Whether we’re emailing the customer service department of a bank or a novelty shop, we generally expect that there are at least a few protocols in place to protect our identities and our email addresses. Being that spam has become so overwhelming that we’ve taken to using services like Boxbe and others just to weed some of it out, that’s not an unusual expectation, right?

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Well imagine my surprise when earlier this afternoon I received an email addressed to twelve pages of email addresses. That’s right, twelve pages full of email addresses. It was supposedly in reply to a customer that had a question about a replacement for a product she owned. One could say this was just an error, a slip of the finger, an oops. But it wasn’t. Because I am not and never have been a customer of Cool Gear. I never even heard of the company until I received that email. So where might my email address been culled from and why was it used in such a manner?

So what was this really? I’m assuming it was clearly an attempt to gain more followers on their Facebook page or visits to their website. In either case, this demonstrates how desperate companies are becoming to gain attention, even at the expense of losing loyal followers who might already appreciate the brand.

Here’s the exact email I received today. http://www.nixonvs.com/NOTCoolGear.pdf

Please share. What other failures have you witnessed in the ways of customer service and/or social media usage?