Gevalia - Kraft Foods new spam run (part 2)
Richard was true to his word. And apparently, despite privacy legislation, he is eligible to give us his full name. (More on that later.)
Not Veronica X.
OK - so here's what happened:
Veronica X from Gevalia phoned today.
I asked "Veronica who?"
"Due to privacy laws I am not eligible to give you my last name."
Eligible?
OK. Whatever.
So why did you call?
To tell me that I should simply opt-out of the Gevalia spam (in Twitter space that would be #Gevalia spam) and my life would return to normal.
But if I don't opt out, will Gevalia keep spamming me? And maybe my other email addresses? And my cellphone?
"Yes."
But I didn't ask for Gevalia spam. And I sure didn't ask to it to be sent to a mobile phone - where I pay for ever bit and byte I receive.
So Veronica X, do you understand that some of us are actually paying to receive #Gevalia spam?
"Not if you have a data plan."
According to Veronica X, if you have a data plan on your cellphone, you just pay a monthly fee for data charges and you don't really pay for the ads that #Gevalia sends you. Or something like that. I don't quite get her argument.
And she obvi0usly doesn't get mine: I don't want to receive #Gevalia spam, and n0t if I have to pay to receive their ads. That's like telemarketers being able to call collect.I pay for data. Up to a limit. If I go over it, I pay more. If Veronica X decides to spam the sh*t out of my cellphone, she could put a serious dent in my bank balance.
According to Vernonica X, too bad.
"That's called marketing," she told me.
Shifting the cost of advertising - remember that #Gevalia is owned by Kraft Foods - from a huge corporation to people who really would rather not get their ads and sure as fsck don't want to pay for them - must sound like the marketing miracle of the millennium:
And what about the lawsuit against Kraft / Gevalia in 2005 for spamming? Are you aware of that?
"No, I’m not...I went through head office and they don't know about it either."
Doesn't the Can-Spam Act prevent you from randomly spamming people you have no prior business relationship with and who've never given you permission to abuse their inboxes?
"I’m not 100 per cent sure. I can definitely look into that."
But what you're doing seems to be breaking the law.
"No, it isn't."
So you can speak on behalf of the company, but won't identify yourself?
"Yes."
And you one of the company's official spokespersons?
"I am an executive representative."
How about letting me talk to someone who isn't afraid to identify themselves - somebody who will represent the company without hiding behind your bogus privacy legislation claim?
"I will get someone to call you back."
And she hopes I have a great day.
-g
