to a customer, and that I should look closely to see the originator of the message. I did so, and discovered it indeed came from Sprint, and called back.

After I had established this, they then revealed there was a list (a rather secret one, apparently) which you could get onto in order to stop being harassed by junk messages, text interruptions and -- yes -- VOICE solicitations (which they apparently plan on doing to their customers soon -- uggh) from Sprint. Yes, I'm sure people will want to receive urgent phone calls from Sprint with stupid offers for flowers, or magazines, or whatever.

So folks, that's what Sprint apparently has in store for you. Future customers: you've been warned. Existing customers: you need to fight back, unless you want to see your cell phone -- which you already pay handsomely to use each month -- become a vehicle for constantly annoying you with "urgent" messages from viagra resellers, diet pill companies, and debt counselling services.