HERE ARE A BUNCH OF LEMONS THAT HAVE COME MY WAY LATELY, AND WHAT I’VE DONE WITH THEM
So many things that make you shake your head, and wonder what the world is coming to!
- A moment ago, someone I have never heard of sends me an email (name redacted, but I’m not preserving IP for someone who hasn’t the courtesy to find out anything about me):
Alicia,
I thought you might enjoy knowing about my Shakespeare’s SSS adaptation mentioned on NNN Book Critics Circle Roundup Blog and most recently in the XXX Island News:
Sincerely,
UN Owen*
(* points for you if you recognize the name and source)
NNN and XXX are links. The email address looks fairly normal (a Verizon.net address), but I’ve NEVER heard of this person, am not interested in Shakespeare’s SSS, and certainly not in an adaptation! And anyone who thinks you will click on links in an email from a stranger has rocks in his/her head. Not in this world.
2. From a supplier of plastic bags:
“Dear WWW,
I am not sure if you received the “15% off Trash Bags & Can Liners” email promotion that was sent to you last week.
I was just making sure you didn’t miss out on this great special offer as it ends Today, Friday, March 25th.
You can use the coupon code TB316 at checkout to receive the 15% discount or call me directly so that I may assist you.
As always, I thank you for your past business and look forward to helping you again very soon!
MMM LLL
Senior Sales Representative
PPP plastics company
(###) ###-#### ext. ###
MMM@’PPP plastics company’.com
http://www.iiiiiiii.comP.S. Happy Easter!”
with my grumpy response:
“Dear MMM,
This kind of aggressive marketing – we buy your bags for a specific purpose maybe every couple of years – is why I just unsubscribed.
If you had looked at our buying history, you would have known that.
The pushy mail marketing turns people off.
Please do not respond.
ABEhrhardt”
Am I being too harsh? What if I were Jewish? Or Hindu? Or had issues with – oh, just about anything. I’m already creeped out enough by ‘personalized’ mail that comes to me on my birthday with ads for local establishments I would never use because they sell things like nail extensions. Honestly, what in my buying history implies I have EVER used a plastic nail extension – I’m female?
3. From SurveyMonkey, which I checked out once because MailChimp – which I was also checking out ONCE – landed me there and I couldn’t figure out how to undo having created an account:
“Case study: Unlocking market trends with targeted surveys
…
Get insights from real people, really fast
Buy survey responses →”
They don’t know me from Adam. I have ONE book on the market. If I could figure out people to survey (I did look at their categories of available people for sale), I wouldn’t need to do a survey. As I said, ONE book. Couldn’t we be acquaintances first?
——
This is a tiny sample – I have a bunch of emails from people trying to sell me their services the instant I registered my copyright and published a book (hello, if I already published a book, I don’t need your services!).
WHY AM I RANTING? WHY DOES THIS BOTHER ME?
Because it is rude, intrusive, insists on some of my time and attention, HAS NOTHING TO DO WITH ME and MY needs.
This is just the tip of the iceberg that lands in my inbox – as it must be landing in other people’s (no, I don’t think I’m specially targeted).
I have Mail set up to divert most of it; one out of 100 or 200 is something that shouldn’t be in the Junk file and I need to see, or I’d delete them automatically. The rest is bad enough – I do NOT use Vi@gra, don’t want my teeth whitened by an anonymous product, and certainly don’t want investment advice from you.
But I am SO not enamored of the ‘targeted’ advertising that isn’t. Targeted. It is lazy, annoying, and extremely unlikely to get a response. Okay, make that COMPLETELY unlikely to get a response.
And it sucks up precious time and energy dealing with it.
And no, I can’t remove my email addresses from circulation – I need them.
Hugh Howey’s blog post today says privacy is dead and good riddance
I disagree (about the good riddance part).
Invasion of privacy has reached astronomic proportions – and is likely to get worse.
Is there an answer other than disconnecting the internet, that vast necessary resource for writers? Beats me.
But at least I get a blog post out of it occasionally.
And practice writing snippy responses with nuance to Senior Sales Representatives – who usually wouldn’t take my calls if they were real, at real positions of authority, at real companies who valued my business. If they didn’t make exactly the right kind of plastic zipper bag we use for heavy duty freezer bags (not their intended use), we could have saved them hundreds in advertising over the years. By telling them to jump in a lake long ago.
End of rant. Thanks for listening. Please feel free to include any rants you feel coming on – in the comments.