Do Not Contact Me, Ever
from the a-look-from-the-other-side dept
An interesting look from the other side of the coin on the whole "do not call" and "do not spam" world. Plenty of companies that are doing legitimate marketing over the phone and email are scared to death of frivolous lawsuits from folks who don't remember signing up with them. Some have kept meticulous records of their relationship with people, but still know they're going to end up in court. Just keeping track of all that information and doing their best to scrub their lists clean is proving to be costly. Of course, there's one telling quote in the article, where one person says: "We brought this on ourselves—it's all telemarketers' faults." Exactly. If they really did a good job and not an intrusive job of marketing to people, this wouldn't be such a big issue.
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To Contact, or not To Contact?
The problem here is that they haven't spent enough time in customer relations to build a system to deal with the customer. It costs too much money, cuts into their profits, and until now, wasn't that big of a deal. The companies I deal with online, for the most part, fall into the same category, and I am sure are also worried.
However, some of them aren't, because they have taken the time and the effort to assure that they communicate with their users through multiple channels (website, each call, email, etc,) how to remove themselves from further communications. And this isn't restricted to tech companies, as other non-tech companies I deal with are as careful. I respect these companies, love receiving their communications, and continue to make purchases from them, because I know if I ever do not want to receive anything from them, I can do so with minimal effort (I've done this already with a few companies, and I've actually come back to some companies because of their solid respect for my privacy despite problems I have had with shipping/etc.) However, some companies (i.e. Buy.com, Amazon.com, SBC, etc.,) have continued to SPAM me after I have asked them not to, and as a result I am pushed further away from ever shopping with them ever again, because they don't have enough respect for me, their customer, to allow me to cool off, and instead continue to shotgun me with email, mail, phone-calls, etc., after I've told them to leave me alone.
The companies I deal with who have made it a point to include in every communication with me an easy way to get myself off their lists may still end up in court, but that is the cost of doing business, and is a risk of our current legal system. It will be a lot easier defending a case in which you've made every opportunity available to the customer to remove themselves from your list than the way most companies are currently acting, by hiding behind the "previous relationship" clause of the law and not taking the time to improve their customer relationship and methods for customers to remove themselves from future communication.
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