Shopping Woes

[blas87]

Those e-mails are so annoying, besides.

I'm not a serious e-mailer, but when I do get an e-mail I need (for a confirmation number or what have you) I see just pages and pages of crap from Wet Seal, Old Navy, Rue 21, American Eagle, Victoria's Secret, Hollister, Aero.......it's all "Tuesday only, half off all jeans!" or "Bulldog Sale this weekend only!"

Like I said before, most of the time I can't even take advantage of the sales anyway, or I'm not always in the best of monetary shape to randomly go shopping.

I usually find out about big sales from TV commercials. That's good enough for me. I am not dirt poor, but I also can't just up and go shopping on a random Tuesday because OMG jeans on sale! Or that stupid "Happy Hour" that Charlotte Russe does in the afternoons where if you're in the store at that time, some random item goes on a ridiculous sale price.

[Andara Bledin]

Re: Email - Filters are your friend.

And if you're on Gmail, the Label feature is a godsend.

^-.-^

[blas87]

Pardon the ignorance....is filtering your e-mail basically putting it in a spam folder? How do you do it with Yahoo mail?

[Boozy]

If you're getting too many e-mails from places you shop, just unsubscribe and stop giving out your e-mail address. These places aren't spamming you; at one point you gave them your address and permission to use it.

Why mess around with spam filters when unsubscribing is an option?

[protege]

Unfortunately, many of those "unsubscribe" thingies are shady. Sure, they'll get you off of one list, but using them...confirms that your email is a legit address. Meaning, you'll get added onto a second (or third, or how many lists the spammer can create) list, which will guarantee you'll continue to get crap. Most of these lists are automated--the addition/subtraction of email addresses tends to go rather quickly.

[KitterCat]

I feel your pain, Blas. A couple weeks ago I went to the mall, so I could go to Bath and Body Works for a new bottle of body spray. I only had enough money for that, so I grabbed it and headed to the cash register.

The cashier tried to get me to buy more stuff, then asked for my phone number which I politely refused to give, and finally asked me for my email address. When I told her, I was already on their email list, she tried to say that if I gave her my email address, I'd somehow get better coupons. I still declined.

I use to work for them. Liked the job, hated corporate. They make their staff hassle you like that. It was always about the up sell. And harassing people for their info. UGH. We were required to get so many email addresses that after a while we would all just start putting in fake/our own addresses to shut the machines up. As for “getting better coupons”. The only time I noticed a change in the coupons I received while working there was when I stopped shopping there. And only twice. After that -same coupons and deals you would get just from signing up online.

[blas87]

I no longer care much for Bath and Body works, that store just wreaks to high heaven. Most likely because either the customers come in and sample the sprays until they smell of a fruit garden, or the employees spray it all over the store or themselves. I know at Hollister, the clothes always smell like their perfumes/colognes because the employees are told to spray the clothes with it.

My mom quit going to B&B Works for a short period of time after she walked into the store and was "assaulted" by an employee with a lilac scented spray, who thought nothing of spraying a poof on her. My mom is allergic to lilacs, we even had to get rid of the beautiful lilac bushes at the house because of it

She sent a complaint in, and it hasn't happened since.

[Andara Bledin]

Unfortunately, many of those "unsubscribe" thingies are shady. Sure, they'll get you off of one list, but using them...confirms that your email is a legit address. Meaning, you'll get added onto a second (or third, or how many lists the spammer can create) list, which will guarantee you'll continue to get crap. Most of these lists are automated--the addition/subtraction of email addresses tends to go rather quickly.

If you decide that you never want to see an email from a particular vendor, you can set a filter that anything from, say, sales@bathbodybeyond.com (may or may not be an actual address) skips your inbox and goes straight to a folder titled Spam Newsletters, where you can safely ignore it and delete it at your leisure.

I generally suggest against sending things straight to the Trash because 2 years down the line, long after you've forgotten that the filter even exists, you decide to make a purchase from the website, but never get a confirmation or receipt or other useful information because your filter is deleting it without your intervention.

^-.-^

[Boozy]

Unfortunately, many of those "unsubscribe" thingies are shady. Sure, they'll get you off of one list, but using them...confirms that your email is a legit address.

Blas is referring to e-mails sent by the places she shops to whom she has provided her address at one point or another. They already know the e-mail is legitimate. It's not spam. It's a customer mailing list.

I like receiving e-mails from some of the places I shop, because I only get a few e-mails a month, and they usually offer me a special discount code. Other places I've found (Old Navy is a bad one) e-mail me up to five times a WEEK, and it's always crap. No specials, no coupons. Just "HEY YOU! REMEMBER US! COME BACK!"

I unsubscribe to those e-mails, and they stop coming.