I feel sugged.
Not that I bought anything and I only wasted a few minutes but it’s amazing how marketing handled badly can really put one off a brand forever.
A week or so ago I received a letter from Verisign offering the results of the research and a £10 Amazon voucher for completing the questionnaire.
I filled it out – it didn’t take long This was the post questionnaire submission response:
Thank you for filling out the VeriSign SSL survey. To read more about the VeriSign® Secure Site Services, go to: http://www.verisign.co.uk/ssl/ As part of our thanks for your participation, we will share the results of the survey with you free of charge. Plus, if you were one of the first 200 to respond to the survey, you will receive a £10 Amazon.co.uk® gift card* within 4–6 weeks. Thank you again and please look out for your copy of the survey results. So no mention of when I might receive the results and then I find it will take 4-6 weeks to find out if I will receive my ten pound voucher.
I looked back at the original letter and I know understand why 4point type was invented. The 4-6 weeks is there along with the “only if you are one of the first 200” but very small and easy to miss. Since then I’ve had one or two emails from Verisign trying to sell me stuff, but no reply to my email of complaint sent via their own website – so they can’t use spam as an excuse. Would have thought a week would be enough time for a reply.
This has given me a really bad feeling towards Verisign which might be a fine company but due to the, in my view, poor way it treats its customers or potential customers I’ll never find out. I hope the marketing manager responsible isn’t feeling too happy with this ‘promotion’ as I can’t be the only potential customer who feels sugged.
Follow up: Andrew the marketing manager concerned contacted me and expressed his concern over my concern and that somehow my communication hadn’t got to him. Nice to see that sometimes my grumpy old man blogs between the new products and the ‘I’ve been listening to’ blogs reach the right people. I’m impressed that Andrew contact me so quickly and didn’t make excuses or blame anybody else. Verisign is off my ‘no not ever list’
