not supporting supporters

I received this email. It is from the football club I have supported for nearly 50 years. The football club for which I have had a 'Forest Player' subscription for around 10 years. A subscription for which this email address is the contact email address for my subscription to 'Forest Player'.

 

My only consolation is that [I assume] the service is outsourced to an organization that needs to read anything on the subject of relationship management.

 

Ho hum.

no long names please

Here's another bad practice I thought had died out in the last century.

 

I was setting up a standing order from a TSB bank account - including, as you would expect, the name of the recipient. Which was fine if you have a short name. The recipient in my case is a business and has 28 characters [including spaces] in its name. But the form only allowed only 16 characters - I couldn't even fit my name in. Ho hum.

Forest failing

To celebrate my team winning its two matches over the Christmas period - I did what a lot of supporters do ... and went to buy something from the [online] club shop.

 

Having selected my purchase [see below - I was there on that day :) ]

 

I went to the checkout - but when I went to register on the site [why?] I found that as I had bought something before my details were on record ...

 

 

 

 

... but I could not remember my 'client reference number', so I followed the instructions and arrived on a page where I was asked for my email address so that it could be sent to me. But when I did so, I was told that there was no customer record for that email address.

So - not for the first time when trying to make a purchase on a site I've been to before - part of its system told me I did exist, but another part of that system told me I did not. Ho hum.

 

digital amnesia

... and still it goes on. TV advertising campaign: direct marketing email campaign: all to get me - and others - to spend money in the Homebase sale.

 

So it works ... I decide that leaf blower I have put off buying for years could be what I use to clear this year's leaves from my garden. And there is a Homebase about a mile away. And I'm up early on Boxing Day - so check their website to see what time the store opens, and get this ...

 

Yep, no mention of any Bank Holiday openings. Ho hum.

adidas marketers touch down between the e-marketing posts

I came across this excellent Tweet which celebrated the All Blacks rugby team winning all 14 of its matches in a calendar year.

 

Clicking on the link took you to ...

 

 

If there are any of my ex- students who cannot tell you why so many 'w's can be used then they weren't concentrating in week/chapter 2.

 

PS, you could always check out why in my domain names book. 

doh ! doh ! doh !

It's not that unusual for a direct marketing email to fail to render [show] in the receiver's inbox. Well this one's a doozy. Below is just a fiftieth [yes, 1/50th] of the code which appeared when I opened this email:

 

But it gets worse. This was from a digital marketing company promoting their new website. As I said; triple doh!

There was a follow-up email half an hour later, but it said:

"Note: A previous version of this email contained an image that did not render correctly in some email clients. We are re-sending to those affected and we apologize for any confusion."

In my opinion, a less formal approach would have been better. Why not admit to the error rather than - seemingly - blaming the technology of the receiver.  

Oh, by the way, I'll refrain from naming the company - they should be squirming enough as it is.

is this why International Business Machines became IBM?

... so they could get their email address on contact forms?

 

I was filling in a form to get a free IBM report - but sadly there was a limit in the amount of characters I could enter for my email address ...

 

Yep, two characters short. Schoolchild error.

 

 

long-lost relation[ship]

I got this email, ironically it's about relationship marketing. Shame I haven't owned a Ford for over 35 years.

guess the price ...

I don't really need to say anything about this web page do I?

every organizations should have one ...

... so congratulations to Bath University. Reasonable wage too - and it doesn't ask for any 'techie' qualification, this is for a writer not a website developer.