How many emails does it take to confirm an order?
Is there such a thing as getting too many confirmation emails? A recent online purchase I made inclines me to say yes.
I recently helped a Noobie Concierge client purchase an ASUS Eee PC 1000HE 10-Inch Netbook (I told you these things were a hot item) along with a Samsung USB external slim DVD drive. At the time of purchase, the best deal on the external DVD drive was at NewEgg so I went ahead and placed the order there on behalf of my client.
Since I have placed the order, I have received the following emails (subject lines listed only):
- Newegg.com - Sales Order Confirmation
- Newegg.com - Your payment has been charged
- Newegg.com - Invoice
- Newegg.com - UPS Tracking
Feels like Windows Vista
While I am all for keeping the customer informed, this seems a bit overboard to me. I'm beginning to feel like NewEgg is the Windows Vista equivalent of email confirmations.
Ok, that was a bit of an inside techie joke so let me indulge you. Try inserting a CD into the CD drive of a computer running Windows Vista. It will go something like this (and yes, I'm taking full advantage of my poetic license here). "You just inserted a CD into the CD drive, is that OK?" (clicks yes). "The CD you just inserted is attempting to auto-run a program, is that OK?" (clicks yes). "The setup.exe program is an executable program that may install something on your computer, is this OK?" (clicks AND SCREAMS... YESSSSSSS!).
My point is this. Sometimes too many confirmations has the opposite effect. Instead of making me feel completely informed, I feel a bit annoyed. And in the case of the NewEgg email confirmations, every time I receive one, I immediately assume something must be wrong with my order.
Sure, a bit of this is my sometimes assume-the-worse attitude but with the help of Tony Robbins' Lessons in Mastery, I'm getting better at keeping a more positive outlook on things.
I guess I'm just spoiled by Amazon.com. With Amazon, I get one email confirming my order and one email telling me when it has shipped. If I want any other details, I can log on my account on their web site.
Am I being melodramatic here? Chime in with your opinion by leaving a comment below.
2 comments for this blog post so far...
March 17, 2009 at 6:59 am
asudduth
I’ll just say each to their own.
personally I’m not annoyed by NewEgg’s emails, although I do suppose it may be a bit over-the-top. There probably is a better way to do it, however I do appreciate knowing how much was charged to my account and when. If you had a large order with some items back ordered, some shipping at different times, etc I beleive your account would be billed for various items at different times. For book keeping I appreciate knowing that it wasn’t one $300 charge, but $100 here, and then $50 a week later, then finally $150 another week later, etc… Although perhaps an initial “confirmation” email, then a shipping email (for each group that shipped) and then a final “all items have shipped and been charged and here is the summary of when and what was charged to your account”—this would eliminate one of the emails! (So I guess I’m not annoyed, but do agree they could streamline)
Additionally, my $0.02 on the Vista thing… is it *really* that bad? I’ll admit I am not a noobie nor do I regularly insert CDs, but I havent found myself annoyed by Vista at all. (For some reason I seem to think that when I started using XP I was annoyed by the auto-run selection because it never had the option I wanted and didn’t just auto-run but I’m sure I got past that in the last 8 years) - I’d just like to comfort users and not scare off the colletion of Noobies reading this. Vista is not something you should avoid like the plauge… it really is quite good.
March 17, 2009 at 7:31 am
Patric Welch
@asudduth: You make good points. Amazon actually does send separate ship notice emails as well when an order is split into multiple shipments. I like those emails for the same reasons you mentioned. I need to know what charges are going to appear on my card.
As for Vista, I wasn’t trying to scare away noobies. I actually tell noobies that Vista got a bad rap from the media and it’s not as bad as everyone makes it out to be. That is, if you are buying it on a new computer and you don’t have old software and peripherals to integrate with it. I’ve had my share of problems with the latter situations.
My point was that Vista seems scared to make a decision without asking you first. I also realize you can turn the nag messages off but I was just using it as an example to make a point.
Thanks for commenting!
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