The Dark Side of Direct Shipping
It sets the marketers free:
Recently, I got a cold call at the office from a wine club I recently had joined (mostly for research, actually). The club had a hot deal, what the caller said was a great wine at a phenomenal price, and the cases were sure to be gone soon. It seems everyone everywhere has a deal on a bottle of wine.
Okay, that got me going. If the wine was selling so fast, and it was already nearly gone, how come he had to call me to sell more of it? Well, he wanted to make sure I got a chance to buy before the wine was gone. But, I asked, won’t you get more if it’s selling so well? Oh no, it wouldn’t be restocked for 18 months, or maybe ever, once it was gone…I knew the cold caller worked for a company that provides fulfillment services for several wine clubs that are each tied to big luxury brands. So, what was the difference between the clubs, I asked sweetly.
He said he couldn’t really answer, and transferred me to Customer Service, to a very nice woman whom I’ll call Michelle.
Michelle, it turns out, knows a whole lot more about running a boiler room sales operation than wine. Read the whole thing here.
August 26th, 2010 at 7:47 AM
It’s hard to explain this to people who are convinced they have joined an “exclusive” wine club and really believe the bullshit that they read in the pamphlets or hear on the phone. After all, if it wasn’t really a special, hard-to-get wine it would be stupid to be in the wine club. And they’re not stupid, right?