Hi Michael, (Disclosure: My company publishes Conformity Newsmagazine, a possible competitor with ITEM.)
Something similar happened to one of my employees when they subscribed to ITEM. We didn't know what to do with all the stuff we got. I looked into it and found that there was a "trick" involved. On the ITEM subscription card it says "FREE SUBSCRIPTION QUALIFICATION - Answer ALL questions in this section", below this is a list of stuff like "Antennas" with check boxes. Just above the check boxes it says "FOR ADDITIONAL INFORMATION...". So, you check boxes about your interest to get a free subscription AND you also get tons of info from all the people that make the stuff for the boxes you checked. It could have been a confusing mistake in the way the form was put together, but I doubt it. In ITEMs defense, advertisers place way too much credence on how many leads they get back today. Most people who respond to an ad are wired in and either call the company direct or hit their web site rather than using the old, slow lead generation system. Companies that advertise need to qualify incoming leads by asking them where they came from when they come in by web or phone or fax or email. That's the only way they are going to figure out what advertising is working today. Most magazines are having to educate their advertisers to expect lower traditional lead generation and it must have been very tempting to juice the lead generation up. Michael Taylor wrote: > Greetings All. > I have recently been inundated with catalogues & phone calls from vendors. > After some sleuthing I discovered I had been slimed > by one of the magazines we (all) receive. It appears they are attempting to > increase there customer response index by sending > advertisers false sales leads. In my case, vendors reported that I had > responded via a "Reader Response Card" to recent ad's, which I had not. > I am concerned enough about this practice to send this note. I believe that > it represents the lowest form of deception and must be stopped. > > The magazine is free and performs a valuable service in keeping the EMC > community informed. Vendors are nice enough to support > this magazine through advertising. This symbiotic relationship benefits > everyone as long as everyone plays by the rules. When I need information > about I a product I expect to receive a prompt reply. With false leads > vendors are needlessly burdened and replies take too long. Additionally, > I got a "note" from the manager of our mail room about the extraordinary > volume of mail I was receiving. The large number of voice mails > from vendors overloaded the voice mail system. (I heard about that also). > If any other members of the group have received the same treatment I urge > you to contact the vendors and tell them you were slimed > and inform the magazine you want it stopped. > > I'll step down from my soap box now and go lock myself in the chamber. > > Best Regards, > Michael Taylor > Principal EMC Engineer > HACH Company > > --------- > This message is coming from the emc-pstc discussion list. > To cancel your subscription, send mail to majord...@ieee.org > with the single line: "unsubscribe emc-pstc" (without the > quotes). For help, send mail to ed.pr...@cubic.com, > jim_bac...@monarch.com, ri...@sdd.hp.com, or > roger.volgst...@compaq.com (the list administrators). -- Jon D. Curtis, PE Curtis-Straus LLC j...@curtis-straus.com Laboratory for EMC, Safety, NEBS, SEMI-S2 and Telecom 527 Great Road voice (978) 486-8880 Littleton, MA 01460 fax (978) 486-8828 http://www.curtis-straus.com --------- This message is coming from the emc-pstc discussion list. To cancel your subscription, send mail to majord...@ieee.org with the single line: "unsubscribe emc-pstc" (without the quotes). For help, send mail to ed.pr...@cubic.com, jim_bac...@monarch.com, ri...@sdd.hp.com, or roger.volgst...@compaq.com (the list administrators).
