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Bad Business

Saturation Bombing your Customers is Stupid

I bought some coffee from Nguyen Coffee Supply after reading about them in the New York Times. I like the product. I am even a repeat customer - I went back and bought more. Unfortunately they have zero judgement when it comes to customer relations.

Most businesses interpret the spam laws to mean that once you have done business with someone, you have permission to spam them. Nguyen has taken that to the extreme - they show up in my inbox seemingly every other day. I don’t need another spam from them when I am sitting there drinking their product - I know who they are. Sending me advertising shit so often is too much - it is harassment as far as I am concerned.

I am sure that down in the fine print of their spam somewhere is an unsubscribe link. I don’t bother with those, I just spam-block them, and don’t do business with them any more. I guess I am in a small enough minority that they don’t learn, which is a pity. Since there are so many poor business types out there, I decided to complain about it more publicly.

It really is a pity that companies have taken their media lessons from classless assholes like the orangutan former president. Beating on customers is NOT a way to keep them coming back. In this case, I am buying coffee by the bag, so I take some time to drink it before I need more. A dozen spams during that time doesn’t make me want to buy more of anything.

I am probably just a midwest dinosaur living in a New York hustle world, but if they want to sell to me, they best learn how. I am well aware that learning and knowledge are out of style - I get reminded every day when I read the latest stupidity coming out of the GQP in Washington.

The trouble with ignoring all of the experience that education distills for us is that you make the same mistakes that everybody has made before. I am aware that the noisy political class doesn’t care - they represent people who have nothing to lose because of their stupidity. I am not one of those people, and I don’t throw money at idiots.

Goodbye, Nguyen. Your coffee is fine, your marketing sucks.