Let’s get a grip on those mailing lists.

The other day I received a direct-mail solicitation urging me to buy an extended warranty from the mass electronics retailer from whom I unluckily bought an expensive TV a few years ago. What makes that interesting, at least to me, is that I am probably the last person on this big blue ball who would actually buy that warranty. And the company knew that, (so the chart here of their stock price doesn’t surprise me.)

Here’s why I’m among their least likely prospects. When the TV failed after nine months, I learned that it was failing for many other unlucky buyers, so I tried to return it to the retailer, but they refused to take it back or replace it with a non-failing model. Reluctantly, I bought the retailer’s extended warranty, which I used at least four times over the next year or two.

Eventually, the TV manufacturer was brought to court in a class-action suit and owners were offered a remedy. All I had to do was provide proof of my many failures, which included not just lamps, but the image engine and something called a ballast. But because the service personnel, freelancers for the retailer’s extended-warranty program, failed to leave me receipts of their visits, and because the company itself did not have or could not find records of my nightmare, I was unable to benefit from the class-action suit.

I was very vocal about all this. I wrote the presidents of the manufacturer and the retailer, and I called both companies countless times. I explained the situation repeatedly to the third-party entity contacted to administer the class-action suit. After a couple of years, I had a thick folder devoted to it, but no results.

As you can guess, my family and I laughed when we received the direct-mail piece suggesting we renew our extended warranty. We long ago decided that we would never make a major purchase from that retailer again, nor would we buy any products from the consumer division of the TV manufacturer.

Now, I’m not surprised when a company fails to take care of a customer after the sale, but I would hope an organization would have enough interest in its own efficiency to purge the least likely prospects from its mailing lists. As it is, they spent money to remind us why we won’t shop there again.