EZO
Flashlight Enthusiast
It seems like there are a lot of sleazy marketing techniques being foisted upon us by well known companies these days. This is nothing new but it seems like there's more of them and they are becoming more and more devious and less and less ethical. Some of what was once the domain of fly-by-night hucksters has found its way into major corporate America.
I've had two just today which prompted this thread. One came from Nova Development, the company that markets Parallels virtualization software and a handful of others. They keep sending me spam that says, "This email is sent to you by Nova Development because you have requested to receive information about updates and special offers." Excuse me, but NO! I didn't request, "to receive information about updates and special offers". In fact, I specifically asked that I NOT receive this crap when I first purchased the software years ago by specifically opting out. What's worse is that each of their spam emails arrives with an unsubscribe link that is cumbersome to use and that they completely and repeatedly ignore.
That was this morning. Then the afternoon mail arrived with a letter from Chase Bank where I've had a credit card for several years. The letter pointed out that indeed I do not receive any marketing material in the mail from them because I have, in the past, asked that they not send me such stuff. The letter states that if I would still prefer not to receive marketing promos I will now need to fill out the enclosed form by "completely filling in the oval beside EACH category" that I "do not" want to receive junk mail for and am presented with a lengthy list of specific categories and furthermore if I don't do this by a certain upcoming date I will begin receiving marketing material for ALL the categories.
Of course, they could have simply provided a single oval that would cover all of them but they want to make this as time consuming and cumbersome as possible. They've made these ovals unusually large so that unless you have a felt tip marker handy you'll be at this for awhile. The ovals are almost the size of a dime if stretched into an oval. And there is the implied threat that if you do not "Fill in the ovals completely" they might view that as an opportunity to ignore your wishes. I've seen and filled out many optically scanned forms like this before but NEVER have I seen one with such large spaces to fill. And get this!.......After I spent the time muttering to myself and filling out the stupid form I discovered that the form is too big to fit into the envelope they provide!
The thing about all this is that somewhere within both of these corporations is some executive or perhaps a whole nest of them whose job it is to think these techniques up and make the decision to implement them! Someone has to make the decision to lie to their customers and say to their faces, "you requested that we send this crap to you", all the while knowing that you didn't. Someone has to make the unethical decision to offer an unsubscribe link that does nothing. Someone has to design a cumbersome and time consuming form to fill out that many folks won't bother with or throw away without reading because it looks like junk mail. And someone has to make the decision to send along an envelope the form won't fit in!
And the pundits and talking heads on TV don't get what the Occupy Wall Street movement is all about? Do they really think that people have unlimited tolerance to being disrespected and mistreated on every level?
I would be curious to hear about similar experiences and stories other CPFers have to tell.
I've had two just today which prompted this thread. One came from Nova Development, the company that markets Parallels virtualization software and a handful of others. They keep sending me spam that says, "This email is sent to you by Nova Development because you have requested to receive information about updates and special offers." Excuse me, but NO! I didn't request, "to receive information about updates and special offers". In fact, I specifically asked that I NOT receive this crap when I first purchased the software years ago by specifically opting out. What's worse is that each of their spam emails arrives with an unsubscribe link that is cumbersome to use and that they completely and repeatedly ignore.
That was this morning. Then the afternoon mail arrived with a letter from Chase Bank where I've had a credit card for several years. The letter pointed out that indeed I do not receive any marketing material in the mail from them because I have, in the past, asked that they not send me such stuff. The letter states that if I would still prefer not to receive marketing promos I will now need to fill out the enclosed form by "completely filling in the oval beside EACH category" that I "do not" want to receive junk mail for and am presented with a lengthy list of specific categories and furthermore if I don't do this by a certain upcoming date I will begin receiving marketing material for ALL the categories.
Of course, they could have simply provided a single oval that would cover all of them but they want to make this as time consuming and cumbersome as possible. They've made these ovals unusually large so that unless you have a felt tip marker handy you'll be at this for awhile. The ovals are almost the size of a dime if stretched into an oval. And there is the implied threat that if you do not "Fill in the ovals completely" they might view that as an opportunity to ignore your wishes. I've seen and filled out many optically scanned forms like this before but NEVER have I seen one with such large spaces to fill. And get this!.......After I spent the time muttering to myself and filling out the stupid form I discovered that the form is too big to fit into the envelope they provide!
The thing about all this is that somewhere within both of these corporations is some executive or perhaps a whole nest of them whose job it is to think these techniques up and make the decision to implement them! Someone has to make the decision to lie to their customers and say to their faces, "you requested that we send this crap to you", all the while knowing that you didn't. Someone has to make the unethical decision to offer an unsubscribe link that does nothing. Someone has to design a cumbersome and time consuming form to fill out that many folks won't bother with or throw away without reading because it looks like junk mail. And someone has to make the decision to send along an envelope the form won't fit in!
And the pundits and talking heads on TV don't get what the Occupy Wall Street movement is all about? Do they really think that people have unlimited tolerance to being disrespected and mistreated on every level?
I would be curious to hear about similar experiences and stories other CPFers have to tell.
Last edited: