You ruined my wife's surprise Christmas gift with your helpful email recommendations for my latest purchase. It's been killing her to know what I bought from Amazon, but since your email recommendations popped up for the TomTom GPS I bought in my IGoogle email widget on our Google homepage now she knows. She didn't even have to read the who email, the subject line alone gives it away. Your email was an awesome FAIL
For people who share computers, how about leading online retailers provide a checkbox during purchase so you can opt-out of upsell recommendations for that purchase getting pushed to you?
Don't feel too bad, Rob, at least it wasn't a diamond ring you were purchasing for your betrothed-to-be...
(Photo: Getty)
]]>It's YOUR fault for using the same address/account that allows your wife ACCESS to the same material.
Sheesh. Get creative. Use another account:
- Bigfoot.com
- yahoo.com
- Ymail.com
- Hotmail.com
- Rocketmail.com
- Inbox.com
- Email.com
...there are LOTS of places that will set you up with an account for FREE.
Maybe for Xmas, she'll get you a brain.
(yet i bet he still has a drivers license)
got this tonight @amazon:
Buying Gifts on a Shared Computer? Don't Spoil the Surprise
We use your shopping history to create recommendations for you. If you share a computer, this might give others hints of what you've been shopping for. You can prevent this by signing out of Amazon.
What I'm saying is that he likely didn't think to care about his wife being able to glance over and see his account. I've used my husband's computer before when he had his email still logged in, and if I wanted to I could have gone through all of it and read every piece. He's done the same with me, or I might accidentally leave my separate account logged in on his computer when I use it there.
Why take a million steps to prevent your spouse from accessing your email? Yes, every computer I use at work has all those things set up on it, as does my laptop. But my home desktop? Two of us use it, and we don't see any reason to put hyper security on a computer only the two of us can access.
]]>" Polite Warning - This may be a gift!
The following message may contain information about gifts to be delivered from Orvis.com. If you share this e-mail address with someone else and have not recently placed an order, please do not read the following. We do not want to spoil a surprise! "
]]>Oh so very much in agreement here. Makes me cringe when I see someone proudly sending in their letter of complaint about some or other consumer issue, only to see that said letter is full of "EPIC FAIL!!!" and the like. Ugh.
]]>Indeed. All you have to do is look at the shipping label on anything sent by UPS (or any other carrier, as far as I know, bar the USPS) and it will have the sender's name printed on there somewhere, in most cases. That's how I knew that the "priority" FedEx delivery sitting on my front porch, addressed to some random guy (who lives a few streets away - good delivering skills, FedEx!!) yesterday was from Dell. Maybe it was all part of a cunning plan not to ruin someone's Christmas, and that box was deliberately left on my doorstep.
(Yes, I did ensure it reached its intended destination - I'm nice like that, see).
]]>I bid on a pair of secondhand rollerblades on eBay a few years ago. I won them. Then I got a message from the cheapskate underbidder, ranting at me that he had been trying to get those for his girlfriend and that I just HAD to go and bid on them, and thus, I had RUINED CHRISTMAS FOR (HIS) GIRLFRIEND!! (message was littered with assorted obscenities and insults).
I resisted the urge to respond, but did think up plenty of excellent rejoinders after the event.
Rarely used the damned rollerblades, and sold them for 3x what I paid when I moved to the US a few years later. Result!
]]>Hehe this is the first time I've heard of someone using it for actual gifts, and not as a euphemism.
]]>This was not the CC company, but buy.com and it was a dead giveaway since I had just updated my list with them and it had one item on it.
]]>And Mozilla Seamonkey (formerly Netscape/the Mozilla suite) still lets you create and swap between multiple browser profiles even when you're using the same OS user account.
]]>The spoiler is unfortunate, but blaming Amazon because you publicize your messages is incredibly short-sighted.
]]>I hope his wife got him a brain for Xmas!
This is like blaming Verizon when your wife goes to use your cell phone and sees you've been sending salacious text messages to your mistress.
]]>I suspect if you had a girlfriend and got her a medicine cabinet for Christmas, you wouldn't have a girlfriend much longer anyway.
]]>Amazon has a checkbox when ordering to mark something a "gift"
Why not have some logic in their software that removes that item from the "up-sale" and "recommended" database?
]]>@Rhayader: I wish they had an option to select when purchasing: I don't want this item but am required to purchase it. Or, 'please don't base my preferences on this gag gift I am getting for my brother.' Stuff ends up haunting you.
]]>@samurailynn: Good idea - I will keep it in mind if the time comes for shared accounts.
]]>@Meiran: Linux, Windows, and OS X have this awesome feature for shared computers called seperate accounts. That way you log out of their account and into your account with your own cookies. Or alternatively you could just make gmail, hotmail, yahoo not remember your username/password. I know hotmail has 3 choices when I login using the browser, one of which calling it a 'shared computer' and it will not remember either username or password.
]]>@Jackasimov: What do you mean Santa isn't real? You've ruined Christmas for me!
]]>She may wonder why the gift she got isn't the one he bought.
]]>This is what happens when people think they are tech-savvy...
]]>I did not. I hadn't been that interested in their rings to begin with. (It was Zales, or one of the other mall jewelry stores.)
]]>@Rhayader: zing!
]]>One of my favorites is the one where someone ruined Christmas by not opening a Blockbuster early on Christmas Day for a customer so that they could buy gift cards for their grandkids. Dude.
]]>ATT sends a test message to everyone on the account when you purchase an iphone to says "thank you for purchasing an iphone" now. Thats how my friends found out his girlfriend got him one for christmas.
]]>@tande04: Thank You! I was just about to post a comment about how I don't understand what the Hell happened here. I guess it's just me but I found the second sentence in the OP's quote really confusing.
]]>I just bought a gift for the wife.
look at these gift options amazon has (check gift box)
"esignating Orders as Gifts
We make it easy to send most items as gifts. You may send the items in your Shopping Cart to different shipping addresses--simply specify the name and shipping address of each recipient when you fill out the order form.
If the items are fulfilled by Amazon.com, click the View Cart icon at the top of our website when you're ready to complete your purchase, and check the box next to the line that reads "Add gift-wrap/note." (If the item can't be wrapped, the line will simply read "Add gift note.") You can also find this checkbox in the blue Ready to Buy? box on an item's product detail page if your 1-Click® settings are turned on. If you choose not to gift-wrap the item (or the item can't be wrapped), the gift message will be printed on the packing slip.
Some items sold by Amazon Merchants, including selected items in the Gourmet and Apparel & Accessories stores, may be gift-wrapped or have a gift message included with the package. If this option is available for an Amazon Merchant item, you will see the phrase "Gift options" appear underneath the item on the last page of the order form. Click the "Change" link to select your gift wrap or messaging. The giftwrap cost, and an image of the wrapping if available, will be displayed on the resulting page.
At this time, you cannot designate items purchased from Amazon Marketplace sellers as gifts.
For items sold by Amazon.com, if you check the "Add gift-wrap/note" box, you can have us wrap your gift or add a free gift note. Please note that you must add a gift note or select wrapping for your order to be designated as a gift. Even if you are having the items shipped to yourself, you should let us know your order is a gift. Here's why:
We won't include the price of the items on the packing slip included with the order.
We will ignore items you order as gifts when recommending items to you based upon your past purchases.
If you purchase an item from a registry, we'll indicate that the item has already been purchased so the recipient doesn't receive a duplicate gift from someone else."
AND AFTER YOU Order a gift, Amazon has this warning:
"Buying Gifts on a Shared Computer? Don't Spoil the Surprise
We use your shopping history to create recommendations for you. If you share a computer, this might give others hints of what you've been shopping for. You can prevent this by signing out of Amazon.
âºLearn more"
Sometimes, you have to rip the user.
I *heart* you, Amazon!
]]>I'm a big fan of Amazon, but sometimes their recommendations make me chuckle. I once purchased a season of Star Trek: The Next Generation back in 2002, and in 2006 they send me a recommendation e-mail based on that purchase. ALF: Season 3 was available for pre-order and because "other users" had once bought Star Trek and recently pre-ordered(!!) ALF: Season 3, I would probably interested. I was not. I just want to meet the guy that had to be the first to buy the third season of ALF.
]]>Also, any emails about the purchase would have been delivered almost immediately after the purchase, so he easily could have put them in a folder or somehow moved them from the inbox or even deleted them.
I mean, I don't think this is a "OMG YOU RUINED CHRISTMAS" kind of thing, but it's easy to see how it happened and that it isn't his fault.
]]>If only there were a way to get a free private e-mail account... oh yeah wait, there are about 100.
]]>It wasn't an email receipt, it was a "You bought X you might like Y" email.
The standard definition of upsell.
]]>Why in the world would I have bought the case if I didn't already have a Zen?
]]>Here she didn't have to do that, she just glanced at the start page and it said, hey you might like this GPS to go with the GPS you just bought.
]]>krispykrink: Exactly.
Multiple logins, solves the problem entirely.
]]>@Rhayader: Dude, it takes long enough to think of a non-taken name for one Gmail account.
]]>@Hooray4Zoidberg: I'm just waiting for the day I accidentally flash some gay/Pagan/whatever book recs at a conservative relative. (Oh well - it'll be funny after the fact.)
As a dramatically contrasting example, Levenger comes to mind - but of course, selling swanky office supplies means it makes sense for them to even ask for a last name as well as an e-mail when you log in with them. And to send e-mails that start with, "If you didn't place an order with us recently, you might want to avert your eyes!"
After dropping so much money on Levenger, though, I can't help but make the sad puppydog eyes and wish Amazon would learn the words "spoiler alert."
]]>Always create a separate sign-on or at least a guest account if anyone uses the computer other than you.
Amazon - stop so much of the up sell bs.
]]>Perhaps also an "I'm a cross dresser and my wife doesn't know about it" option.
]]>Also, they didn't ruin anything here. They followed their normal business practices, and the OP was too dense to sign up for his own Gmail account.
]]>Recently made a purchase online from LLBean. When they sent me the email to confirm shipment it said in the subject line something to the effect of "Your Recent LLBean Order (May contain gift information)"
Thought that was a nice touch.
My wife bought me a couple of books for Christmas from Amazon and I ended up finding out because as soon as I pulled up amazon.com the front page listed her last things that she bought and also recommendations. I don't know her login information and it was an accident that I saw it.
I ended up having to show her how to clear the temporary internet files, cookies, etc. so that whenever she uses amazon or some place else to look up gifts at it won't pop up what she bought or any recommendations on what else she should buy.
]]>Why should we as the consumers have to set up seperate email addresses, buy his and her computers, and jump through hoops to avoid emails we specificly ask not to receive.
Amazon dropped the ball trying to make another sale.
]]>If the OP had done this, he wouldn't have gotten recommendations based on his wife's gift.
]]>I was browsing for a gift for my wife, didn't yet decide. The next day, I was at some other random site, and Amazon ads appeared on the page, with the specific items and similar items I checked out the day before.
]]>This doesn't meet the standards of upselling by even a casual definition. He already purchased the GPS and an e-mail receipt hardly constitutes pressuring him.
He should pile some blame on the manufacturers of his computer, his ISP, credit card company and Google for allowing him to make the decisions that lead his wife to discover his Christmas gift.
]]>Very nicely done.
]]>This is amatuer stuff.
While shopping for an engagement ring for my wife, I'm not entirely clear why, but one of the jewelry stores ended up with my phone number and then called my house and informed my girlfriend that they had reduced the price on the engagement ring I had looked at earlier in the week if I wanted to come in and take another look at it.
It was awesome.
]]>It would be smart for Amazon to allow people to check "this is a gift" when purchasing just for them to take into account for your recommendations, if only because, immediately after Christmas, I am bombarded with recommendations of crap I would never buy for myself in a thousand years. No, I am not interested in country music or home exercise equipment; I bought Taylor Swift and the yoga ball for OTHER PEOPLE. So give me back my Roman history recommendations, please.
Seriously, by failing to take this into account, they make their own recommendations software a joke.
]]>I'm all for calling companies on the carpet when they suck, but take a few minutes and at least search for the function you want first.
]]>Seriously though, what should they have done? Labeled it "Acme" and shipped it in a box that was twice as large as it needed to be?
]]>The point is that he decided it was important to keep this purchase a secret, then went ahead and used a shared email account to order it. It's hard to criticize someone's motivations as an outsider, but when his actions have an internal conflict with his own priorities it's a pretty straightforward FAIL.
]]>It's not hard to anticipate confirmation, shipping notices, product recommendations, etc hitting that email account. It's also not hard to set up another Gmail account. My guess is that if had taken this simple measure, the wife never would have known, no matter what AdSense was doing in their browser.
]]>Here's an idea, get a web based email account to do your shopping with, genius, then you wont even risk this kind of problem
]]>I never understand why it's so frigging important to give the present on Christmas DAY. Honestly, I would go insane if I had to wait for the ONE DAY a year I could buy something.
And holy crap, you can order the stuff GIFT WRAPPED. What a cheap whiner!
]]>That is equivalent to saying it is his fault that he lives with his wife, and the salesman from the store he bought the gift from came buy his house and asked him if he would like to buy another GPS unit out loud.
When I am on websites (like digg) I find advertisements for objects I was looking for for my wife, and even bought online! The only way to avoid this is to browse in another browser or always use 'private browsing'. It is quite a pain to try to avoid it, and it shouldn't be.
]]>Thanks for killing the surprise Amazon.
]]>How about using different password protected user accounts? Or not sharing the same frackin' email account, or log out of it so someone else can't see it?
Nation of whiners.
]]>A part of this will not be blaming the op and some of it will be;
Is it Amazon's fault that husband and wife are using the same computer? Is it Amazon's fault that she was either checking his account, or that they share an email account that she was checking? Is it Amazon's fault that he has an Amazon account that emails to his email account that she can check or that emails to the shared email account?
I say no on all accounts.
This guy stated that his wife was itching to know what he bought from Amazon. I'm assuming she saw the Amazon box or something. That's cool, it happens all the time, I've had people stay at my house to sign for their christmas presents (I order something and it happens to come during an unexpected business trip), so sometimes they would know where it came from. If I'm sharing a pc with someone that I purchased for, first I'm using an email account and/or Amazon account that they DON'T KNOW THE ACCOUNT INFO ON! So they, you know, can't login and see the emails talking about what I ordered.
]]>My wife and I have separate computers and even if we had the same computer, it'd have separate user accounts so that we can customize it ourselves and not see each others things. We also have separate email accounts.
Sorry, but you ruined the surprise, not Amazon.
]]>Keeping Secrets from your spouse: UR doin it rong
]]>Not exactly interested in thermodynamics anymore, sorry amazon.
]]>What this guy is complaining about is a HUGE stretch. There are a million and one ways to ruin a gift surprise. This is just one of them.
]]>And nether account is password protected (and we know each others account passwords for things like email) we aren't hiding anything from each other it's just set so we have our own environments.
]]>@Rhayader:
Stop that talk of personal responsibility. That's CRAZY talk.
]]>Yeah, I really hate that feature. I ordered the dealzmodo mispriced 52" LCD TV a couple months ago, and after having my money tied up for a week after having the transaction cancelled for two reason first it was out of stock, then it was mispriced.
I still get taunting e-mails that say things like 'People who bought the Sharp 52" LCD also enjoyed this."
Bastards.
]]>Private email FTW! Why do people make things so difficult? I've seen a few people blame Amazon for everything. Use your own email address and have the packages sent somewhere else if you are concerned about the wrong person intercepting the gift. Why is it the retailer's job to jump through several hoops so that somebody else in your household doesn't discover the gift.
Is it Best Buy's fault if you leave a receipt laying around? Oh no, Best Buy should have used a secret code on its receipt so that nobody knows what I purchased.
I know this sounds like I'm blaming the victim, but there really is no victim. I'm just asking for some personal responsibility.
]]>Some guy ordered a Harry Potter book for his nephew and had it gift wrapped and sent, but the outside box proudly displayed the contents, even in that Harry Potter-ish font.
]]>My mother was worried about exactly this issue when getting my dad some DVDs for his birthday. They also share credit cards, and she never buys anything on Amazon, so she was expecting that even if Amazon didn't blow the surprise, when he saw unexpected Amazon on the cc statement, he'd investigate (thinking it was fraud).
Her solution: Ask me to order & pay for the gift, to be reimbursed when I visit them next. Not that I minded, but I'm sure there are plenty of people with similar plans for surprises that don't have an easy way to keep it a secret!
]]>I know it's not always the reality, but it's reasonable for a company to expect that an email address corresponds to an individual person.
]]>@LatherRinseRepeat: I've never had that problem; when I purchase something, I always go back and look at my recommendations, there is a page that tells me what they use; I just go and click "it was a gift" and I don't ever see recommendations based off that item again.
]]>I did my shopping with Chrome's Incognito browsing, and logged out of my Amazon account... Keep my email hidden and so far so good. I'm worried about eBay though, we share an account there - but hopefully I'm safe because I don't think she's purchasing off eBay.
]]>I have had nothing but success with Amazon and plan to make some purchases once I get my Christmas bonus
]]>I don't get it why amazon recommends stuff you already bought.
]]>