Spiffyandsplendid

Our niece recently saw a pair of colorful plastic earrings she liked in a museum store. We didn't buy them at the time but we thought we'd get them for her later. Rather than go back to the store we looked online, found the website, and placed an order for the cheap earrings. We expected (hoped) it would be a simple transaction: we give the business our money, they send us the product. But that seems to be an impossible proposition with many businesses operating by some kind of "Marketing for Dummies" plan which quickly makes one regret buying from them.

The standard order confirmation was fine. But then we got a welcome message and a coupon code. Our first order hasn't even arrived yet and they're already being presumptuous about the next sale. We unsubscribed from that marketing message. So we were then surprised and disappointed to get yet another unsolicited message saying that we've "earned 280 points." Ugh. Why on earth would any business continue to send e-mails with gimmicks after a customer has already unsubscribed?!

We provided our contact info for the fulfillment of the order. Not so our inbox could be filled with ridiculous schemes. Wanting to simply buy a cheap pair of colorful, plastic earrings should not involve any kind of points programs. It's just inane.

We sent a message to the business, expressing our displeasure at their presumptuous, aggressive marketing, and especially for continuing to send unwanted marketing after a customer has unsubscribed. Did we get a simple message back with an apology, saying a mistake was made or that they would do better? Nope. In response we got a message first telling us that they've never had a complaint of that type before. Which is a passive aggressive way to say that you, the customer, are the problem, which says absolutely everything about how clueless these business owners about serving customers. Of course, surely many of their customers are probably rolling their eyes and hitting the spam filter. But that also begs the question: how many customers need to complain about your lack of respect for privacy and preferences before you recognize it is a problem?

The e-mail response just got more absurd from there, with a long screed about how they are "women owned" and are doing business in a way that is best for their family. Wha? OK. So if I only suspected this rather narcissistic business owner was just inept at customer service, they quickly dialed it up to Olympic level. I guess they feel that their profit is the most important thing and what a customer wants pales in comparison.

After their ludicrous response we demanded a refund. Lesson learned that it was a profound mistake to purchase from Spiffy & Splendid as there was absolutely nothing spiffy or splendid about the experience. But if it is your desire to start earning points for buying cheap, plastic earrings, and you don't dealing with business practices that Harvard Business School could use as a case study in how to immediately annoy new customers and permanently drive away their business, then by all means drop these graceless business owners a ring.