06-15-2004, 08:00 PM
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Contributing Editor Emeritus
Join Date: Aug 2006
Posts: 8,228
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Spammed By Pocket Gear
I have been a HUGE proponent of Peanut Press, which became Palm Digital Media and most recently eReader.com under the ownership of Palm Gear, which is all wrapped up with PowerByHand, and that includes Pocket Gear.
My email address is now in all of their databases as a result of the merger and they have taken it on themselves to email me and probably thousands of other customers with their latest deals. :evil: I have never, to my knowledge, purchased from Pocket Gear before - no record exists in Microsoft Money for them and I have no account info set up in eWallet either. They know I have a Pocket PC because my eReader account has "Pocket PC" as my preference. Strangely enough, they didn't pick up my notification preference which is set to "None." That means, no unsolicited email for those in PowerByHand's marketing department.
:spam:
Of course, they don't mean to spam me. :roll: "You are a valued PocketGear.com customer. Our intention is never to send SPAM to you through e-mail. Our goal is to pass along valuable discounts and share quality applications with our customers." Well, hey. Those guys pitching inexpensive Viagra or ultra-low home mortage rates aren't spamming either. Those are "valuable discounts" too, right?
Free clue PowerByHand - passing along "valuable discounts" and "sharing quality applications" unsolicited to your customer base is the definition of spam! And the sad thing is, it works. Enough people will click on the links and buy a few apps that will make the campaign a success, encouraging them to do it again.
It isn't like they didn't have an opportunity let me know of the relationship with Pocket Gear and eReader.com. I am subscribed to two eReader newsletters and they could have put an innocuous paragraph in there about these valuable discounts with their partner, but that probably wouldn't have generated the hits they were looking for. I would have been inclined to click on such a link to browse. When I find a company I like, I try to give them as much business as possible, both in the real world and on the internet. Spam like this though sends me running into the hands of their competitors when it comes to software purchases for my Pocket PC.
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06-15-2004, 08:14 PM
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Sage
Join Date: Aug 2006
Posts: 601
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I just unsubscribed from the same valuable email.
If I get another one I might sign up the contact email on their website for some valuable offers which PocketGear/PowerByHand wouldn't want to miss.
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06-15-2004, 08:30 PM
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Magi
Join Date: Feb 2002
Posts: 2,386
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Completely inexcusable and very unprofessional. I can understand if your registration with Peanut Press including you wanting to receive offers from their partners, but that was obviously not the case...
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06-15-2004, 08:42 PM
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Intellectual
Join Date: May 2006
Posts: 165
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SpamBayes... That's all ya gotta do.
Set up a Baysian filter to take care of their crap. I filter about 300 spams a day with about 99% accuracy.
Some of these spams come from PocketGear, Handango, Amazon, Barnes & Noble. I see nary a one! :: Bliss ::
Once and a while I go in and check to see who's sending me spam... and then I don't buy from them, I'll buy from somewhere else, even if it means spending a couple more bucks.
Anyone know of a Bayesian filter for Pocket Outlook? :mrgreen:
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06-15-2004, 08:49 PM
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Thinker
Join Date: Aug 2006
Posts: 333
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I got one, too, but luckily Outlook 2003 recognized it as spam.
I love PeanutPress. Hopefully this isn't a taste of what is to come of them being owned by those guys.
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06-15-2004, 08:54 PM
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Contributing Editor
Join Date: Aug 2006
Posts: 1,389
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I was kinda wondering why all of a sudden I was getting crap from pocket gear. I have purchased from them before (looong ago) and declined their emails then. I get three copies a month of their valued news... :evil:
I have heard other bad things that pocket gear has done to people who sell their software there. I haven't shopped there for a long time and after all this I don't plan on it ever again.
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06-15-2004, 09:05 PM
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Philosopher
Join Date: Feb 2002
Posts: 524
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Quote:
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Originally Posted by Jason Lee
I was kinda wondering why all of a sudden I was getting crap from pocket gear. I have purchased from them before (looong ago) and declined their emails then. I get three copies a month of their valued news... :evil:
I have heard other bad things that pocket gear has done to people who sell their software there. I haven't shopped there for a long time and after all this I don't plan on it ever again.
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Me too! :-( I have now selected the 'Remove Me' from the bottom of the Special Offers email so hopefully I wont continue to get them!
__________________
Regards
Griph
iPhone 4 32GB Jailbroken and iPad 3G 64GB .
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06-15-2004, 09:12 PM
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Mystic
Join Date: Aug 2006
Posts: 1,734
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This must be the increased marketing the promised their developers when they increased their rates.
Actually I would not really call it spam if a legitimate company e-mails me. The most important thing is that the e-mail address is real and traceable, and the un-subscribe request is honoured. Its also nice that it is accurately directed ie sent to some-one who would actually buy pocketpc software.
In any case, we all know that an e-mail list is actually an asset of a company, and when they get sold off this is also sold off to the highest bidder, irrespective of their previous policies. Lets hope no one ever buys amazon.com
Surur
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06-15-2004, 09:19 PM
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Magi
Join Date: Feb 2002
Posts: 2,386
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Quote:
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Originally Posted by Surur
Actually I would not really call it spam if a legitimate company e-mails me. The most important thing is that the e-mail address is real and traceable, and the un-subscribe request is honoured. Its also nice that it is accurately directed ie sent to some-one who would actually buy pocketpc software.
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Hmmm... if a "legitimate" company is sending me email that is unsolicited, that means another entity sent them my information without my permission. At that point, since its likely that you never even registered with this company sending you unsolicited email, there is little that stops them from sharing your email address with THEIR partners or selling the email information they have to other services (since they wouldn't have any email preferences on file from you). It can all multiply rather quickly. All it takes is one irresponsible party.
For that reason, I have to consider spam to cover all unsolicited email, regardless of the company sending it.
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06-15-2004, 09:31 PM
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Oracle
Join Date: Aug 2006
Posts: 899
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I too was wondering why I got the PocketGear email in my ebooks newsletter folder (sent to my PDM email address)...
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