Many years ago, I used to go to a beauty salon in Singapore, where they did facial treatments like facial masks, steaming, ‘extracting’, massages and whatnots.
To make a long story short, I stopped going there eventually as they tend to always use pressure tactics and hard-selling so that you buy more services. And that’s very off putting. I don’t understand the lack of foresight, as it chases clients away rather than making them want to continue patronising.
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So recently I got this in the mail :
(Sans the soft toy as it’s covering my home address and I’m too lazy to photochop it out)
Inside are photos of me running in the half-marathon last month, list of prices and a bill for payment.
I don’t know how you’d react to that, but immediately I was really pissed off.
- First of all, while the photos are quite well shot, I never asked for them
- The fact that this company is chasing me for payments for things that I never asked for, just leaves a bad taste in my mouth.
You could justify that, Marina, it’s not a big deal – I could just send back the photos and problem’s solved. But why do /I/ have to take the time to get stamps, find a mail box (which is strangely difficult to find in Rome) and post it back? Why do /I/ have to take the effort for something that I never wanted or asked for in the first place?
Another thing that quite bothered me is the fact that my address was freely given to this company by the running organization. By right, in Italy, there is a privacy law where you’d have to put your signature to give your permission for advertisers to contact you.
You might think that it’s not a big deal, one gets flyers and spam mail all the time. But in this case, it is different a the package has your name and address on it! And someone out there has your personal details that you have no intention of sharing in the first place.
Speaking of which, some years back, we had so many telemarketing calls and it got so bad that we put our phone numbers in the ‘Registro delle opposizioni‘ which is a list where registrants are protected from marketing calls.
What do you think I should do with the photos? While I sympathise with the photo company for trying to make a living, hard-selling tactics are definitely not the way to go. Prior to this, I was contemplating on buying a photo, but after this incident … forget it!
Shame on you! I’m so turned off now like I’m turned off doing facials at beauty salons.
lol they send u the product THEN they ask for payment?! wont people just keep it and ignore their requests for payments?
That’s messed up, right? Quite ridiculous!
Sheesh! this is like blackmail. I think there should be some tribunal or Consumer body out there that can help you.
I’m not sure, but I could do some research on that. Thanks Paul David 🙂
It’s a little like those touristy places where they print your photo and put it up on the wall even if you don’t ask for it.. In the hope you’ll want to buy it when you see it…
What a waste of paper and ink.. 🙁
Hey! You remind me of a technique that has been used for some photography companies. They give you a coupon for a free makeover, and 3 free photos (I don’t remember the whole amount) and they take loads of nice pictures of you after the hair and makeup and costume and you’re supposed to choose 3 and they will delete the rest of the photos in front of you. Of course, you would feel bad and try to salvage more photos. They each cost 10 dollars each, as far as I remember which is quite pricey.
Please scan it first before you returned it. 🙂
😛
maybe u could send a quick reply saying ‘Grazie ma no grazie. NB: no pubblicita piu per me!’
no need to spend a cent but do categorise their email addy under yr Spam mail..haha!
But this is real mail, not email 😛
i would just keep the photos and let them chase me since they are into this kinda tactics..
Have you ever experienced something similar before?