Wednesday, August 05, 2009

The Webmail Saga Heats Up

I'm pretty sure this is a genuine complaint, but it could also be a publicity stunt gone wrong. Time will tell, but they are getting bad press. I mention it because the complaint was also posted on one of my old blog articles too.
Jason Bagley's article hit home because his opening paragraph reads:
I think we all pretty much know that Webmail and the holding company Interface IT are genuine spammers much the same as Ananzi and Braby’s. I got this email from a reader that got scammed by Webmail to send out 100 000 emails that would generate a 30% – 40% response rate. This “direct mail” package costs her R30 000.
My brother tried advertising his jumping castle business on Ananzi and was bitterly disappointed with the results. Not only were they amateurish but they didn't match up with the marketing claims made by the Ananzi sales team.
As for Webmail, I have no way of knowing how accurate their figures are, but consider this: Webmail offers free email addresses to anyone who wants one, like Yahoo, Gmail or Hotmail. UNLIKE the big boys, Webmail has no anti-spam offering, and now it seems they are a pro-spam. Weird.
Then there is the question of who exactly signs up for this kind of service. Webmail divides its customers into the following cheesy categories:
  • Techy Teen - a person at school - a scholar.
  • Super student - a student at college, technicon [sic] or university.
  • Employed/Other - a person in the workplace or not in either of the above.
So this begs the question: who exactly are the people that Webmail can target? Are they consumers flush with cash and a big credit card? Or are they chepskates who can't afford a real email address so they get a free one? Are they school kids who haven't learnt about spam yet and will click on anything that arrives at their inbox, or sophisticated users who know what they want?
Personally, judging by the attack of pop-up ads that float around the screen when you visit their site, I would say that the people who use Webmail do so because they have a high tolerance of spam or they want a mailbox they can use for throw-away emails. And they've never heard of Gmail. Not yet anyway.
My nieces and nephews used to have Webmail addresses. They moved to Gmail and rolled their eyes when I asked them about Webmail. They have learnt about spam from the pro's, and won't get caught again.
Judging by the customer reviews here, Webmail's days are numbered.
They came to see me today and I told the salesman to leave the contract with me so that I can do some research and if happy I would sign it and send it through tomorrow. He promptly told me I am wasting his time, packed up his things, and left. Not very professional.

3 comments:

Anonymous said...

they lured users with promise of shares in company when they listed. you would get more when referring others. i had an email address but lost interest. have noticed they have removed / hidden this initial offering. SCAMsters / SPAMmers extraordinaire!

Anonymous said...

Webmail Boss contact details

A Lipschitz
27 11 628-9700
alan@iface.co.za

Tony Dovale said...

I have requested for my numbers to be removed from webmails scamming/ spammer system on many occassions to no avail.

Today I was again harassed twice by these very unprofessional spammer /tele rapers!

This even after speaking to the BOSS - Alan Lipshist.

Not much of a boss it seems. Maybe he's just like other greeders and only cares about the money - No soul!

Seems like a bunch of monkies running the farce... :)

How hard can it be to have a list of PLEASE DO NOT CALL NUMBERS?

But that is assuming that someone has a brain cell that cares! seemingly not!

Time for action...

Tony Dovale
www.lifemasters.co.za

Tired of being abused!