Customer stalking
Posted: Fri Sep 22, 2023 9:24 am
I don't know whether it's just me or more of us, but I'm getting so tired of creepy commercial use of our data that I'm opting out when it gets bad. Here are some examples:
This morning I got an email from Chicago Music Exchange, and the subject was literally "We Caught You Looking!". Of course the email included a link to a guitar I had looked at on their site. I don't need follow-up stalking emails telling me they're tracking my activity. So I unsubscribed from Chicago Music Exchange emails, because there's apparently no option to just opt out of the stalking.
It's not unique. Last week I had the same situation with Eastwood sending me an email titled "Did you forget something?" and a picture of a guitar I checked out there. I unsubscribed from Eastwood emails and emailed Mike to tell him why. That went unanswered.
The week before that, I had to tell a Musician's Friend salesman to take me out of his database several times because I don't do business with Musician's Friend. He had to take me out of Guitar Center's database too, because apparently he was being prompted to email, text, and call me from both companies (because they're really the same company). So I don't see the deal of the day emails anymore because I don't want also their stalking.
At least Sweetwater is good enough to note when customers don't want out-of-band hassles, so I haven't yet had this opt-out situation with them. Bottom line, am I the a-hole, or is it just too annoying how companies are trying too hard to up customer engagement?
This morning I got an email from Chicago Music Exchange, and the subject was literally "We Caught You Looking!". Of course the email included a link to a guitar I had looked at on their site. I don't need follow-up stalking emails telling me they're tracking my activity. So I unsubscribed from Chicago Music Exchange emails, because there's apparently no option to just opt out of the stalking.
It's not unique. Last week I had the same situation with Eastwood sending me an email titled "Did you forget something?" and a picture of a guitar I checked out there. I unsubscribed from Eastwood emails and emailed Mike to tell him why. That went unanswered.
The week before that, I had to tell a Musician's Friend salesman to take me out of his database several times because I don't do business with Musician's Friend. He had to take me out of Guitar Center's database too, because apparently he was being prompted to email, text, and call me from both companies (because they're really the same company). So I don't see the deal of the day emails anymore because I don't want also their stalking.
At least Sweetwater is good enough to note when customers don't want out-of-band hassles, so I haven't yet had this opt-out situation with them. Bottom line, am I the a-hole, or is it just too annoying how companies are trying too hard to up customer engagement?
