Another example of annoying advertising ..
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Toms comment regarding the annoying full-page ad reminds me of another recent situation I have just had regarding the injection of advertising into every waking minute of my existence. I had called the customer support line of my credit card to complain about an invalid charge. As usual, I was immediately placed on hold ... nothing special/unusual there. What was unusual was that I was only on hold for a short time before the line got picked up by an operator .. I thought, hey this is great, quick service for a change .. Turns out it wasnt the customer service operator, instead it was a sales pitch operator .. in this case offering me $700 worth of free airline tickets if I sign up for a travel club .. After insistently refusing the offer I was eventually routed to the customer service I required .. but man what a hassle. I can see the marketing guys thoughts; lots of people call into big companys and wait on hold trying to get customer support .. so instead of letting them listen to elevator music or silence, lets try and sell them something. It makes sense, 1) they are a captured audience, 2) it's cheaper then cold-calling because they are calling you. Man, it is amazing the $ that is wasted on misdirected advertising.
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Toms comment regarding the annoying full-page ad reminds me of another recent situation I have just had regarding the injection of advertising into every waking minute of my existence. I had called the customer support line of my credit card to complain about an invalid charge. As usual, I was immediately placed on hold ... nothing special/unusual there. What was unusual was that I was only on hold for a short time before the line got picked up by an operator .. I thought, hey this is great, quick service for a change .. Turns out it wasnt the customer service operator, instead it was a sales pitch operator .. in this case offering me $700 worth of free airline tickets if I sign up for a travel club .. After insistently refusing the offer I was eventually routed to the customer service I required .. but man what a hassle. I can see the marketing guys thoughts; lots of people call into big companys and wait on hold trying to get customer support .. so instead of letting them listen to elevator music or silence, lets try and sell them something. It makes sense, 1) they are a captured audience, 2) it's cheaper then cold-calling because they are calling you. Man, it is amazing the $ that is wasted on misdirected advertising.
Now that is jsut pathetic. The next time that happen, politely tell the sales pitch operater to f*** the hell off out of your paid phone call and leave you to the wonderful elevator music. That or simply ignore them. ;)
David Wulff
http://www.davidwulff.co.ukWell thank you Nish... ;)
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Now that is jsut pathetic. The next time that happen, politely tell the sales pitch operater to f*** the hell off out of your paid phone call and leave you to the wonderful elevator music. That or simply ignore them. ;)
David Wulff
http://www.davidwulff.co.ukWell thank you Nish... ;)
lol. Just hum along to the non existant elevator music completely ignoring all that is said to u. and bitch to yourself about how your being kept on hold for so long ;-) "Never tell people how to do things. Tell them what to do, and they will surprise you with their ingenuity." - General George S. Patton Jr.
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Toms comment regarding the annoying full-page ad reminds me of another recent situation I have just had regarding the injection of advertising into every waking minute of my existence. I had called the customer support line of my credit card to complain about an invalid charge. As usual, I was immediately placed on hold ... nothing special/unusual there. What was unusual was that I was only on hold for a short time before the line got picked up by an operator .. I thought, hey this is great, quick service for a change .. Turns out it wasnt the customer service operator, instead it was a sales pitch operator .. in this case offering me $700 worth of free airline tickets if I sign up for a travel club .. After insistently refusing the offer I was eventually routed to the customer service I required .. but man what a hassle. I can see the marketing guys thoughts; lots of people call into big companys and wait on hold trying to get customer support .. so instead of letting them listen to elevator music or silence, lets try and sell them something. It makes sense, 1) they are a captured audience, 2) it's cheaper then cold-calling because they are calling you. Man, it is amazing the $ that is wasted on misdirected advertising.
I was on Yahoo groups and they had a better way. In between links, the just show a full page ad with a very conspicous link "Go to your page" or something to that effect. I take this as the cost of using their free service. But, to have webpages that is littered with ads and worse, ads moving across the page with no option for the user to remove them, is annoying. Thomas
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Toms comment regarding the annoying full-page ad reminds me of another recent situation I have just had regarding the injection of advertising into every waking minute of my existence. I had called the customer support line of my credit card to complain about an invalid charge. As usual, I was immediately placed on hold ... nothing special/unusual there. What was unusual was that I was only on hold for a short time before the line got picked up by an operator .. I thought, hey this is great, quick service for a change .. Turns out it wasnt the customer service operator, instead it was a sales pitch operator .. in this case offering me $700 worth of free airline tickets if I sign up for a travel club .. After insistently refusing the offer I was eventually routed to the customer service I required .. but man what a hassle. I can see the marketing guys thoughts; lots of people call into big companys and wait on hold trying to get customer support .. so instead of letting them listen to elevator music or silence, lets try and sell them something. It makes sense, 1) they are a captured audience, 2) it's cheaper then cold-calling because they are calling you. Man, it is amazing the $ that is wasted on misdirected advertising.
Yep, I had a similar experience just yesterday. My credit card is about to expire so they sent me a new on in the mail. To activate it they give you an 800 number to call. So I did. Well, I had to sit through a couple of pre-recorded offers for 3-month trial memberships to protect my card against loss or fraud before finally hearing, "Your card is now activated." I wouldn't have minded it if the offers had come after telling me the card was active, but they made it so that you had no choice but to listen to the offers (and "press 1 to accept, or 2 to decline"), otherwise the card would not get activated. That's what I call "Customer Service with a Commercial". Regards, Alvaro A priest, a minister and a rabbi walk into a bar. The bartender says, "What is this, a joke?"
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I was on Yahoo groups and they had a better way. In between links, the just show a full page ad with a very conspicous link "Go to your page" or something to that effect. I take this as the cost of using their free service. But, to have webpages that is littered with ads and worse, ads moving across the page with no option for the user to remove them, is annoying. Thomas
yea... those advertisements aren't too bad. I use email at oceanfree.net and oxygen.ie At both site after you click to enter your mail box it bring up a one page advertisement and then redirects you after about 3-4 seconds to the mail box. A lot better than annoying banner ads:confused:
"Never tell people how to do things. Tell them what to do, and they will surprise you with their ingenuity." - General George S. Patton Jr.