When No Doesn’t Mean No!
I hate spam e-mails, cold calls and text messages I don’t need.
I am very careful, to whom I give my communication details.
No-one gets my mobile phone number since I gave it to John Lewis, so they could deliver a parcel and an hour later I got a call on it trying to sell me a service to check my PPI status. I only had one issue on that and I sorted it myself.
Courier companies do get annoyed I won’t give them my mobile phone number, but as I’m generally in, what’s wrong with a landline?
What really annoy me are companies, where I’ve bought something on-line and despite saying I want no marketing calls or e-mails, the e-mails keep coming through in a flood.
One of the train companies is a bad serial offender and as I sometimes buy long-distance tickets with them, I have to give them my e-mail and other details. They recently sent me two e-mails; one of which said I might like to travel with my partner and the other that I might like to go and see my mother or other family. The first would have been offensive and truly hurtful to some and as my only family is in Walthamstow, which is Freedom Pass territory, the company did themselves more harm than good.
But increasingly, I’ve found a way to get good priced tickets for shorter journeys, both in and out of London and say between two stations anywhere in the UK.
And that is to buy the ticket after 16:00 on the previous day at the ticket machine at my local Overground station. At least Transport for London only send you targeted e-mails on subjects you have requested like weekend engineering works. And of course no-one has developed an automatic machine that senses your mobile number or e-mail address!
What is needed is a site like the Telephone Preference Service, where you can register your e-mail to stop marketing e-mails.
There is also a marketing opportunity for someone to see up a train ticketing site, for those who need to take trips out of London.
1. Such a site would generally sell out and return tickets from London.
2. It would also sell extension tickets from Zone 6 for Freedom Pass holders. At present you can only do this from a Ticket Office or one of London Overground’s excellent machines.
3. It could also find you a nice day out on say next Thursday, linking to the weather and the sort of place you’d like to visit.
4. It could be geared to Londoners and tourists alike!
In some ways the site would be a clone of the London Overground machines, which are Internet terminals anyway!
When will innovators realise that one person’s annoyance is another’s business opportunity?
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The Anonymous Widower 
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