LETTERS TO THE EDITOR
IT’S ALL ABOUT MONEY
Kudos to Ken Magill for illuminating the Unspam Inc./state do-not-e-mail-registry connection (Don’t Get Him Started, April). With commentary like this in hand, perhaps the Direct Marketing Association will have further fodder to block these grandstanding, expensive and silly attempts to regulate legitimate marketing.
The debate to date has been a whitewash. At least we now have proof it’s really about money and a government-endorsed ticket to riches for Prince & Co., with a little on the side for the coffers.
Officials from the Federal Trade Commission wisely staked their claim that these state registries, and would-be state registries, are ineffectual and unnecessary. I’m hopeful state policymakers will begin to pay attention to logic — but I have my doubts.
There’s really nothing new here. Years ago, state attorneys general tried to run the sweepstakes business out of business. No one seemed to notice that simultaneously, states were spending millions (billions?) of tax dollars telling the average consumer, “You can’t win if you don’t play” as they promoted newly approved government lotteries.
I’m wondering what state lawmakers have up their sleeves for do-not-mail registries next? You can bet political mail will be exempted!
Chet Dalzell
Director, Public Relations
Harte-Hanks
New York
CAN AOL REALLY GUARANTEE DELIVERY?
AOL charging postage on e-mail messages doesn’t surprise me (“Put Up or Shut Up,” March). Sportsmith’s call center staff collects, on average, 3% AOL e-mail addresses [so the company can send] order confirmations and order-tracking information to customers.
However, almost every AOL e-mail address comes back as non-deliverable, so [those] addresses are purged from our system. Charging postage on AOL e-mail is nothing more than another revenue channel to boost AOL’s bottom line.
Lets face it, cable and phone companies are offering high-speed Internet service for almost the same price as dial-up service, [and that’s] hurting AOL. So AOL is going to penalize legitimate companies for guaranteed delivery?
I would like to see further details [in Direct] about how AOL plans to guarantee delivery past the spam folders and filters. Nothing works this simply, and every database marketer knows this is true when it comes to implementing services like this one.
Troy Mosley
Marketing Manager
Sportsmith LLC
Tulsa, OK
