Miriam Watkins, 66, of Mofolo, curses the day she bought herself a cellphone.

Miriam Watkins, 66, of Mofolo, curses the day she bought herself a cellphone.

Since October she has paid R4000 just for receiving jokes every day.

But that will be a thing of the past. Mira Solutions has agreed to stop SMSing her the jokes. The company has also undertaken to refund her.

Watkins said after buying the gadget her grandchildren set it up for her. A few days later she started receiving jokes and quiz questions, which she ignored.

"I have spent more money receiving jokes than I have on a fruitful conversation with my family and friends," she said.

"There was a time when I had to remove the sim card for weeks hoping this misery would end, but that did not help at all."

Her neighbour who reads Sowetanreferred her to Consumer Line.

Watkins had tried several service providers, but they could not help because she was not their subscriber.

"I have called Worldplay, Blinco, Teljoy to try and stop receiving these silly jokes without luck," said Watkins.

Consumer Line called Vodacom, which traced the jokes to Mira Solutions. A spokesman for the company, who gave her name as Charlotte, agreed to discontinue her "subscription".

Watkins was happy to hear that she won't be bothered again.