the Cheesecake Factory is a bunch of sadists

[veronica_rich]

My sister and I signed up last year onto the Cheesecake Factory's emailing list, to get free offers and what-not; periodically we'll get a reminder of some holiday (with no specials) to encourage us to spend money. Last week we got an email titled "What Are You Doing For Mother's Day?"

My sister threatened to email them back with: Well, MY mother's dead. What are YOU doing for Mother's Day? Rub it in, why don't you?

Today I got an email from them titled "Veronica, Mom Wants Cheesecake." My immediate thought was, wait, did they have a seance, and the woman placed an order from beyond the grave? Am I expected to pay for that if they actually find a way to deliver it to her, or can she maybe put it instead on her BooExpress Card? (Motto: "Don't Leave This Earth Without It.")

/pondery

Comments

[bayliss.livejournal.com]

At least you have a good attitude about it.

Gods I don't want to know what shipping would cost to the afterlife. O.O That would be insanely high.

[veronica-rich.livejournal.com]

I'm pretty sure FedEx and UPS wouldn't go there. USPS would lose it.

[bayliss.livejournal.com]

Oh you know they would. USPS lost birthday cards my maternal grandmother sent to me. She only lives 30 miles from us.

[philosophercat.livejournal.com]

This reminds me of that family who got emails from one of their dead relatives.

[veronica-rich.livejournal.com]

Years ago, I remember there being some service that you could set up and pay for, that would send an email to whomever you wanted upon being notified of your death - things like account information, passwords, final thoughts, what-not. That'd be a lot better than some bot stealing and spamming!

[beckyblack]

I really can't stand that. It's one thing for there to be adverts that are aimed at the general populace about Mother's Day, but something coming into your email inbox feels like it's aimed at you, and it's making an assumption with the potential to upset someone. My mother died 20 years ago now, so I would only feel irritated by it. But what about someone whose mother died recently? Or who for whatever reason is sensitive to mention of their mother for good reason? Same applies to father's day of course.

I bloody well would email them back to say, this is insensitive and potentially upsetting to many of the people they're emailing and suggest they think it through in how they word it so they aren't making the assumption everyone still has a mother around that they are on good terms with.

[keechakatt.livejournal.com]

I actually sent a very perturbed email last year to Proflowers. It said, "Your mother is waiting for you."

My mom has been dead since 1989. If she's waiting. I'm running the other way!

[beckyblack]

Good grief. Why don't they think it through?! Why do they assume everyone's life is the same and we all have a mother, who they also probably think in is the kitchen baking.

[veronica-rich.livejournal.com]

I would have replied, "I'm sure she thinks she is."

Let them figure out what I mean by that. ;-)

[veronica-rich.livejournal.com]

You know, though, it's so omnipresent that I don't think it would do any good to really get upset over it. I try to have humor; I know it's not personal. I found it more hilarious than anything, but we all know I have a macabre sense of humor anyway, LOL.

[kronette.livejournal.com]

I'm really, really grateful that my company doesn't have anything as sensitive as this to email out. I don't get upset, just perturbed, when Father's Day rolls around and my inbox fills with 'buy crap for your dad'. He died 11 years ago, but they have no way of knowing that. However, within a year of him dying, the American Cancer Society called me for a donation and I chokingly explained to them that he'd died of cancer the previous year. At first, the lady sort of went with the script, but then I did get mad and she quickly ended the call.

Emails don't bother me as much as the phone calls soliciting for money. Emails are easily deleted, but I feel bad when I hang up on solicitors (most of the time).

The "holiday" that annoys the crap out of me is Valentine's day. I'm what the guys get to call "a confirmed bachelor(ette)", so I don't need reminding every freaking place I go, thank you very much. Gah. Marketers.

[veronica-rich.livejournal.com]

I can't think of any holidays that really annoy me, and I'm trying, as I write this. If anything - and this is only when reminded of it very rarely - I'm kind of like Carrie in that one "Sex and the City" episode where she gets her nice shoes stolen at a baby shower because the parents insisted everyone de-shoe at the door to not track in dirt. She waited a while, then mentioned it nicely to the mother, and the mother offered to pay for a portion of the shoes, then lectured Carrie on her lifestyle when Carrie pointed out that was only about half their replacement price. As Carrie pointed out, she had spent how much? on wedding and baby gifts for this couple over the years, and they'd never had to get her ANYTHING because she hadn't married or had children. Then she goes on to point out how if a woman conforms to society's expectations and marries and/or has children, she often gets gifts for these, but if she stays single, she'll never get anything for her own other-type of accomplishments.

[keechakatt.livejournal.com]

We had an American Cancer Society call too. When my sister politely declined, the caller started yelling. "Do you know how deavistating cancer is?" My sister was angry. "No, I don't. Both my parents died from cancer."
Seriously, what a way to try for a donation.

[veronica-rich.livejournal.com]

I've volunteered a few times for charity solicitations. The worst thing I can remember doing is calling an alumnus and since they were friendly, I noted that their graduation year was the same year I was born. They got pissed off at me; now I may have been young and stupid, true - but to be fair, now that I'm on the other end of that potential scenario, I honestly would not be upset by some kid pointing it out. I'd probably laugh at them. (But I never yelled at anyone!)

[xenafox.livejournal.com]

Ugh I hate it so much when they use your name to be 'personal'. Back the fuck off businesses, that's creepy!

...Regardless, their cheesecake is delicious so I don't think I could be angry.

[veronica-rich.livejournal.com]

Oh, it would've been much ameliorated if they'd included a coupon for free or half-price cheesecake. They did not. Balls.

[finding-neo.livejournal.com]

I have begun getting American Baby magazine in the mail. I know it's because I did something online because of how my name is listed, if I don't want to ID myself I put initials. I want to email them and tell them I don't have kids and am almost at menopause, so getting their magazine is very uncomfortable for me. You know what I mean?

I also got a freakin' PDF yesterday from an insurance company with a detailed quote all because I filled something out online to compare insurances at least 10 months ago. It kind of freaked me out 'cause I expect them to send me a bill. Plus when I did that, although I put my actual address, I gave a fake phone number, so the poor person to whom that number belongs will no doubt wonder why they are getting insurance calls, 'cause I bet anything they call!

Anyone else get phone soliciting calls to their cells now??? That is so annoying!!!!

[johnnypenn.livejournal.com]

I get random online colleges calling to see if I want to sign up with them. never mind that I am broke and I skipped their dumb message while doing online stuff. yeah, even when you say "skip" they still bother you. Next time I'll just say they have the wrong number. :)

[veronica-rich.livejournal.com]

I get solicitations once in a while and I can always tell because it's a recording, so I just hang up. The rare times I have to talk to a human, I ... well, say "no thanks" and hang up, too.

I dislike that "put in your personal information" crap. Look, ask me about my age, years driving, points lost, accidents, whatever - it does me no good to lie to put all that in to get a quote, since it would change once I actually applied for the policy anyway, and they could background-search me. But damn, when I'm simply comparing quotes, I WILL NOT TELL YOU HOW TO FIND ME.

[johnnypenn.livejournal.com]

Wow.
I'd ponder along with you but that's...uncanny. and cool all at the same time.
Sorry about your Mom.

[veronica-rich.livejournal.com]

It was kind of humorous. She died three years ago, so I'm not torn up about it anymore.

[kahva.livejournal.com]

I got that email too. I've learned to turn my brain off when I get emails that have "Mom" or "Dad" in the subject line - it helps me to read the email to see if anything they have on sale might be something *I* could use.

My biggest dread though is still when I go out to buy Father's Day or Mother's Day cards for say, my brother, niece or sister-in-law, that a too helpful salesperson will cheerfully say, "Getting a card for you Mom/Dad?" So I've stuck with getting cards from Walmart or Target or the grocery store to avoid awkward situations like that. Started doing that pretty quickly after Dad died, made it easier to deal with things.

[veronica-rich.livejournal.com]

That doesn't bother me too much. The other person is the one who always ends up feeling awkward or bad when I answer, and it's their choice if they want to continue to drag it out with some long unwanted apology, or just say, "Oh, sorry about that, then. What can I help you find?"

[kahva.livejournal.com]

I dread it enough that I just do my best to avoid the situation. 3 years out from losing Mom now, and this July will be 14 years since we lost Dad, so it probably wouldn't bother me too much at this point. But for the time being I'll just avoid the possibility as much as I can to keep me any anyone else from feeling awkward.

And on a totally unrelated note - What the heck has LJ done now? This reply window doesn't look anything like it used to!