Annoying email promotions:
Delta – Teleflora – Barnes & Noble Nook – Omaha Steaks – Ticket Master
I’d like to file a complaint…
Airlines enjoy promoting fake prices and specials – nearly every airline has display advertising that quotes a one-way fare when they’re advertising a fare – even a vacation targeted ad! So, you don’t expect me to consider returning when I book the flight? It seems silly, and annoying, here’s an email promotion from Delta advertising a one-way fare price when they will only be selling a round-trip air ticket. Here’s an idea: put the actual ticket round-trip ticket cost in the ad when you’re only offering a round-trip ticket. And how about adding the minimum estimate for taxes and fees when you create an ad? Wouldn’t that be helpful – and truthful? Or do I have to ignore all your communications as some kind of spam or scam?
Teleflora sends too many emails with nothing interesting to say… and they didn’t send the flowers as advertised. I did file a complaint, and will give their customer service department a chance to resolve the issue, but regardless, they don’t know how to effectively handle email marketing. If you send too many useless messages people will ignore all of them. Barnes and Noble is guilty of the same thing as they attempt to push their Nook. They’ve communicated nothing of value during the last few weeks of their email campaign.
And another negative thing about Teleflora is that in their email it states that you can contact them by email for customer service but in that same email message it says you cannot email them (see below). I sent them an email complaint to test the email address and it does not work. ***Update: A Teleflora rep called me and I was offered partial credit. Resolved!
At least Borders makes a decent effort to sweeten its general email campaigns with coupons, specials, book store events, and other tidbits. Barnes and Noble looks like they hardly have a clue with their most recent general email promotion. If you’ve never expressed any interest in an e-reader, guess what, Barnes and Noble thinks you’re a great prospect and apparently interested enough to send you multiple crappy emails about the Nook.
The worst email campaign offender in terms of frequent annoyances that I’ve seen over the past year is Omaha Steaks. They’ll send one or more messages every week and if you remove yourself from their email list they will send their promotions to you by postal mail every week – often twice in the same week!
The worst lack of respect and courtesy for email campaigns that I’ve seen is Ticket Master. Ticket Master advises you they will provide your email to their partners and not allow you to opt out when you make your original purchase. Then you’ll get messages about other events you don’t much care about – and have to unsubscribe individually or unsubscribe to the four lists they manage. With that attitude, it’s almost like these people are asking for their server to get crashed by the hacker community.
