« The Re-Vet | Main | McCain's Strategy » Dear Marriott16 May 2008 10:49 am When I stayed at one of your hotels recently and asked if it would be possible to email a copy of my receipt to me and your clerk said "yes" I was hoping for a copy of the receipt to be emailed to me and was not hoping to be inundated with spam on a near-daily basis. Action on either of those points would be appreciated. Comments (24)
Matt- Who is the audience for these? 
Sucker. E-mail isn't for your convenience. It is for the convenience of the marketers of whatever company you give your address to. Its just like the misconception that TV is trying to sell you products. TV is really trying to sell YOU to advertisers.
Still better than the double billing I received from them on my last stay.. Then they called my cell phone to try and get me to buy a time share in Las Vegas or Orlando. Nice company you got there.
And Brad L, if you don't like it, don't read it. It's NOT YOUR BLOG!
I fully support pulicizing annoying business practices, as a means of shaming companies into changing them. Good for you, MY.
Thats a rookie mistake. I got burned like 2 years ago when I gave my email address to a Sheraton hotel in Tampa.
Brad L: It's like when Bill Bryson's family got lousy service on an airplane and he finished up his travel piece with something like "And it would be an abuse of my position to tell you the name of the carrier, which was (name of carrier)." We like to see someone with a public platform call them on lousy service.
I love how Matt is using his blog on The Atlantic to attack random commenters and hotels that he has stayed at. I think he is sending a message to anyone he might come into contact with: kid gloves or you'll regret it.
Another reason to use spamgourmet.com: disposable email addresses are approximately the best thing ever invented on the internet.
I'm with Tel and Deborah -- if companies get attacked on blogs for doing irritating things, maybe they'll stop doing them. In related news, U-Haul sucks.
I'm with Tel and Deborah -- if companies get attacked on blogs for doing irritating things, maybe they'll stop doing them. Hey, I'm clearly in the minority in thinking that these sorts of posts are petty and kind of pointless. The audience for it surprises me, but is clearly there. OTOH, I don't hold out much hope for Marriott changing its policies.
I have two email addresses. One which is for my friends and business stuff. The other is a yahoo address which is for people who might spam me. My home address has received one piece of s[pam in threes. My yahoo address is mostly spam.
Had just the same problem with Marriott starting about three weeks ago. Annoying-- especially when so much of the spam is requests for me to fill out surveys about what a good job they're doing. Because I live in Quebec, they've also decided to send 'em to me in both French and English just in case.
Dear Mr. or Mrs. Yglesias: We were recently informed of your experience with Mariott. This troubles me, and I wanted to send my sincere apologies, and offer you [insert a complimentary fruit basket / a free, two-night stay in any Mariott worldwide / preferential consideration if your child applies to enter Harvard, Yale, Princeton or Cornell / a blowjob, depending up the severity of the issue]. This is simply our way of saying Thank You for your patronage. We make every attempt to ensure your stay at a Mariott hotel is excellent in every way. As an additional gift, I will personally make sure you receive regular emails from each of our twelve main Marriot guest service divisions -- containing vacation tips, laundry and travel suggestions, and so much more! We hope you'll find them all useful, and that you'll think of Marriot on your next business or vacation trip!
'When I stayed at one of your hotels recently and asked if it would be possible to email a copy of my receipt to me and your clerk said "yes"' Did you ask them to do it, or only if it were possible.
First, Matt is not attacking random commenters. He has been attacking a particular commenter who has made a gigantic nuisance of himself. The wisdom of giving an Internet troll attention is another matter. Second, just go to the next post if these bother you. I think they're fine, if not overdone. It's not like Matt doesn't post every 15 minutes. Third, a personal anecdote. I went to a conference in 2000 for a large company known by its initials which at the time was being run into the ground by one of McCain's advisors. They had outsourced marketing for the goddamn conference to a firm which proceeded to spam me for the next eight years. I believe I got them kicked out of at least one provider, although they did of course retaliate. Fourth, I would make sure to let them know they've lost a customer. Eric, don't be naive enough to assume that unsubscribing will work. Even if it does, often they keep your email in another database and you'll magically wind up on their list six months later.
Sorry, my problem (double billing and unwanted telemarketing) was actually Hilton, not Marriott. I'm sure Marriott sucks for a variety of other reasons, but I was in error. I wish Conrad Hilton and all his heirs much bad tidings, which the internets tell me has largely already happened. Yea internets!
Let me guess...the Fullerton Marriott, only place to stay when visiting Yorba Linda!
Second, just go to the next post if these bother you. I think they're fine, if not overdone. It's not like Matt doesn't post every 15 minutes. So, just to clarify: what "bothers" me about this sort of post is not that I don't care about the general subject (although I remain surprised at how many do). I mean, he can write about basketball all he wants. I just skip it, and all is well. I just find these sorts of posts a bit petty and vindictive, and so they make me think a little less of the person writing them. That's not the sort of impression that can be resolved by "just ignoring" the things someone does that you find unappealing. (I also think it is kind of silly to write a complaint post about giving a corporation your email and being surprised when you start getting spam. I mean... Shocked, I tells ya! Shocked!. But that is a different point.)
Well, I had thought the whole point of the Internets was to share brilliant insights about living, breathtaking artwork, and amazing skill with CSS and Java to a world of other humans. And to be petty and vindictive.
Matt's just trying to establish that his blog has clout. Heh, heh... "Marriott forecasts nearly $4 billion in gross revenue for Marriott.com in 2006" "With the anticipated gross revenue growth of more than 38 percent in 2006, Marriott.com will have doubled in size in just two years, stated the company." And this is fun: " May I Speak to the Manager? A Storm at Marriott FOR John J. Flatley, a multimillionaire property developer, the eviction of his trusted overseer was more than he could bear. Mr. Flatley, an experienced real estate executive, had hired Marriott International to run his big new hotel in Quincy, Mass., south of Boston, but had installed his own man, Steven Lambert, to keep an eye on the business. The relationship between Mr. Flatley's team and Marriott had grown contentious over some disputed invoices, and the breaking point came last March, when Mr. Lambert asked Marriott to explain what he said was a vaguely worded bill to the hotel for $3,000 in unspecified sales and marketing services. ''Marriott said, 'You're not privy to that information,' '' said Philip A. Baldi, the chief financial officer of the Flatley Company, in Braintree, Mass., which runs a Flatley family trust that owns the hotel. Marriott, Mr. Baldi said, then ousted the asset manager from his hotel office. Last month, just 15 months after his Boston Marriott Quincy Hotel opened, Mr. Flatley sued Marriott in Federal District Court in Boston, accusing it of fraud, accounting irregularities, mismanagement and taking kickbacks from suppliers. At least three other lawsuits by the owners of Marriott-run hotels -- including Ritz-Carltons, Marriotts and Renaissances in several cities -- make similar complaints, tarnishing the company's reputation and its stock price... Hotel owners now pay Marriott up to 17 percent of their gross revenue in fees, up from about 9 percent in the early 1990's, said Jack Westergom, an asset manager at Manhattan Hospitality Advisors, a consulting firm in Manhattan Beach, Calif. In some cases, hotel owners say Marriott's fees have unexpectedly doubled or tripled, in part because of what one lawsuit calls self-dealing by Marriott."
Actually, I like this kind of posting. Not because Matt gets to stick it to The Man, but because you get to learn and perhaps profit from Matt's pain. For example, keep a hotmail or gmail account for corporate junk mail you may want to read someday. Also, complaining by email doesn't work-- a snail mail letter gets more attention. This book will pay for itself (in refunds, discounts or gifts) with the first letter.
Comments closed May 30, 2008. |
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Heads in the Sand
Each piece of spam has an unsubscribe link. You should be able to unsubscribe from their email list following the link.
Posted by Eric Martin | May 16, 2008 11:04 AM