NYT accidentally sends "please come back" email to 8 million people

Parent Cafe
21

<p>I had a vacation suspension in place so initially thought that they had messed it up and accidentally cancelled instead. I called the number to find it jammed, but a message that I could send them a fax!?!? Only thing I might fax them at this point is some black construction paper ;-)</p>

<p>Did a search on Twitter and saw many others in the same boat. I knew the NYT’s initial statements that they didn’t send the message and that it was “Spam” were false because:</p>

<ul>
<li><p>The email they sent the message to was a unique one just given to them (that flows into my main account)</p></li>
<li><p>A quick analysis of the headers showed it came from the same servers and authenticated domains as their normal marketing messages</p></li>
</ul>

<p>If this was any random site I wouldn’t have cared, but they have all my personal contact details on file plus my credit card so if they’re issuing public statements along the lines of ‘nothing to see here peeps, move along now’ when it’s obvious that’s not the case then I’m going to get peeved off. Have they been hacked? Do I need to cancel the card they have?</p>

<p>Their twitter account and the comment thread on the “it wasn’t from us” announcement were being flooded with angry customers posting comments along the lines above. Finally after a while they came out and admitted it was them… and of by the way you can’t have that discount we accidentally offered you.</p>

<p>Out of all this three things are clear:

  • Any marketing pros with experiencing in mass email management should send their CV to the NYT (as I assume they’re looking for a new one of those now)</p>

<ul>
<li><p>If you screw up and send cancelation notices and a coupon to all your customers by accident don’t tell them “it wasn’t us, just delete it and ignore it.”. Some of your customers are smart enough to figure out that’s not the case. If you don’t know what happened just tell the truth and keep people in the loop.</p></li>
<li><p>The cat’s now out of the bag… If you want 50% off just cancel your subscription and then wait for them to beg for you to come back… ;-)</p></li>
</ul>

22

<p>I am a subscriber who received only the correction. It was polite, didn’t mention spam.</p>

<p>“This e-mail was sent by us in error. Please disregard the message. We apologize for any confusion this may have caused.”</p>

23

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<p>That was the email they sent out later in the evening… But their initial public posting was:</p>

<p>

</p>

<p>After getting pounded with angry / confused comments they posted:</p>

<p>

</p>

<p>and then after customers continued to call their bluff they still posted:</p>

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</p>

<p>Hence the confusion / anger from customers.</p>

<p>Later in the day they retracted all the above statements and admitted it was them all along.</p>

24

<p>I’m amazed we don’t get more screwy emails. Off topic, but a few months ago, I got an email from my insurance company telling me my account was past due and I was on the verge of losing my insurance. I panicked a bit. Before I had a chance to call them, I got a follow-up email telling me the prior email was a mistake. Gives me a lot of confidence…</p>

25

<p>Add me to the list of people who thought “well, I suppose I ought to cancel now so they can woo me back.” Today’s print version mentioned the problem on page 1, with a fuller story in the business section.</p>

<p>It’s bad enough they have typos/misspellings, but now this? They need to make some kind of offer to the millions affected or they won’t be able to keep up with the requests to cancel (followed up by the better offers).</p>