An Example of Pure Spam - TripIt.com
This came into my inbox today.
This is an example of just about everything we tell you not to do here.
And this is a company that is going to have serious deliverability problems.
Let’s deconstruct this, shall we? This is an important object lesson, because this is exactly the kind of email you have to make sure that your own email doesn’t look like.
Starting with the headers:
From: support@tripit.com
Subject: Get Started with TripIt
Date: August 14, 2008 4:39:28 PM MDT
To: amitchell(@mypersonal email address)
Reply-To: do-not-reply@tripit.com
Let’s see - first, why am I getting email from support@tripit.com, when I haven’t asked for support (in fact, I’ve never, ever had anything to do with TripIt.com - ever). Second, they are sending email to me at my personal email address, which I never gave them. Third, they are using the dreaded “do-not-reply@” email address - and - oh, the irony - they are using it in their reply-to!
Ok, here’s the body of the email:
Welcome to TripIt!
We’re thrilled to have you join the growing number of savvy travelers who are using TripIt (http://www.tripit.com/) to organize and share their travel plans.
Now see, this is interesting, because I never joined Tripit! In fact, I had never even heard of them before I got today’s spam from them.
(As an aside, how stupid do you have to be to spam me?)
We’re here to help take care of all the little details so you can spend more time enjoying your trips.
These are a few ways that TripIt can start saving you time right away.
Well, you could start by saving me time by not making me deal with your spam.
And if you’re more the visual type, check out the quick video walk-thru on our Learn More page (http://www.tripit.com/uhp/learnMore).
1. EMAIL YOUR TRAVEL PLANS AND LET US DO THE WORK
Just forward your travel booking confirmation emails to plans@tripit.com and we’ll automatically add those details to your TripIt itineraries. It’s as simple as that, and TripIt is compatible with email confirmations from more than 150 top booking sites. In the words of one of our travelers “It’s like magic!”
2. EXPAND AND CUSTOMIZE YOUR ITINERARY
Sure, having all your flights, hotels and cars in one combined itinerary is pretty nice, but TripIt also automatically adds local maps, driving directions and daily weather. You can further customize your itinerary by adding activities, notes and photos. You can even forward confirmation emails from sites like Amtrak, RailEurope, OpenTable, TicketMaster and SuperShuttle. They all end-up in your TripIt itinerary.
Do you honestly think that I’m going to trust my personal travel details to a company that has evidenced such a reckless disregard for my privacy already? That has already demonstrated that they are all about worst Internet practices?
3. SHARE YOUR TRAVEL PLANS
You can easily share your trips with family and colleagues, and even collaborate and build itineraries together, saving everyone lots of time. You can also add people who you frequently share and travel with as TripIt Connections. Then, our Closeness Alerts let you know when your travel plans overlap, so you can meet up while traveling.
Ah, and here is the corker. This company, that has already blatantly spammed me, wants me to give them the email addresses of my family and colleagues.Ladies and gentleman, these are the kinds of companies that are giving the rest of you legitimate commercial email senders, who are trying to do the right thing, a bad name.
…
If you have any questions, just email us at support@tripit.com. This may sound crazy these days, but we actually read and reply to emails from our customers. We also listen very closely to your suggestions, too.
Ok guys, what do you think? Shall we email them? Do you think they’d listen closely to our suggestion? What do you think that suggestion should be?
Happy Travels!
The TripIt Team
Happy Spam Folder!
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Gregg Brockway
Dear Anne,
I’m the president of TripIt and am very sorry about this. The email you received was sent as the result of a bug we introduced a week ago. The trigger for this email to you was that someone invited you to join TripIt. However, as you point out, we should not have sent this email to you unless you create an account with TripIt. We fixed this bug last night, but unfortunately not in time to prevent you from experiencing the error.
As background, our welcome email is designed to help new TripIt members understand our service. People should get this AFTER they create their account, including validating the email address. For the last week, we have been inadvertently sending welcome emails to people who have been invited to join TripIt, but have not yet activated their accounts. We totally agree with your post’s assessment that this is neither a good experience for the recipient nor the right thing to do. It is for precisely these reasons we jumped to fix the bug as soon as it was identified.
While it doesn’t make up for your negative experience, please accept our sincere apologies for this unfortunate error.
Sincerely,
Gregg Brockway
President, TripIt
Mary
I gotta say, I use TripIt, and love the service - it’s great for folks who make their own travel plans as it collates the stuff for me. It’s too bad you had this bad/awful experience — and I have used it for a while without them ever asking for addresses, etc. so I never felt spammed/scammed. Bummer that you did.
Russell Nelson
Hehe, sounds like a SQL query was missing a “but only if their email address has been confirmed” query.
May I suggest, Greg, that you NOT store unconfirmed email addresses in the same table as confirmed? Defensive programming.
Anne
Dear Gregg,
Thank you for taking the time and effort to come here and explain what happened - and so quickly, as well.
That was very stand-up of you, and is, I think, the mark of a good captain at the helm of TripIt.
Mistakes happen - and I’m glad that this was the product of a mistake. (That said, it also shows the danger of the whole social network invitation system - as *nobody* who really knows me would *ever* send such an invite to me - the only possible explanation would be that someone who didn’t *really* know me had my email address in their address book for some reason and it got imported to TripIt - there is no legitimate reason for my address to be in the system at all.)
Again, I appreciate your response; thank you.
Anne