I got an e-mail this morning inviting me to a free breakfast saturday morning, the day before Chicago triathlon. Turns out Hunter Kemper will be there as the draw. It’s sponsored by a financial advisor so I assume they will be kind enough to offer investment advice and well, even their services.
Am I wrong to feel taken advantage of? I sign up for an event and give my e-mail address so that I can receive event info. I even don’t mind when they give me info on their events for the rest of my life. Somehow this seems to cross the line. IMO they’ve given my info to a salesgroup that has nothing to do with triathlon. I know, all I had to do was delete it.
What says the collective, calm wisdom of slowtwitch?
Sounds like time share sales, they lock everybody in a room and work them over. Don’t sign anything. Or maybe they want you to join a hedge fund group looking to buy up some mortgage companies.Just kidding
did they give your email to the company that sent you the email, or did they send the email on behalf of that company? i’m getting peppered by the santa barbara triathlon folks with emails on behalf of their sponsors. but they all come from the race company, touting the sponsor, but not from the sponsor.
I’m getting stuff from a company named slowtwitch and it’s always to send me some info about someone who’s allegedly answered something I have written there. weird.
would the financial adviser be Ameriprise? They were a sponsor of the NYC triathlon and sent out an email inviting their target audience to a breakfast with Hunter Kemper and I have to say it was pretty good. Buffet style food and lots of small free stuff (hats, water bottles,etc…)
Well, I guess the distinction is relevant and to be honest I don’t know. I deleted the e-mail. I’m sure at least one of my other 6000 best friends who are signed up to do Chicago also got it. Or maybe Hunter wants to meet me LOL. Anyway it just feels like another step in the slippery slope of being used. Why can’t I just sign up for a race, do the race, have fun. I paid to do the race, can’t that be enough?
See, through my job I could probably do 1-3 dinner/breakfast “freebies” a week. In return I listen to a canned talk with sneaky comments about how great the event sponser’s product is. It’s boring as hell. To be honest my time is worth more than a free meal, even if Hunter is there.
Ameriprise is a legitimate sponsor of the race. sponsors generally shell out hard cash or bring some other tangible benefit to an event to help offset costs.
in turn, and IMHO, they deservedly get opportunities to make their product or service available to you. that is usually done in a non threatening fashion. many races simply would not exist were it not for those sponsor contributions. please don’t think that our race entry fees cover everything.
if you don’t want to take advantage of the offer or service…consider kindly declining or deleting and move along. you might even consider messaging back and thanking them for their connection to the event but you are otherwise all set.
Frankie did similar appearances with American Express a couple years back.
Yup, this is the positive response to the “offer” that I expected. I realize they pay for this opportunity. I realize triathlons, especially in big citiies, are expensive to put on. This oversold, clusterfuck of a race almost always sells out in spring at 130/participant. I suppppooooossse they “need” the money from each and every sponsor to skim by and keep the race coming back, but I’m not entirely sure. Yes, this is a capitalist society and people are entitled to try to earn a living. We all try to make a profit but I guess, in this case, I feel it’s a little far.
Nope, I’m not doing the race…I signed up last spring and gave my spot away as I remembered what this race is like. Somehow they kept me on their e-mail spam list.
I mean when is it too much? I’ve been to mandatory prerace athlete’s meetings that would make the home shopping network proud. At least this is optional.
Well, yes and no. There is an unsubscribe option. I just got another e-mail from them. I did unsubscribe. However, what if I was actually doing the race and wanted relevant event info but not this other stuff. I’d still have to check this other stuff out to keep the event stuff. That doesn’t seem entirely fair. Again, I admit it isn’t a huge deal, I just deleted it, not entirely painful.
