Just got spam from Apple ("We spoke too soon") out of the blue

[Verbatim Cookie]

I just received spam from Apple with the subject line "We spoke too soon." It's about the iPhone getting the "Highest in Customer Satisfaction with Consumer Smartphones" distinction from J.D. Power and Associates for the ninth consecutive time. Trouble is, I'm fairly certain I didn't give them permission to send such email to the address this was sent to. The only time I remember giving this address to Apple was when I paid for one track from the iTunes Store by "charging" it to this AOL account. As I haven't paid for AOL service in God knows how long, this happened years ago — possibly even a decade ago. EDIT: I looked up the track that I bought. It was released in 2006 so I made this purchase 6-7 years ago.

This is not cool, Apple. Dare I say, it even reeks of desperation.

 

[frhall]

Verbatim: Thank you for posting this. It looked like spam to me too.

 

[bobfitz14]

Personally I see a difference between spam and bulk email. this is bulk to me. spam has phishing links or the like. Isn't it a marketing technic? I don't see any desperation in that email...

 

[Verbatim Cookie]

Personally I see a difference between spam and bulk email. this is bulk to me. spam has phishing links or the like. Isn't it a marketing technic? I don't see any desperation in that email...

I don't know the major dictionaries' definitions for "spam" but that's what I call unsolicited commercial email even if it's from a reputable company. Also, what I find desperate isn't the content of the email but the fact that it seems Apple went deep into its archives to get one more email address to send this email to.

 

[Dr McKay]

Apple emailed me so much that they got automatically put on the spam list, for both my @me account and my @outlook.

Every single public holiday I get emails about how an iPad or iPods are the perfect gift for valentines day/mother's day/father's day/Christmas/Tuesday. I sometimes check my junk folder and they're in there.

 

[roadbloc]

Apple send emails to their users on a regular basis. Just click Junk and you'll never see them again.

 

[tekboi]

At first, I thought it was a scammer pretending to be apple...

 

[NewAnger]

I finally unsubscribed from those emails after this latest one.

 

[gnasher729]

This is not cool, Apple. Dare I say, it even reeks of desperation.

"Reeks of desperation": That's what people say when they claim motivation for actions that isn't there. The most disgusting way to mislead people is to claim something "reeks of desperation". In a debate, if someone accuses someone else of "acting out of desperation", everyone needs to know that this is just a cheap attack.

Anyway, at some points where you contact Apple, Apple offers to keep you up-to-date with information about their products. You can accept or decline these offers. If you accept, guess what, you get emails informing you about Apple's products. You'll find a link somewhere saying "unsubscribe here" if you added yourself to a mailing list by mistake.

I don't know the major dictionaries' definitions for "spam" but that's what I call unsolicited commercial email even if it's from a reputable company. Also, what I find desperate isn't the content of the email but the fact that it seems Apple went deep into its archives to get one more email address to send this email to.

What's the bet that this isn't unsolicited but was solicited by you at some point?

 

[Brian Y]

What's the bet that this isn't unsolicited but was solicited by you at some point?

Yes, Apple don't send unsolicited email, at all. Heck, given how hot regulators are with them due to their rather large bank balance, it'd cost them a fortune if they ever did!

At some point, you have ticked the box that says "send me offers and product information". Or more likely, forgotten to untick the box.

And as said above, when you make an argument by saying something "reeks of desperation", you kind of lose the argument immediately.

 

[MrMacMack]

Has Apple really captured this much detailed interest? What's next, "Apple executive farts into the seat cushion on an airplane while ordering orange juice from flight attendant"? I get bulk mail almost daily from Microsoft, Dell, HP, etc... Apple isn't doing anything "more / less shady" than any of these other companies.

 

[Verbatim Cookie]

Most of you missed my point. The email address in question had not received any email (commercial or otherwise) from Apple for as long as I can remember. (No, I do not suffer from memory loss. ) Therefore, either I never gave Apple my consent to send commercial email to this address, or, if I had, I clicked on a link in the last one I received to unsubscribe. I did the latter for the email address I use as my Apple ID so it's not as if I can't figure out how to do it. Thus gnasher729 would have lost that bet.

As for my "reeks of desperation" remark, first, I will say that reeks is a strong word and that something like smacks would have been better. Furthermore, the remark isn't an argument, as Brian Y characterized it; it is, I will admit, speculation. Nonetheless, it's not outside the realm of possibility, so it can't be dismissed out of hand as gnasher729 wishes it could be.

In any case, I did not unsubscribe this email address now because I want to see if it gets more spam (yes, spam) from Apple. If it doesn't, then that will be an indication that Apple realized it did something it should not have.