I have now officially seen EVERYTHING!

[Donnachaidh]

AT&T recently took over Bellsouth, and basically didn't offer long-term customers anything. NADA. ZIP. ZILCH.

So imagine my delight when I received an email entitled "Our way of saying thanks for being a valued customer"! Rebate perhaps? An upgrade on my access fee -- I couldn't wait to open the mail I was soooo excited --

The *GIFT*?

"As a token of our appreciation for being our valued BellSouth online customer, we would like to offer you this exciting opportunity to take a free personality quiz, a $24.95 value.

Find out what kind of thinker you are – are you a bold visionary, cautious analyzer, charming extrovert or a warm people-person? Take a few minutes to fill out this short, fun quiz and find out with an amazingly detailed report. The results may surprise you!"

They are going to ALLOW me to take a QUIZ!! Oh Joy! Oh Bliss! And they won't EVEN charge me! Somebody catch me -- I feel FAINT from this HONOR! :sarcasm:

They really DO think their customers are THAT stupid.

[Coexist]

1. do the Scientologists get the results or something?

that is weird.

[Donnachaidh]

5. Dunno. But you can bet some brainiac thinks to use the information

to better classify their customers.

[Tandalayo_Scheisskopf]

2. Probably Scientology, at that.

n/t

[BleedingHeartPatriot]

3. Wow, they are offering you an opportunity to be part of their corporate advertising

demographic studies.

Nice. MKJ

[Error]

4. Oh My - I got that

I forgot, but I thought the same thing. I'm going to wase my time and pretend it was worth 24.95? That was a very insulting piece of spam.

Definitely one for Ben and Mehgan & the Comsumerist.com

[Donnachaidh]

9. have you got any links I can forward this to?

This has me so irritated I want to fire it off to ALL consumer groups out there.

[Error]

22. http://www.consumerist.com/

http://www.consumerist.com/ is a great site i visit daily

[NJCher]

6. they're using it for marketing purposes

Man, they really do think their customers are stupid.



Cher

[silverweb]

14. Great minds...

... and all that (looking at our simultaneous posts).

:D

[NJCher]

18. That's funny!

10-4, over and out :)



Cher

[silverweb]

7. Did you read the fine print?

Betcha there's something in there about using the data for marketing purposes... couched in incomprehensible legalese, of course, so you won't easily understand it.

[Donnachaidh]

11. I have to take the test FIRST

There is NO fine print before the first test page. ???

[silverweb]

13. Sneaky bastards, aren't they?

I'd skip the test. It sounds like nothing more than a sneaky way of getting personal information to add to their database.

[Donnachaidh]

15. definitely skipping this crap.

I'm just stunned at the sneaky marketing. I really do think I'm going to fire this off to the local TV station and see if I can't sicc at least one consumer advocate on them. :grr:

[silverweb]

16. Good idea!

It should be interesting to see what kind of information the consumer advocate can dig up, if any.

[Double T]

8. Why do you think they are testing?

The results of the testing will probably go into their corporate files to be used against you later. MegaMonoplies don't have to give anyone a discount or deal. Hold onto your wallet and bank account because they'll be coming to get more!!

[BlooInBloo]

10. That was the last thing there was for you to see? Cool!

[HCE SuiGeneris]

12. I wish I had BellSouth...

why do you hate America?

:sarcasm:

[Kazak]

17. Ah, see you'll forget about such obvious bottom-feeding, but...

those folks who they do get to respond such ridiculous offers...goldmines!

[Rex]

19. NSAT&T they really do work for the BFEE.

Just like all the other shitty companies who think warrantless wiretapping is a-okay. AT&T worked for the CIA for over 20 years, looks like they have a new master now.

Oh yeah and their service sucks donkey balls.

[Neshanic]

20. That's just plain creepy. Your pesonality profile on their computers?

[Swamp Rat]

21. Just another marketing ploy to rob us of our privacy.

Later they will turn around and sell the profiles to another company.

[OPERATIONMINDCRIME]

23. I Fail To Comprehend Why You Believe You Were Entitled To Receive Anything At All.

This is a very odd OP.

[gollygee]

24. You have the great honor of letting them know how to best market to you

How lucky you are!!