More Waste Of Money
 

Once again VM waste money.
Today I received from VM, The Book of OOH! Not a circular but actually addressed to me, to tell me what I can get from VM. Now I've been with them and their predecessors for nearly 20 year, I know what I can do.
I have to pay them for a printed bill which I want.
If they didn't send out adverts to their customer maybe we wouldn't have to pay.

Re: More Waste Of Money
 

that's ok they keep sending me letters offering me (by name) cable even though the whole village can't get it.

Re: More Waste Of Money
 

yes I got the same wish they would spend there (or ours!) money elsewhere

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There are different budgets for marketing and development and what not. It's not all from the same pot.

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Think about this from their point of view. If they send out 1,000 mail shots and 100 people add something to their monthly package, they've more than paid back whatever the mailshot costs.

Contrast that with a paper bill that costs the same, but is not going to get them any money that they aren't owed anyway.

Not that I am defending mailshots. I am not. I hate them. Just looking at it logically.

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I'm getting pretty tired of this justification. If you want to be super pedantic you could say the mailshots for Edinburgh come from a different "pot" than Glasgow. Big ****ing deal. Both "pots" come from the same bottom line. They're both funded by money from customers. It's still my money being wasted.

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Its not being wasted though. Mailshots do work.

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They may work but why send them to their own customers who know what they've got

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I agree, im staff and I got one. Pointless

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Snap

You'd think they would target the people who can actually get the product though.Somewhere deep in the bowels of VM HQ there is a map of cabled addresses, send the junk to them not me ,i cannot get cable ,i will never be able to get cable at this address so can they please stop sending me offers and deals to switch from A supplier to them

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What most people fail to understand is that the listings used for the mailshots are totally unrelated to the existing customer accounts database.

Would probably be to hard for them to try and sync the two lists together and also remove everyone that cant get cable.

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To be fair it is quite simple, considering vm know the addresses and postcodes of their customers already, and the postcodes of their target punters... They only have to run a simple loop through all postcodes they can supply, and remove the house numbers of known customers in that postcode.

Simple database queries 101

It really is not rocket science.

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You and I obviously have a different understanding of the word "work".

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It's the cheapest way to advertise, it costs less to letter bomb everyone than to be selective, that's why all of them do it.

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I got a Tax rebate from Inland Revenue... The cheque came in one envelope and the explanation for the rebate came in another envelope at the same time and day!!! waste of tax payers money me thinks.

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It's always been like that. Payments are a separate area....

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strangely enough the only ISP mailshots I get are from VM.

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That's as made me laugh bud :D

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They clearly do have their intended effect. If they didn't, businesses would not use them.

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They r still sending mail to my parents address in my name even though i have not lived there for over 7 years. I have asked twice to be removed from the mailing list and twice they promised i would and still they keep sending.

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I had the same this week for a tax rebate on my company car

---------- Post added at 06:29 ---------- Previous post was at 06:06 ----------

I get something similar from Sky.

I asked them not to send me mail as it was getting out of order the amount they send. I then had to tell them a further 4 times and in the end had to raise a formal complaint with them.

Guess what the ***** did, they stopped sending mail to my house with my name on it and instead now send it addressed to the occupier instead. So what I do is wait till there is enough of it to weigh a lot and that means it will cost a lot in postage. I package the whole lot up, pop it in the post box and send it to there office in Braham Street London addressed as PAY AT DESTINATION.

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I don't believe that to be the case with Virgin.
I think they are just desperate. they send people knocking on your door way too often. and they send these letter bombs indiscriminately.

obviously someone will join up. but the majority would probably already have them, or if they wanted them they would be with them by now anyway. so the door knocker would be told yet again "not interested!"

and the mail would go in the bin.

on occasion when I do read their letter bombs. it's always a reduced price to get you to sign up. and goes back up to normal later.

why don't they try another approach of 'no catches' and up front prices for a change?

it's got to be worth a try.

---------- Post added at 10:52 ---------- Previous post was at 10:48 ----------

I do that with Virgin.
but I put all my junk mail in the package. even the pizza ones.

Re: More Waste Of Money
 

They do work yes, but only have a 1% rate.

They annoy me to hell, especially when I'm already with them for everything.

They need to stop sending the junk out to people who are already customers.

I've had them addressed to me.

Also once or twice a week we get various un-addressed VM junk mail.

---------- Post added at 13:46 ---------- Previous post was at 13:43 ----------

There's still a lot of addresses around here they can supply, yet their database still says non-cable area, so people can't order online, they have to call up and then get the nonsense of computer says no. You have to tell them well this neighbour the service, that neighbour etc, just send out a spotter. Spotter comes out and as soon as the walk in to talk to you they say, there's no reason why you can't have the service, just the ropey database they have.

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I constantly get mailshots from Sky/Talk Talk and BT. I just bin them, not really too much to get annoyed about. Just a waste of paper.

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If you are no longer with these companies, write to them quoting the Data Protection Act and ask them to remove all your personal details from their written and computer records. They are obliged to act on your request. I've done this with several companies, works every time.

Re: More Waste Of Money
 

But they can still mailshot the house and address it to the occupier

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The only other ISP i know for doing this kind of thing used to be AOL UK. They were well known for sending out millions upon millions of free trial cds a month to random people.

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Not really. For security, the cheques are probably all printed in one place, but it may not be practical to print the letters in the same place.

---------- Post added at 21:12 ---------- Previous post was at 21:08 ----------

Send out enough letters and even if only 1% of customers upgrade their packages, or open accounts, then the Mailshot has probably already paid for itself. After all if you are sending out 10s of thousands of letters, you are probably paying less than a normal customer would for each one..

Re: More Waste Of Money
 

I live in a cable area, but I live in a new (Big Estate) which is surrounded by cable.
But virgin media wont pay to fit the cables on the estate! I get 3 mbps and a person 2/1 minutes down the road and can get 120 mbps (Btw 3mbps is the max I can get!) hate virgin at the moment as they keep sending be broadband letters :@

Re: More Waste Of Money
 

You and I obviously have a different understanding of the word "their intended effect".

The effect they are having according to this thread seems to be ****ing off existing customers and other people who cannot even get cable service.

To be honest though the same could be said of any spam email or even phishing scams. They "work", seemingly according to your definition. Doesn't make them particularly popular or acceptable either.

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OK.. Looking at it logically for a second. Businesses wish to make money while minimising cost. As such, any process that costs a business money without contributing to the profits (or at least minimising losses) is likely to be stopped.

Bearing that in mind, from a business point of view, Mailshots must make them a profit as it's unlikely so many businesses would still be using them as a marketing tool.

That doesn't mean they aren't an irritation for the consumer though.

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I'd like to point out it doesn't really bother all that much I only mentioned it because I get it.

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You and I obviously have a different understanding of the word "contributing"

And lets not forget plenty of business do stupid things that don't get stopped because stupid people are in charge of them.

"If they're doing it, it must make them a profit" is a pretty niaive way to think of things these days, when a lot of businesses are finding money is not the only thing they need to be making.

Re: More Waste Of Money
 

What's the big deal?

VM do it, BT do it, talk talk do it, sky do it.

Also pizza hut do it, dominos do it, insurance firms do it.

Loads of companies do it. If you don't want it, or the offers aren't applicable to you - bin them. Don't worry about it, move on with your life.

If junk mail is a big issue in your life, then you are truly blessed that you have no bigger problems to worry about.

I would rejoice if all I had to winge about was junk mail.

Re: More Waste Of Money
 

Could always put a 'No junk mail' sticker on your letter box

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Wont stop addressed mail.

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i was averaging 2 or 3 a month at one point lol

---------- Post added at 03:09 ---------- Previous post was at 03:06 ----------

I get talk talk constantly sending me mail addressed to the occupier. The Guy who lived here before me died and left a hefty bill with talk talk and they sent around debt collectors about a year after i moved in for £350 and i had to get letters from housing association to prove i had taken over the tenancy.

I just now write on the envelope return to sender and post back when i go to post office.

Re: More Waste Of Money
 

I doubt we do have a different idea of contributing..
The fact is that a lot of companies use Mailshots. Not every company is run by stupid people.
You can nitpick all you want but the primary goal of the average business is to make money. Not everything they do will directly earn them money, but everything they do should (even if indirectly) contribute to that.

Re: More Waste Of Money
 

I don't understand this, its a little bit of advertising why is everyone getting so annoyed, if you don't like it don't read it.

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I was getting them whilst a customer, how does that work?

Also shoving them down my face every week A4 sized isnt going to make me come back, its just going to make me angry.

I dont open these mailshots, its A4, I look for the VM logo and its in the trash.

---------- Post added at 07:10 ---------- Previous post was at 07:08 ----------

I cant remember the last time I got a mailshot of BT and sky. I get one of VM every single week (except a 3 week spell where I got no post at all).

Re: More Waste Of Money
 

Well that goes to show you that these mail shots are a bit more targeted than you think.

I don't live in a VM area, and I have never received a VM mail shot.

Whereas I get BT, Sky and Talk Talk all the time.

Re: More Waste Of Money
 

There is also a Mailing Preference Service but that's not as funny or satisfying as what Sirius and Gary do :D

---------- Post added at 10:51 ---------- Previous post was at 10:49 ----------

This was the sort of thing that prompted me to get a CD shredder... I was a volunteer and used to get hundreds a month to pass on - usually with my phone bill cheque :D

I still use said CD shredder to destroy SSD's when they are dead.. oh and CD/DVD's obviously :)

VM seem to send out " to the occupier" all the time - I am waiting to see if I ever get mails from Sky after joining them. So far nothing.

---------- Post added at 10:53 ---------- Previous post was at 10:51 ----------

Oddly enough I got one this morning trying to flog me their amazing package with BT sports.

Of course I would need a TV and a TV licence first - no thanks!

Also I'm the same with the post.. It's nice to only get things you actually expect (apart from mailshot rubbish) - DCA letters for other people are quite funny too :)

Re: More Waste Of Money
 

yeah they targeting certian areas I have no doubt. MY area has a higher turnover of residents than probably more affluent areas so I expect the frequency is related to that, the areas has very high VM takeup, so thats another frustration in that they are agressively seeking customers when the area has capacity issues.

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I bought one of those stickers does it work does it fk I even have a note up no cold callers or take away menu that doesn't work either.

I'm sure they see it as a challenge I even asked the postman not to post junk through my door but he said he has to to get revenue for the post office as they get paid for it.

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Just put all the junk mail back into the post boxes - the post office will soon get fed up with it just like us householders who receive mail we did not ask for.

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Your right load of companies do this, but they are not charging me to have a printed bill.
That's what P***** me off

Re: More Waste Of Money
 

:) What a brill ! idea.....