Here's a little quiz for my readers.
What do the following companies have in common? A deodorant company, a bath remodeling company, flavored water, a fitness business, a security business, a couple of tax relief companies, a lose-weight business, a house gutter business, a seafood business, a replacement window business, and a company that insures car repair costs.
I'm not naming the guilty companies with their business names because I don't want to give them publicity.
Answer: they all spam me. Continuously.
I have to believe that it doesn't cost much to have someone send emails out to perhaps millions of people. I'm sure people out there are responding. Oh yes, I need to have work on my gutters, or I have a window that needs replacing, so let me click on this email coming from someone with the weirdest email address imaginable who just randomly picked me out of all the people in the known universe psychically knowing I needed their product. Sign me up!
On second thought, don't.
These are all legitimate companies, too. Most of the business names you would immediately recognize. But if you send me three emails a week, that's spam. I don't care who you are. Stop filling my mailbox up.
Do you know how I respond? I don't unsubscribe. Besides deleting said emails, I don't buy their products. Period.
No, wait. There is an exception. There's one company I started getting spam emails from and it was a beverage company whose delicious product I was already purchasing. So I decided to email them and respectfully told them I was disappointed they were taking this route. And you know what? They responded with this email:
"Hey [AM]:
Thanks very much for reaching
out. We apologize for the number of emails that have made their way to
you. We sincerely try to balance good commerce with good communication.
Certain customers enjoy getting them and some don’t. We are working on
getting better at predicting this.
We also wanted to provide this link for you here: [website link] where you can manage preferences and reduce the number of emails you receive from us.
Again,
please accept my apologies on behalf of everyone at [beverage company]
We really appreciate all of your continued support and are really glad
to hear you have been enjoying our [product]! :)
Cheers,
[Real Person's name]
It's nice to know there's a good corporate citizen out there.And (this was a while back) the emails did stop.
Maybe there is hope.
If you've had similar experiences, please feel free to vent, or compliment, in the comments.