Regarding my previous email

[offcntr]

One of my guilty pleasures is reading the business/management advice blog, Ask a Manager. It has no relationship to my current existence, though it sometimes helps me understand my sister, the bank VP's, existence. And there are so many bonkers stories. It's like the late, lamented food service blog, Behind Closed Ovens, but for business.

I'm reminded of AAM because of an email I found in my inbox this morning.

Hello,

Did you get a chance to review my previous email?

Could we schedule a call for sometime this week so we can discuss Mobile
app or Web app development requirements you may have? Please suggest a
day and time and share the best phone number to reach you.

Thank you
[redacted]

On Tuesday 27 October 2020 6:12 PM, [redacted] wrote:

Hello,

Would you like me to schedule a call so we can talk about Mobile app and
Web app development requirements your company may have? Please suggest a
day and time.

We are a mobile app and web app development company; we build custom
solutions based on required functional specifications that automate
various business applications.

Look forward to your response.

Thanks & Regards,
[redacted]

Note the passive aggressive "Surely you've had time to read my previous email by now" tone. (I hadn't. Never got it.) But mostly, I ask myself, does this kind of random cold contact actually work? Do people actually hire freelance programmers based on spam email?

But more importantly, what the heck kind of app would I need for pottery?

Comments

[anais_pf]

People probably do respond to those things, because they keep sending them, don't they? My own response to "Did you get my previous email" from someone wanting me to send or spend money, is to look for the "Unsubscribe" button.

Long ago I had to take a workshop about fundraising, for work, and one of the things they told us was that people send more money to nonprofits when there is a three page long letter asking for money, than when there is something much shorter. They assured us that statistics prove more is better when it comes to fundraising. Personally I never read through the long fundraising appeals I receive, but apparently someone does!

People are weird.

[offcntr]

I dunno, I just find 'em annoying. My wife inherited her mother's home in Wisconsin, and we're renting it to my brother. We've gotten so many unsolicited postcards, phone calls, and now even texts from realtors offering to sell it for us. (Or, in the case of the text from "an investor in town," buy it from us.) The "investor" didn't even specify which town he was in, so I innocently replied, "Oh, so you're in Oregon?" When he finally replied, a week later, he completely ignored the question, going right into his pitch.

Blocked. Deleted. sigh

[james]

What about an app for "help me find videos of cats helping at the pottery wheel"? That seems like it would be useful.

[offcntr]

Who needs an app for that? It's right here.

[james]

I would hope that an app would encourage more cats to get into the hobby of helping with pottery. (That vid pops up on my social media from time to time.)

[offcntr]

There's also this one of a kitty chasing trimmings.

I briefly had a cat in my studio, being socialized to introduce to the rest of the household. The only mark she left was a paw print in a wet soup bowl.

[tibicina]

Ugh. At my parents' house we would get so many calls from people saying they'd spoken to someone a couple of months ago who told them to call back. And I was like 'Okay, so we're not going to do business with you because you are lying from your first sentence, so... goodbye.' But yeah, it doesn't need to work often, just on enough people. I'm wondering if they even sent the first message, honestly. This may be a variation on the 'we spoke to you six months ago' tack.