I've got one (I know, you're thinking "SHE HAS 27 PET PEEVES WE HEAR ABOUT THEM ALL THE TIME SHUT UP ALREADY"):
Organizations that send me email, usually repeatedly, and hard copy mail about their productions.
Especially when I'm a subscriber and I have a season subscription. Yes, I'm looking at you, Shotgun Players (I already have my tickets for Dry Land, yet here's an oversized postcard for it) and you, San Francisco Opera. I already paid for my subscription tickets and made healthy donations to you both!
You can work around this by segmenting your postal mailing list! I don't need post cards telling me about Cav-Pag / Arabella / Rusalka / Carmen / Tosca / Roberto Devereux / Wonderful Life / Orlando. (Or the Domingo concert, which I will not be attending.) Isn't there some way to opt out??
Most orgs do have an opt-out, for email or for paper mail or for both. Whether it works as it should or not is up to the integrity of the system design, and the desire/competence of the organization's staff to provide excellent customer service (i.e. keep their patrons satisfied and conform to their expressed wishes). As you've had occasion to experience and publicize here, this last part isn't always up to snuff, but I think it's the rare organization that doesn't have the mechanisms to suppress email or paper mail, and most can do it with some degree of sophistication, segmenting their lists in any number of ways. That said, when an organization (I'm thinking of my previous employer, Opera Parallèle, just now) produces a brilliant mailing piece, they work really hard to get it into peoples' hands, and unless you have specifically requested not to receive mail, you're likely to get it, even if you've already received the word via some other media.
ReplyDeleteAll so true!
ReplyDeleteSFS told me they were working on segmenting their email list so that audience members can reduce the number of emails received.
It is true that once in a while I get a card reminding me of something I'd like to see!