Here’s an excellent example of how a company will put more effort into getting you to notice its junk mail than any important account related information. David says this happens to him all the time, and it’s usually a serious notice (as in “impending disconnection”) thanks to a recurring billing error.

David writes:

Both of these envelopes from Charter arrived the same day. One of them is an advertisement for their phone service; the other is a notice that my service will be cut off if I don’t pay them. This happens when the web site tells me that it is going to make an automatic bill pay but decides against to without letting me know. Which envelope do you think is which?

Obviously the important message about my service being disconnected is the nondescript envelope at the bottom and the “Important Information” envelope at the top is trying to sell me the phone service I don’t need and didn’t need the last 100 times they’ve tried to sell it.

Clearly they care way more about selling things people don’t need than trying to provide a modicum of decent service.

Maybe this is the new marketing strategy, David. If every time you pick up an envelope from Charter you worry that it’s a disconnect notice, you’ll open everything it mails to you, right?

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