Performance Bicycle, Caveat Emptor!, privacy abuse

On 2004-07-15, Dale I. Green penned:

Quoted message said:

Hi.

I want to warn anybody thinking about doing business with Performance
Bicycle (http://www.performancebike.com). I made the mistake of
placing an order with them, and now I am being bombarded with their
spams. The worst part is, I cannot seem to get removed from their
spam lists! Believe me, I've tried. Emails are ignored. I even
phoned customer service and only get canned responses to "email the
web manager".

taken directly from their "privacy" policy

For people that make purchases, E-mail addresses are collected and
used to notify customers about Specials, site improvements and
upcoming events. Performance Inc. does not rent, trade or sell your
personal data to third parties *** BUT RETAINS THE RIGHT TO DO SO
*** in the future. Please be aware *** WE MAY SHARE CUSTOMER
INFORMATION *** with the subsidiaries Performance, Inc.

The policy goes on to say they may use and share your postal address
as well.

This is an ANTI-PRIVACY policy if I've ever seen one. Basically, they
can do whatever they want with your personal information, including
email, phone number, and postal address.

Caveat emptor!

Yuck =/

I just joined their little club, too, because I spent enough money at
the store that paying $25 in exchange for getting $10 back on every $100
spent was going to be immediately profitable ...

HOWEVER

They make it very clear that you can email, call, or mail them and get
your contact info removed from their lists. You didn't quote that part
in your missive.

http://www.performancebike.com/privacy_policy.cfm

Honestly, I assume that any company, regardless of their stated policy,
is a potential source of spam and junk mail. Even if a company's
current policy is quite good, all bets are off once they sell out to a
bigger fish.

--
monique

Dale I. Green said:

Hi.

I want to warn anybody thinking about doing business with Performance
Bicycle (http://www.performancebike.com). I made the mistake of
placing an order with them, and now I am being bombarded with their
spams. {snip}

Strange, I've ordered plenty from them, and get zero spam. (I don't
consider a standard Sales Flyer spam; after all, I am a cyclist who's shown
interest in purchasing cycling items from cycling businesses.)

Bill "must be clean living" S.

On 2004-07-15, S o r n i penned:

Quoted message said:

Dale I. Green said:

Hi.

I want to warn anybody thinking about doing business with Performance
Bicycle (http://www.performancebike.com). I made the mistake of
placing an order with them, and now I am being bombarded with their
spams. {snip}

Strange, I've ordered plenty from them, and get zero spam. (I don't
consider a standard Sales Flyer spam; after all, I am a cyclist who's
shown interest in purchasing cycling items from cycling businesses.)

Bill "must be clean living" S.

I get mailers from performance, supergo, and, well, just about all the
shops with which I've done business. I do think the sheer *number* is
excessive, but they do make good bathroom browsing.

The number of mailings I get from *all* biking-related shops combined is
dwarfed by the unfathomable number of Victoria's Secret catalogues I
receive, though. It's insane. I wish you could request mailings on a
spectrum, from none to once a month to everything ya got ....

--
monique

Monique Y. Mudama said:

On 2004-07-15, S o r n i penned:

Quoted message said:

Dale I. Green said:

Hi.

I want to warn anybody thinking about doing business with
Performance Bicycle (http://www.performancebike.com). I made the
mistake of placing an order with them, and now I am being bombarded
with their spams. {snip}

Strange, I've ordered plenty from them, and get zero spam. (I don't
consider a standard Sales Flyer spam; after all, I am a cyclist who's
shown interest in purchasing cycling items from cycling businesses.)

Bill "must be clean living" S.

I get mailers from performance, supergo, and, well, just about all the
shops with which I've done business. I do think the sheer *number* is
excessive, but they do make good bathroom browsing.

Actually, I was referring to the 'e' flyers, but yeah, I get a bunch of
snail-mailers, too. (Usually use 'em to fall asleep; get a few pages in
and...Zzzzzzz.)

Quoted message said:

The number of mailings I get from *all* biking-related shops combined
is dwarfed by the unfathomable number of Victoria's Secret catalogues
I receive, though. It's insane. I wish you could request mailings
on a spectrum, from none to once a month to everything ya got ....

Reminds me -- haven't gotten a VS catalog in ages! (Ya buy one pair of silk
boxers, and you're labeled for life...)

Bill "they weren't very comfortable" S.

Dale sez:

[snip]

Quoted message said:

I made the mistake of placing
an order with them, and now I am being bombarded with their spams.

[snip]

The way I've gotten around this is to set up an email account just for
doing online purchasing. I dump it about once a year and create a new
one. They all have about the same name, "tombuy2004@blah", etc. It's
worked well for me.

T o m Dillon
Lakewood, CO
Z to S to email

"Dale I. Green" <[email hidden]> wrote in message
news:[email hidden]...

Quoted message said:

Hi.

I want to warn anybody thinking about doing business with Performance
Bicycle (http://www.performancebike.com).

<snip crazy spam rant>

Quoted message said:

Caveat emptor!

----------
Dale

You can opt out.

I have bought from them and just clicked the 'No, I don't want to learn
about specials or words to a similar effect box'.

I have not received one e-mail from them besides an order confirmation.

Oh, and the sky is falling.

My advice.
Create email account on yahoo specialy for internet purchases.
Don't use your primary address

"Dale I. Green" <[email hidden]> wrote in message
news:[email hidden]...

Quoted message said:

Hi.

I want to warn anybody thinking about doing business with Performance
Bicycle (http://www.performancebike.com). I made the mistake of placing
an order with them, and now I am being bombarded with their spams. The
worst part is, I cannot seem to get removed from their spam lists!
Believe me, I've tried. Emails are ignored. I even phoned customer
service and only get canned responses to "email the web manager".

taken directly from their "privacy" policy

For people that make purchases, E-mail addresses are collected and
used to notify customers about Specials, site improvements and
upcoming events. Performance Inc. does not rent, trade or sell your
personal data to third parties *** BUT RETAINS THE RIGHT TO DO SO ***
in the future. Please be aware *** WE MAY SHARE CUSTOMER INFORMATION
*** with the subsidiaries Performance, Inc.

The policy goes on to say they may use and share your postal address as
well.

This is an ANTI-PRIVACY policy if I've ever seen one. Basically, they
can do whatever they want with your personal information, including
email, phone number, and postal address.

Caveat emptor!

----------
Dale

"Monique Y. Mudama" <[email hidden]> wrote in
news:[email hidden]:

Quoted message said:

They make it very clear that you can email, call, or mail them and get
your contact info removed from their lists. You didn't quote that part
in your missive.

No I didn't. I only quoted the part relevant to my point. The parts
your referring to are meaningless for two reasons:

1) You may have missed where I stated that I've been trying
UNSUCCESSFULLY to be removed from their lists.

2) Although I don't recall the specifics for their site, I ALWAYS
opt-out (or don't opt-in) for ads, newsletters, etc. whenever I make
online purchases. So the fact that I was automatically opted-in gives
Performance Bike time to share/sell/abuse my personal information the
instant I place an order. Maybe I can opt-out later, but the damage has
(potentially) already been done.

(Monique, I'm not trying to flame, I just wanted to clarify my point...)

----------
Dale

On 2004-07-16, Dale I. Green penned:

(snippage)

Quoted message said:

1) You may have missed where I stated that I've been trying
UNSUCCESSFULLY to be removed from their lists.

I guess this is the confusing part, as I (and apparently a few others)
have ordered from Performance without getting tons of spam.

Then again, I might not have noticed -- I get so much spam from archived
newsgroups and mailing lists that my filters are pretty well set up, and
I rarely actually *see* any of my spam or bother to obfuscate anymore.

Quoted message said:

(Monique, I'm not trying to flame, I just wanted to clarify my
point...)

*nod* I get it =)

Spam, regardless of whether it comes from a legit business or not, is
incredibly frustrating. There are days when I think that drawing and
quartering the people responsible wouldn't be enough punishment for the
waste of bandwidth, processing power, etc, not to mention the invasion
of privacy and the frustration. Then you get into spam that describes
acts that I would never, ever want to hear about. I can't imagine what
it's like for parents ...

Anyway, I understand. Spam is the scourge of the computer-using earth.

--
monique

"Get a bicycle. You will not regret it, if you live."
-- Mark Twain

Monique Y. Mudama said:

On 2004-07-15, S o r n i penned:

Quoted message said:

Dale I. Green said:

Hi.

I want to warn anybody thinking about doing business with Performance
Bicycle (http://www.performancebike.com). I made the mistake of
placing an order with them, and now I am being bombarded with their
spams. {snip}

Strange, I've ordered plenty from them, and get zero spam. (I don't
consider a standard Sales Flyer spam; after all, I am a cyclist who's
shown interest in purchasing cycling items from cycling businesses.)

Bill "must be clean living" S.

I get mailers from performance, supergo, and, well, just about all the
shops with which I've done business. I do think the sheer *number* is
excessive, but they do make good bathroom browsing.

The number of mailings I get from *all* biking-related shops combined is
dwarfed by the unfathomable number of Victoria's Secret catalogues I
receive, though. It's insane. I wish you could request mailings on a
spectrum, from none to once a month to everything ya got ....

How exactly does one get onto this Victoris'a Secret thingy? :-)

On 2004-07-18, jem penned:

Quoted message said:

Monique Y. Mudama said:

The number of mailings I get from *all* biking-related shops combined
is dwarfed by the unfathomable number of Victoria's Secret catalogues
I receive, though. It's insane. I wish you could request mailings
on a spectrum, from none to once a month to everything ya got ....

How exactly does one get onto this Victoris'a Secret thingy? :-)

It's pretty complicated:

http://www2.victoriassecret.com/html/custsrvc/request/

--
monique

"Get a bicycle. You will not regret it, if you live."
-- Mark Twain

Jim M says:

Quoted message said:

How exactly does one get onto this Victoris'a Secret thingy? :-)

I found the easiest way was to have had a couple of daughters 20-or-so years
ago. ;-)

Steve

Stephen Baker said:

Jim M says:

Quoted message said:

How exactly does one get onto this Victoris'a Secret thingy? :-)

I found the easiest way was to have had a couple of daughters
20-or-so years ago. ;-)

Please tell us that doesn't mean you wear their {not even gonna say it}.

Bill "reminded of old joke: punchline is 'and you're not going to, unless
you change that attitude'" S.

Sorni says:

Quoted message said:

Please tell us that doesn't mean you wear their {not even gonna say it}.

Not a chance...

It just means that the VS catalogs arrive on the doorstep with alarming
frequency.

Steve