I’ve always been impressed with Amazon. They can find and post me almost any book ever published half-way across the world for a reasonable price within a few weeks. I’ve bought heaps of books from them and their service has always been excellent.
As happy as I am, Amazon have one annoying flaw. It’s their marketing department.
The offer
Dear Amazon.com Customer,
As someone who’s shown interest in books and magazines on science, you might like to know the Magazines store is offering two-year subscriptions on select science magazines for the price of one until April 30th.
It’s like getting a full year free. Or like getting a bonus zoo pass.
Renew, start a new subscription, or give a gift today.
In this email (targeted enough that it has my name in the subject line) is an offer for Popular Mechanics – $10 for 2 years. What an offer!
Taking the bait
Intrigued, I click on the offer.
Blah blah, log in, choose a shipping address. All smooth sailing, or so I thought:
Important Message
* Popular Mechanics (2-year) cannot be shipped to the selected address.
Huh?
I try my other Australian postal address address. Same error.
No reason is given. Nothing in the Amazon online help seems relevant. I give up. Amazon loses a sale.
Fail
So, Despite Amazon knowing:
- All my previous purchases have been posted to Australian addresses
- My profile is set for Australia
- I’m coming from an Australian IP address
Amazon marketing still still send me an offer that they have no intention of honouring.
The email was nothing more than bait to get me to visit the Amazon website. (Perhaps so I’ll buy something else while I’m there) The offers it contained weren’t genuine. The email was nothing other than spam.