Wednesday, July 31, 2013

Buyer Beware...Don't Pay That "Invoice"

I received this in the mail yesterday...

Looks like an invoice, right?  It's not.  It's an advertisement for a website listing service that puts your website listing on search engines.

 This kind of manipulative schiestering really makes me mad.  I see this kind of stuff in advertising all the time.  It's playing to people's brain sections that is labeled "naive" or "clueless."  This kind of advertising is just plain manipulative, lazy, and non-trustworthy.  Manipulative because  it just is.  Lazy because there's no room for interaction except "give me your check."  Non-trustworthy because there's no evidence they would even do what the "invoice" suggests I would be paying for.  Where's the testimonials?  Where's the case studies?  Where's the proof?  Where's the credibility I could trust them to do the job?

The flip side?  It's genius for the bottom-line in revenue.  It DOES play to most people's natural tendency to put the invoice in their file to be paid without a second guess as to what it is.  When you do take the time to read the whole thing you'll see it does state "This is not a bill.  This is a solicitation..."  But my first response upon opening was, "What do I owe now?"  Thank goodness I'm in a place in my life where I scrutinize every piece of paper that looks like there's money involved.  I don't know about you, but I don't have enough money to just throw it to the wind.

Why am I writing this posting?  One, to vent.  Another to caution you to read everything before committing to something that would just be a money-sucker.  





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