Did Someone at Amazon Think of This as a Great Idea?

[Jim Koepke]

Often when buying something at Amazon for the next week a flurry of ads for the just purchased item are sent to my eddress.

One item recently purchased was hose washers for my quick connectors on my hoses and watering accessories. They carry a couple of types. One type is for connectors that stop the flow when disconnected and with the other kind the water continues to flow if there isn't a valve at the end of the hose. My hoses mostly have a cut valve at the end.

Of the available washers there were two brands. One was from one maker that may have had three washers. Not sure the text kept changing from one viewing to another. The other was from a maker in a pack of twenty for a better price than the other maker. Both are from the makers of my quick connectors and they are compatible. My choice was to purchase the pack of twenty for about what it would cost for about 10 of the ones that sometimes said three to a pack and sometimes didn't say how many.

It is amazing how many ads came my way from the ones not purchased.

What is even more amazing is a couple ads like this:

472956

Funny but those don't look like garden hose washers.

Maybe if someone was better educated than your average high school drop out they would send me ads for things that use hose washers or other gardening accessories.

jtk

[ChrisA Edwards]

Since about 2015, we've placed about 2000 orders with Amazon.

As of now, I've never received an email advertisement from Amazon for any products.

[George Yetka]

I dont think its an individual that is generating the emails. Its an autogenerated spam Im not sure That I ever purchased a recommended item they showed me on the home page. But you gotta give them credit for trying.

Its definitely an option in settings to receive emails, I would turn them off.

[George Yetka]

perhaps they thought since you love spraying everything in the backyard you may want to put some anti slip mats on your back stairs. And at the same time you may need washers

[Lee DeRaud]

Since about 2015, we've placed about 2000 orders with Amazon.

As of now, I've never received an email advertisement from Amazon for any products.
Sounds about right. But I DO see ads on Facebook for things I just bought on Amazon...again, not an optimal marketing strategy.

[Perry Hilbert Jr]

If I even look something up to see what it is, I get numerous ads for days thereafter for that item of accessories. It could just be a wikipedia search. Looked up a town in France where some ancestors lived before coming to the colonies. I got all kinds of travel and hotel ads for hotels around that town, both in emails and various web forums I frequent. Worse, is I typed a law suit against a person for a client and used my personal computer by mistake, instead of the office computer. Every two or three months, I get a notice on facebook that I may know that Defendant and do I want to send a friend request? It is quite obvious that they mine computers for names.

[Anuj Prateek]

I get email advertisement from Amazon. They go straight to trash.

[Jim Koepke]

Woodcraft is another one. Often after just looking at something for reference they send an email wondering if something interested me with a discount for some of the items searched.

jtk

[Robert Engel]

I think it’s tied to Google marketing.

[Brian Elfert]

Zoro will often send a 15% discount code via email if you leave stuff in your shopping cart. Most of Zoro's prices are way too high without a discount code. I don't think I have ever received an email from Amazon after looking at something.

[Bill Dufour]

I have found that on ebaby it pays to look at an item and wait a few days until someone offers 5-10% off.
Bill D

[Curt Harms]

I don't think I've ever gotten an email solicitation from Amazon. I do find it kinda amusing that if I buy something I get recommendations for the same or very similar items. I just bought one I don't need another, thanks anyway.

[Jim Koepke]

I have found that on ebaby it pays to look at an item and wait a few days until someone offers 5-10% off.
Bill D

This has happened only once to me on ebay. It was a BIN that was over priced. Likely everyone that was watching to see if some sucker went for it got the same email from the seller.

jtk

[John K Jordan]

I purchase many things a month from Amazon, from tools and supplies to books to farm stuff.

In all my years of shopping I have NOT ONCE gotten an email ad from Amazon. Gmail is almost perfect at deflecting unwanted email into the Spam folder which I glance through before deleting to see if something got sent there by mistake. I have never seen an email there from Amazon.

Tell me how you got on this list to get ads from Amazon so I’ll be careful to never do it.

Did you “opt in” to something? If it were me I’d contact Amazon and ask them to quit. I’m sufficiently adept at finding things to buy on my own.

JKJ

[Lawrence Duckworth]

Love 'em or hate 'em but I'm amazed at what they're able to accomplish. Yesterday morning I ordered 2 boxes of coffee k-cups, at about 5:30 pm I got a ding on my computer with a picture of the amazon delivery.

btw, we're Sam Club members but it's 25 miles one way and the way gas prices are....

[Jim Koepke]

Did you “opt in” to something?

Probably accepted their sign up for "informative emails." I have two email accounts, one is for everything and the other is for more private email.

There used to be three, but one was connected to my phone service in California and after about ten years after moving away, it got cut off.

There are still some of my old eddresses connected to websites that are very difficult to change. Does prodigy.net still exist?

jtk

[Bill Farrior]

I know of one email setting, in their "Communication Preferences Center".

From the web:


https://www.amazon.com/gp/cpc/homepage


From the mobile app:


Select the "three bars" icon on the bottom right
scroll all the way down to Customer Service
look for a section titled "Other things you may need help with"
find the option "Memberships, subscriptions, or communications"
"Manage email and mail communications"
"Manage your communication preferences"


Once there, look for "Email preferences", specifically the "Promotional emails" and make sure everything is unchecked.

There may be other reason(s) unwanted email, but this hopefully gets rid of at least one way!

[Roger Feeley]

At the other end of the spam spectrum. Years ago, frustrated with water finishes in metal cans, I ordered some all plastic quart sized cans from the Carey Company. I get a very nice email from them about three time a year which is just enough to remind me that they exist. At some point, I hunted up the president of the company and wrote a nice thank you emai.

On one hand, all these daily emails are a bit of a bother. But on the other hand, I don’t get a lot of email traffic and the spams tell me that the system is working. I do unsubscribe to email lists that appear to be legitimate. I leave in place the obvious phishing attacks. So most of my email is legitimate ads (rockler, woodpecker…), real email traffic that I would read and the really bad stuff.