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It's only 8 days since I changed my email address. A couple of days later, I amended the contact page of my website to include the new addy and also an extra paragraph of text. This stated very plainly that any PR types who might be thinking of adding me to a mailing list should contact me first (and that PRs who didn't bother would have their mail treated as spam.)
There are two very simple reasons for this:
1. I might not be interested in what a PR type is trying to promote, so it's always useful to check.
2. I have a dedicated mailbox for press releases that has a completely different address, which stops my inbox from being filled up with 100+ press releases a day.
I'm really fed up of being bombarded with press releases that have no interest for me. If they go into my PR mailbox, that's no big deal, but it's a major annoyance to have unsolicited PR landing in my POP3 account - unlike all the fake rolex and viagra spam, my ISP can't filter bunny droppings.
It took less than 24 hours for a PR bunny* at Ptarmigan PR to add my new email address to their database. Did they bother to contact me? Of course not. Do I write about property? No. Do I want press releases on how to flog a house? Work it out for yourself...
I immediately instructed my email filter to block all future mails from Ptarmigan. This morning my postie delivered an envelope from Ptarmigan containing the same press release - 4 pages, what a waste of paper.
I can't wait to hit the phone on Monday morning.
*A PR person who has fluff where the brain normally resides.
Showing posts with label flaks. Show all posts
Showing posts with label flaks. Show all posts
26 January 2008
19 September 2007
Today's annoyances
WARNING *grumpy old ranter alert*
Annoyance no. 1 was an unsolicited email from a PR firm called Kelso Consulting sent to the wrong email address (I have a dedicated email address for PR stuff so it doesn't clog up my inbox). Worse, it contained an attachment - a PDF of a new weekly column by an economist. Normally, I'd have been interested in reading this but I never, ever open unsolicited attachments and I don't know any other hack that does either. Sending attachments to journalists is the fastest way to piss us off (that, and offering totally unsuitable case studies). So here we have yet another totally clueless PR firm that has managed to put my back up (like the Irish one that mailed me a release then rang to ask if I'd got it, another no-no, but then - when I'd explained that I didn't cover the stuff they were sending - further failed me to remove me from their mailing list).
Annoyance no. 2 was the post. I get a fair amount of junk mail on any given day. A lot of it is an untargeted waste of trees - companies offering to provide me with HR training, for example (like, duh, do your homework please - you don't seriously think a sole trader working from home is going to be interested in HR training, do you? Today I received the umpteenth mailing from Premierline Direct (yes, it's name and shame day today) who, roughly once a month, send me piles of bumph urging me to buy their discount insurance.
I have news for Premierline Direct:
a) I'm not interested in commercial vehicle insurance. I don't have a vehicle. Of. Any. Sort.
b) As a home-based worker, I don't need business premises insurance. A simple check on my postcode and in some directory or other would confirm that for you. And anyway, my business is covered under the household insurance.
c) after 30 months of bombarding me, don't you think that if I haven't responded by now you are unlikely to convince me to call you today?
Phew! I'm glad I got all that off my chest otherwise I might have had to rant about some of the other things that are seriously pissing me off right now.
Annoyance no. 1 was an unsolicited email from a PR firm called Kelso Consulting sent to the wrong email address (I have a dedicated email address for PR stuff so it doesn't clog up my inbox). Worse, it contained an attachment - a PDF of a new weekly column by an economist. Normally, I'd have been interested in reading this but I never, ever open unsolicited attachments and I don't know any other hack that does either. Sending attachments to journalists is the fastest way to piss us off (that, and offering totally unsuitable case studies). So here we have yet another totally clueless PR firm that has managed to put my back up (like the Irish one that mailed me a release then rang to ask if I'd got it, another no-no, but then - when I'd explained that I didn't cover the stuff they were sending - further failed me to remove me from their mailing list).
Annoyance no. 2 was the post. I get a fair amount of junk mail on any given day. A lot of it is an untargeted waste of trees - companies offering to provide me with HR training, for example (like, duh, do your homework please - you don't seriously think a sole trader working from home is going to be interested in HR training, do you? Today I received the umpteenth mailing from Premierline Direct (yes, it's name and shame day today) who, roughly once a month, send me piles of bumph urging me to buy their discount insurance.
I have news for Premierline Direct:
a) I'm not interested in commercial vehicle insurance. I don't have a vehicle. Of. Any. Sort.
b) As a home-based worker, I don't need business premises insurance. A simple check on my postcode and in some directory or other would confirm that for you. And anyway, my business is covered under the household insurance.
c) after 30 months of bombarding me, don't you think that if I haven't responded by now you are unlikely to convince me to call you today?
Phew! I'm glad I got all that off my chest otherwise I might have had to rant about some of the other things that are seriously pissing me off right now.
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