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E-gift Certificates = Spam?

Posted by timothy on from the another-spam-abcess dept.

vincewazalooski writes "Good read in NY Times Circuits section today about how spam filters at Hotmail, Yahoo, etc. often interpret gift certificates from Amazon et. al. as spam. Worst part is, you might send a gift cert to someone, they never get it and you never know."

2 of 25 comments (clear)

  1. OT: Gift certificates by Violet+Null · · Score: 2, Interesting

    I never got the point. You spend $50 (cash, which is usable anywhere) to give someone something that's worth $50 -- but only at a brand of store. Why?

    About the only response I've ever heard is that it shows more thought than cash, but still:

    1) Even if it shows more thought to give someone a gift certificate, to, say, "CD Hut", because you know they like CDs, just not which ones: you've now deprived them of the ability to get CDs from any other store -- even if CD Hut doesn't carry the ones they want.

    2) For a large store that sells lots of unrelated items (like Amazon), it doesn't seem like you're showing any additional thought above and beyond cash.

  2. Yes, that's one of the consequences by bmetzler · · Score: 3, Interesting

    How's the spam filter to know? I had to turn off my spam filter because it would classify everything that came from retailers as spam. All the retailers that I asked to put on their email list was all "spam". I don't filter spam at all anymore. It's no big deal. I delete the ones that I get and all is fine.

    I suppose one answer to gift certificate is to have them emailed to you and then forward them to the recepiant personally. That's what I typically do.

    -Brent