In their overdone efforts to keep customers hooked there’s nothing a company could do more on running us away.
Order one thing online, and your email will be bombarded with constant harassments.
My inbox is now overloaded with a constant flow of emails thanks to a recent purchase of wool socks.
It is nearly impossible to get wool socks anymore. I haven’t found any in Martinsville – have you? All the sock wrappers that claim “wool socks” are, when you check the label, mostly polyester or acrylic with some pitiful amount of wool, such as 15%. Fifteen percent wool can’t stand a chance to counter the fact that your feet are wrapped in plastic.
So I did an online search. Just like in the stores, that was tricky too. From one site to the next, everything that promised itself of being a wool sock turned out to be, once you read the fine print by clicking down a whole lot of arrows, just some wool with a lot of manmade fibers.
That’s just not the same.
The worst is when you are busy with something – say, in a meeting for work – but need to be attentive to your emails, waiting on something important, such as an email with information you need in work.
Your phone alert goes off: This might be it.
No, it’s Wacoal America, with the subject line “Lift Your Bustline Up to 1 inch. These are the bras you’ve been looking for …”
How embarrassing. Did anyone see that?
“No, that wasn’t Mr. Jones!” you tell everyone at the meeting.
Another ding.
Bombas sock company tells you that “Yes, You Can Hike In …”
Macy’s: “Save big on Valentine’s Day gifts …”
Duluth Trading Company (the one I really like, because that’s where I ended up buying the socks): “Jump into NEW jeans!”
As I am writing this, another email from Bombas came in. I took a moment to unsubscribe from Bombas. That meant scrolling down to the very bottom of the email, looking for the smallest print. I clicked “unsubscribe.” It took me to a screen. I started to click again on “unsubscribe” when up popped a box offering a 20% discount, and the box had a bar that said “SHOP NOW” in exactly the same position on the screen as I had been about to click for “unsubscribe.” I deftly maneuvered the mouse around in the nick of time to hit the little “X” on top to close the box instead. When I hit “unsubscribe,” it put up another screen telling me I had to type in my email address so they could send me an email to “Manage Email Preferences.”
Well, now I wanted to unsubscribe even more.
By the way, as much as the companies don’t want to let you go from their email lists, as you probably know, it is even harder to cancel subscriptions. I’m talking streaming services, utilities and other things with recurring monthly bills. Sure, you can sign up for anything as easy as pie, but it’s harder to get out of a subscription than it is to crawl your way out of a 35-acre corn maze. I have a solution for that. Get subscriptions with a reloadable bank card. When you don’t want the subscription anymore, just don’t put any more money on that card.
There’s another way too, a bit more of a hassle but it certainly clears the slate. Make payments from a bank card – don’t give the actual account number, just the bank card number. When you are issued a new card, or if you cancel the card to get a new one, none of those subscriptions get payment. You do have to go in and resubmit payment for everything you want to keep, but you are finally free of anything you don’t want to keep.
Of course, be prepared for a bombardment of emails from companies saying they want you back!
Here’s what companies that overdo it with the emailing don’t seem to realize: If you like the product, a gentle reminder or some incentive of a sale every now and then – say, once a month – might just perk us up.
Say it’s a cold day, but your feet have been warm and toasty in your 100% wool socks. The rest of you was suffering in the cold, your fingertips are blue, and your nose is red, but your feet feel great.
An email from the sock company comes in, and you realize, “Yes! Thank goodness for these socks! I must get more!”
Yet that’s not going to happen, because you unsubscribed from those emails weeks or months ago.
