Antique heirloom mailing list

[bunn]

In the post today we got a letter addressed to one of the previous owners of our house, from the Countryside Alliance.

We bought this house 7 years ago, and the addressee had moved out 8 years prior to that.

So, the mailinglist that his address was on must have been a *minimum* of 15 years old!

I know this is the country, people don't move about quite so much. But15 years? Clean your list, Countryside Alliance!

Comments

[tena524.livejournal.com]

A mere 15 years? I can top that one easily.

I was visiting my Mom some years back and got a *phone call* asking for Dad. He'd been deceased more than 20 years by that time. Moreover, the family home had been sold the same year he died. Mom moved to a new town and consequently had a different phone number.

I thought I was getting a sales call from the Twilight Zone...

[bunn.livejournal.com]

Wow. I think that has to win the Historic Marketing List Award.

[tena524.livejournal.com]

It turned out that this particular salesman was a new member of Mom's church, so he went cold-calling throught the church Directory, where she was listed as Mrs. Vincent instead of Ms. Eileen. It apparently hadn't ocurred to him that this was the traditional listing for a widow.

He as trying to sell replacement windows, and thought the 'man of the house' would be a more receptive target. As Mom lived in a condo where purchasing decisions are made in bulk by the board of trustees, he bombed out all round.

[jane-somebody.livejournal.com]

Eww, I find the idea of someone joining a church just to take advantage of the mailing list pretty creepy. Or possibly even worse if he joined the church in good faith (hah) but then used the directory as a side benefit - because while the first is just an example of pragmatic cynicism, the second feels like trying to mix two things which shouldn't be mixed. Money-lenders in the temple, anyone?

Mind you, I was always taught that Mrs Fred Bloggs was the correct way to refer to a married woman, and Mrs Mary Bloggs for a widow (I *think* it would also be correct for a divorced woman, but the existence of such was barely acknowledged when I first learned my etiquette.) So 'Mrs' plus male first name would to me indicate a living husband. I'm guessing the convention is different in the US?