Some of you may recall our Native Stone Winery/Bull Rock Brewery review from a few months ago.
It was probably one of the longest posts, and the comments section is definitely worth reading….mostly because it came out how cheaply things were handled.
Well, last week I got an Email in my inbox from Native Stone. It turns out, without even asking me, they have placed me on an Email list…..and the first email I get from them in almost three months isn’t about a wine tasting or beer sampling, it’s not about a musical event or dinner special…..it’s about an Extreme Coupon Class.
Needless to say, I purposely waited until after the event to post this, as I do not support this type of marketing. It has NOTHING to do with the core element of the establishment, and the fact that I was sent this without being given the chance to opt out of spam is pretty ridiculous.
I get offer emails all the time, but the difference is I submitted my name to the lists AND it is content I want to read. A great example are the one’s from GrandCru. I might be interested in 1 out of 10 things they send, but at least I am interested.
Am I off base here? I would love to read your comments below.
Cheers
WTH? This is wrong! So they used the email address you were corresponding to them with to spam you?
ReplyDeleteYou got it Randy.
ReplyDeleteI'm not sure this is as insidious as you make it out to be. They just want you to go there and eat their food, it's not like it's male enhancement or a guy in Nigeria kind of thing. Nobody's making money off this coupon deal; it's not like some silly Partylite or Avon get-together.
ReplyDeleteThis particular "event" (i.e., excuse to go drink or eat) happens to be a coupon-clipping event. Obviously Ed is not going to be interested in that, but the email server doesn't know the tastes of each customer, it just sends out the event and hopes to generate community interest. What if it had been to watch football or shoot guns* or some sort of manly activity? Would you still be aghast?
The core element of the establishment is to get people to congregate at their place and eat and drink, right? This also includes a 15% off coupon for their gift shop. Again, that may not be something you want, but others might.
Let me also say how much I hate spam. I will waste an hour getting someone to stop marketing to me that only takes me 5 seconds to throw away or delete.
So the only problem I see here is that you gave them your email but didn't (knowingly) sign up for marketing. That's generally the default at every commercial/website in the world. If the email they sent had an opt-out/unsubscribe [important--and they in fact do so] then no harm no foul.
I don't see one, however. :(
It's also interesting that you appear to be on the mailing list, but it has a button to click to join the mailing list?
Although annoying, this has all the signs of a very small business owner/manager with little tech savvy (or possibly marketing experience). I.e., more of a newbie mistake than a deceptive business practice.
* A winery/gun range would be the coolest thing in Missouri, hands down. Food for thought, Native Stone.
The thing is J, if you went to their site, there is no marketing sign up. This comes from me exchanging emails with the owner direct. What I can tell, she just took her address book and sent out her marketing to that...which (IMO) is the worst kind of SPAM.
ReplyDeleteNow there is a signup in the email, but no unsubscribe. I personally do not trust unsubscribes, because you have just verified your address. The company you dump from won't send you anything anymore (hopefully), but what they will do is sell your address to another company.
Spam is the worst.