Sunday, January 19, 2014

Amazon Pissed me off this morning...

Thank you for purchasing from Amazon.com.
Your recent order D01-0358276-5xxxxx entitles you to a promotional credit which we have added to your account. This credit can be applied to your next qualifying purchase.
Promotion details:
Additional information on this offer can be found here.
Your recent purchase has qualified you to own or gift select science fiction or fantasy Kindle books for $0.99. The promotional code has already been applied to your account. For redemption instructions, and additional information including offer restrictions, please follow the link above. Your promotional code expires at 11:59 pm Pacific Time on January 31, 2014.
The promotional credit must be used by January 31, 2014. This offer is subject to Terms and Conditions.
Thanks again for shopping with us.
Amazon.com
Earth's Biggest Selection

My answer:

Hi,
This was an annoying email. Just crappy marketing.
If you look at my amazon account, you'll see that I spend hundreds, maybe thousands of dollars there a year.

Are you really going to send me an email, interrupt my day, to say that I have a $0.99 credit but it must be spent in the next 12 days?
Did you think I'd hustle around due to your promotion to find some $0.99 thing to read just so I didn't lose the credit?
Did you think I'd feel great about Amazon because they gave out a highly restricted $0.99 bonus?

DON't BE STUPID. Send me emails appropriately, spare me annoying near-spam promotions.
I run a small company with a fair amount of email marketing. One of our principles is not to send out stupid promotions that annoy people.

John

AMAZON's Answer:

Greetings from Amazon.com.

We're sorry.  You've written to an address that cannot accept incoming
e-mail.  But that's OK--this automated response will direct you to the
right place at Amazon.com to answer your question or help you contact
customer service if you need further assistance.

You will find the answers to the most common questions here:

 Ordering: http://www.amazon.com/help/ordering
 Where's My Stuff: http://www.amazon.com/help/wheres-my-stuff
 Gift Certificates: http://www.amazon.com/gift-certificates
 Promotions: http://www.amazon.com/o/tg/browse/-/565778/
 Shipping Options: http://www.amazon.com/help/shipping
 Returns: http://www.amazon.com/returns

If your question is not answered by the above links, we invite you to
search our Help Desk at http://www.amazon.com/help

If you need to modify an unshipped order or make changes to your
account or subscriptions, you may do so online at any time via
Your Account:  http://www.amazon.com/your-account

We hope our online resources meet all your needs.  If you've explored
the above links but find you still need to get in touch with us,
please click the "Contact Customer Service" link on our main Help page.

Thanks for shopping at Amazon.com.

Sincerely,

Amazon.com Customer Service
http://www.amazon.com

MY ANSWER - I've been to Amazon's Home Page. There's NO "Contact Customer Service" link (that I can find). 

Friday, January 17, 2014

Time4Branding!

I was just looking at how companies build their diversified brands. I was looking at a company called Time4Learning that does educational homeschool software.  I noticed that they also have these sites
forwarded to their core Time4learning.com site.

There's Time4Reading.com and Time4Math.com which are both forwarded to pages on Time4Learning.com.

There's also a Time4Science.com which seems to be associated with a college science program.   And Time4Writing.com which is an affiliated writing educational program!

There are variations on Time4Learning.com. For instance, Time4Learning.net seems to be a community forum that supports Time4Learning.com.  There seems also to be TimeForLearning.com and TimeFourLearning.com both of which are forwarded to Time4Learning.com.  There's also Time4Learning.org which seems to just be a navigation list to Time4Learning.com.

I wonder if there is a:
Time4Spanish
Time4Spelling
Time4Vocabulary
Time4arithmetic
Time4marketing
Time4testing
Time4english
Time4business
Time4resting
Time4working
Time4Playing
time4geography
Time4History
Time4Chemistry
Time4algebra
Time4college
time4preschool
time4kindergarten
Time4highschool
etc