Blog: David Loshin

« Doubles Your Pleasure, Double Your Fun | Main | Lego and Logo »

Costly Bundler Blunder

I got a postcard from Verizon today. It said:

"We recently sent you a letter in which we advertised a Verizon bundle package of Verizon FiOS Internet and Verizon FiOS TV service. This letter was mailed by mistake and the services described in the letter have never been offered by Verizon under those terms.

Verizon Consumer Marketing"

OK, seriously, I am finding it hard to get my head around this. The offer came in one of those pseudo-overnight envelopes that marketers often use to make their letter seem more credible - you know, cardboard weight with a zip-pull - not cheap. So this company:

- Drafts a marketing letter,
- Prints tens of thousands of copies,
- Custom prints tens of thousands of fancy cardboard envelopes,
- Puts them into fancy cardboard envelopes, and
- Mails them.

Actually, I am guessing about the number - it could be orders of magnitude greater, for all I know.

I find it hard to believe that the internal governance and control over marketing would not have stopped the process after the marketing letter had been drafted if it contained erroneous information, so I am curious as to what has really happened. I mean, in fact, having sent out the previous letter, the company actually did offer the services under those terms, but perhaps, due to some error, was not prepared to honor that offer.

In any event, my guess would be that there were some significant negative business impacts related to this bundle blunder - actual hard costs for materials and postage, as well as softer costs relating to organizational trust.

Share: