{"id":4374,"date":"2023-10-02T03:23:34","date_gmt":"2023-10-02T07:23:34","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/parmaks.com\/Resources\/learning-from-the-amazon-gift-card-snafu\/"},"modified":"2023-10-02T03:23:34","modified_gmt":"2023-10-02T07:23:34","slug":"learning-from-the-amazon-gift-card-snafu","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/parmaks.com\/Resources\/learning-from-the-amazon-gift-card-snafu\/","title":{"rendered":"Learning from the Amazon gift card snafu"},"content":{"rendered":"<p> <a href=\"https:\/\/hop.clickbank.net\/?affiliate=infohatch&amp;vendor=J1R2C\"><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"size-full wp-image-10614 aligncenter\" src=\"http:\/\/parmaks.com\/Resources\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/05\/profit-gen400px.png\" alt=\"Profit Gen\" width=\"400\" height=\"217\" srcset=\"https:\/\/parmaks.com\/Resources\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/05\/profit-gen400px.png 400w, https:\/\/parmaks.com\/Resources\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/05\/profit-gen400px-300x163.png 300w\" sizes=\"auto, (max-width: 400px) 100vw, 400px\" \/><\/a><br \/>\n<\/p>\n<div>\n<p>Millions of people got this email last night:<\/p>\n<figure class=\"wp-block-image size-large\"><a href=\"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/seths.blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2023\/10\/Screenshot-2023-10-01-at-6.34.44-AM.jpg?ssl=1\"><img decoding=\"async\" fetchpriority=\"high\" width=\"1024\" height=\"939\" src=\"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/seths.blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2023\/10\/Screenshot-2023-10-01-at-6.34.44-AM.jpg?resize=1024%2C939&amp;ssl=1\" alt=\"\" class=\"wp-image-47391\" srcset=\"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/seths.blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2023\/10\/Screenshot-2023-10-01-at-6.34.44-AM.jpg?resize=1024%2C939&amp;ssl=1 1024w, https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/seths.blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2023\/10\/Screenshot-2023-10-01-at-6.34.44-AM.jpg?resize=300%2C275&amp;ssl=1 300w, https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/seths.blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2023\/10\/Screenshot-2023-10-01-at-6.34.44-AM.jpg?resize=768%2C704&amp;ssl=1 768w, https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/seths.blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2023\/10\/Screenshot-2023-10-01-at-6.34.44-AM.jpg?w=1510&amp;ssl=1 1510w\" sizes=\"(max-width: 1000px) 100vw, 1000px\" data-recalc-dims=\"1\"\/><\/a><\/figure>\n<p>It\u2019s legitimate, but it\u2019s a mistake. A mistake because:<\/p>\n<ul>\n<li>the subject line is wrong (you didn\u2019t buy a gift card yesterday)<\/li>\n<li>it was sent Saturday night at 8 pm<\/li>\n<li>the formatting is off and it feels like a scam<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<p>We can learn a lot about what not to do from this.<\/p>\n<p>First, if you make a mistake by email, fix it. Fix it by email AND fix it on your site. Let everyone who got the wrong note know, even if it\u2019s embarrassing.<\/p>\n<p>Second, if your company is built on email, establish a consistent look and feel, an approval process and most of all, definitely, a way to confirm that you actually sent it. For example, if you ever get an email from me, it will also be here on this <a href=\"https:\/\/www.seths.blog\">blog<\/a>. If it\u2019s not, it\u2019s a scam.<\/p>\n<p>Now that Amazon has bolloxed up both parts of this process (they got thousands and thousands of complaints last night, overwhelming their hard-working frontline support workers) they\u2019ve opened the door for countless spammers and scammers who lack imagination but are good at following a trail.<\/p>\n<p>While it may seem unrelated, part of the problem is the fear that people have in writing clearly. Here\u2019s a sign I saw at Avis yesterday:<\/p>\n<figure class=\"wp-block-image size-large\"><a href=\"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/seths.blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2023\/10\/image.png?ssl=1\"><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" width=\"1024\" height=\"648\" src=\"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/seths.blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2023\/10\/image.png?resize=1024%2C648&amp;ssl=1\" alt=\"\" class=\"wp-image-47392\" srcset=\"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/seths.blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2023\/10\/image.png?resize=1024%2C648&amp;ssl=1 1024w, https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/seths.blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2023\/10\/image.png?resize=300%2C190&amp;ssl=1 300w, https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/seths.blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2023\/10\/image.png?resize=768%2C486&amp;ssl=1 768w, https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/seths.blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2023\/10\/image.png?resize=1536%2C973&amp;ssl=1 1536w, https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/seths.blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2023\/10\/image.png?resize=2048%2C1297&amp;ssl=1 2048w, https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/seths.blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2023\/10\/image.png?w=3000&amp;ssl=1 3000w\" sizes=\"auto, (max-width: 1000px) 100vw, 1000px\" data-recalc-dims=\"1\"\/><\/a><\/figure>\n<p>I\u2019m pretty sure that the person who cared enough to make this sign doesn\u2019t actually speak this way. Perhaps if it had said,<\/p>\n<p>\u201cWe don\u2019t have a car wash here, but the insides of our cars have been cleaned regularly. If you\u2019d like to get a car wash, we\u2019re delighted to pay you back up to $15 per rental. Thanks for understanding.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>The Amazon email was simultaneously overwritten and under-edited. It didn\u2019t say what it meant, and the formatting simply made it worse.<\/p>\n<p>And then the bureaucracy refused to quickly take responsibility and make it clear to millions of people.<\/p>\n<p>As a result of error and fog and denial, trust disappears.<\/p>\n<p class=\"byline\">\n\t\t\t\t<span class=\"date\">October 1, 2023<\/span>\n\t\t\t<\/p>\n<\/p><\/div>\n<p><script>\n\t\t\/\/ Delaying FB pixel script to load after 4 seconds to not affect on initial page load.\n\t\tsetTimeout( function () {\n\t\t\t!function ( f, b, e, v, n, t, s ) {\n\t\t\t\tif ( f.fbq ) {\n\t\t\t\t\treturn;\n\t\t\t\t}\n\t\t\t\tn = f.fbq = function () {\n\t\t\t\t\tn.callMethod ? n.callMethod.apply( n, arguments ) : n.queue.push( arguments )\n\t\t\t\t};\n\t\t\t\tif ( !f._fbq ) {\n\t\t\t\t\tf._fbq = n;\n\t\t\t\t}\n\t\t\t\tn.push = n;\n\t\t\t\tn.loaded = !0;\n\t\t\t\tn.version = '2.0';\n\t\t\t\tn.queue = [];\n\t\t\t\tt = b.createElement( e );\n\t\t\t\tt.async = !0;\n\t\t\t\tt.src = v;\n\t\t\t\ts = b.getElementsByTagName( e )[0];\n\t\t\t\ts.parentNode.insertBefore( t, s )\n\t\t\t}( window, document, 'script',\n\t\t\t\t'https:\/\/connect.facebook.net\/en_US\/fbevents.js' );\n\t\t\tfbq( 'init', '221651354884486' );\n\t\t\tfbq( 'track', 'PageView' );\n\t\t}, 4000 );\n\t<\/script><br \/>\n<br \/><a href=\"https:\/\/hop.clickbank.net\/?affiliate=infohatch&amp;vendor=J1R2C\"><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"size-full wp-image-10614 aligncenter\" src=\"http:\/\/parmaks.com\/Resources\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/05\/profit-gen400px.png\" alt=\"Profit Gen\" width=\"400\" height=\"217\" srcset=\"https:\/\/parmaks.com\/Resources\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/05\/profit-gen400px.png 400w, https:\/\/parmaks.com\/Resources\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/05\/profit-gen400px-300x163.png 300w\" sizes=\"auto, (max-width: 400px) 100vw, 400px\" \/><\/a><br \/><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Millions of people got this email last night: It\u2019s legitimate, but it\u2019s a mistake. A mistake because: the subject line is wrong (you didn\u2019t buy [&hellip;]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":1861,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[18],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-4374","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-purpose"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/parmaks.com\/Resources\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/4374","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/parmaks.com\/Resources\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/parmaks.com\/Resources\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/parmaks.com\/Resources\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/parmaks.com\/Resources\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=4374"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/parmaks.com\/Resources\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/4374\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/parmaks.com\/Resources\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/1861"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/parmaks.com\/Resources\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=4374"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/parmaks.com\/Resources\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=4374"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/parmaks.com\/Resources\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=4374"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}