Date: Sat, 23 Jun 2001 00:53:12 -0400 From: Bill Moran <wmoran@iowna.com> To: "Jason S. Anderson" <jason.anderson@windriver.com> Cc: chat@FreeBSD.ORG Subject: Re: [OT] Spam from Windriver - how should I react? Message-ID: <3B3420B8.31A135A8@iowna.com> References: <15155.53722.908690.505545@guru.mired.org> <5.0.2.1.2.20010622174719.032350c0@mail.wrs.com>
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"Jason S. Anderson" wrote: > > Hi Bill (et al), > I just thought I would comment briefly on some of your concerns, given > that I work with Pauline here at Wind River and know some of the details of > the intention of the message you received. As we know from previous > discussions, part of the BSDi acquisition included FreeBSDMall including > its existing customer base and subscriptions which WRS has a responsibility > to service and support (both now and long-term). We've been working hard to > integrate the two companies and to transition shipping/order fulfillment > functions, but as with most integrations this is not a straightforward affair. I appreciate the effort that WRS is making to continue the service that BSDI and Walnut Creek had provided. I encourage that effort. I'm guessing that the integration resulted in "You must now change your systems to match ours" Which (regardless of how moronic it is) is standard practice in the modern business world. One day, perhaps people will understand that if you don't change things that work, they keep working. Regardless, I have faith that things will return to normal once WRS finishes integrating. > Over the past couple of weeks we've received several phone calls from > customers looking for status information about their orders. We knew there > was a need to communicate with the FreeBSDMall customers, but we didn't > want to do it in a way that would be interpreted as spamming or otherwise > abusing the freebsd-* mailing lists...hence the FreeBSDMall customer list. Hmmm... perhaps a note on the home page of the FreeBSDMall site would have been better. There was just too much fluff in that letter. Personally I feel it should have said: "We at Wind River are comitted to continuing to serve customers through FreeBSDMall. We have recently been experiencing some difficulties during the transition period. For more information see http://x.x.x. If you have an inquiry or a problem with a recent order through FreeBSDMall, please contact us via x method and we'll work quickly to straighten things out." Instead, it read like junk mail. Again, perhaps I'm just wound too tight (that's highly possible). > Please believe me when I say that no offense or spamming was intended; > we simply felt a need to let our customers know that there were was this > acquisition change at FreeBSDMall which may have caused a temporary > disruption to some shipments. It shouldn't be construed as the beginning of > a trend, or an effort to distribute advertising. Regardless of "intent" I still consider the email "spam". The most devious spammers out there will place at the end of their mails "This is not spam, if you're not interested, just delete it, we apoligize for any inconvenience." However, the email wasn't spam because it was sent out unsolicited. It was 75% spam because whoever wrote it didn't know how to just get to the point and stuffed a lot of non-relevent material in the email. As someone else has said, simply starting off the message with paragraph 4 (instead of 3 paragraphs of nonessential fluff before getting to the point) would have improved the message greatly. This (again) probably has a lot to do with me being wound too tight. However, I think it was a poorly worded letter and bad PR for WRS and FreeBSDMall. > Feel free to use the ordertracking@windriver.com address if you wish to > be removed from the customer list; I'm sure the support team would be happy > to assist. Also, there are many people at Wind (such as myself) who are > trying to keep up with the mailing lists to better understand how we can > work together, so you can also use these forums if there are things of > broader interest. I'm happy to answer other questions as well. I appreciate your response, and your support. This is probably another example of why I'm unable to work for large companies - but that's my issue, so you probably shouldn't worry too much. However, I still feel that some of my complaints are valid. Believe it or not, I'm commenting on this because I feel it can be done better, not to attack. Apparently, however, most people weren't bothered by it, so you probably shouldn't worry. -Bill -- If a bird in the hand is worth two in the bush, then what can I get for two hands in the bush? To Unsubscribe: send mail to majordomo@FreeBSD.org with "unsubscribe freebsd-chat" in the body of the messagehome | help
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