Email is worthless

ugh...I feel your pain.  

good luck, don't decapitate anyone unless it's truly necessary.

Been there. Have the T-shirt.

On a bad day I delete 20+ spam messages. Most arrive overnight. Today was a good day-only a few so far.

I good friend of mine spent about 12 years as a State Representative.  He would receive 200-500 emails every day.  Sorting the wheat from the chaff was nearly impossible with no staff to assist.

I deplore the current world's reliance on email.  It's a free-for-all when someone gets a hold of a current address.

I recently sold some property in Arizona.  Everything was pretty much done over email.  Now somehow every jake-legged real estate shark sends me notices daily.  And don't even get me started ragging on my SiriusXM account. 

A few years ago my dentist (whom I've known since we were in the 3rd. grade) retired.  The young doc that pickup up his practice relies almost entirely on email.  I get almost weekly notices about bi-annual visits and infernal requests to fill out a survey.  Every time I visit the office I try to get them to drop me off the list...it's been fruitless so far...

Misusing email for unsolicited purposes should be a felony with hefty fines and jail sentences.  

Piling on at a different whistle-stop:

I can't stand the friend, or affiliate, of a good client that feels emailing with no prior warning will get a response. For most of the reasons above, all mail goes to junk unless I have corresponded with you regarding business in the past.

Junk mail then goes to trash.

I'm holding the line on common courtesy for first contact to be by phone. No, text does not count.

Hey... how are you. Got your name from _______ and wanted to talk about a project. Sure, I can email that over.

And that could be in voicemail. I can live with that and know that I should be looking for your email (in my junk mail folder).</rant>

Many years ago I had a similar problem with Alltel. I called the number and was told to send a copy of the cancelled checi. I said that I make a $50 charge for correcting corporate books and would she authorize the charge. She said yes, I got her name, sent the cancelled check and a detailed bill to their CEO for $50.

Time goes by and Alltel is acquired. In the due diligence, my bill turns up. I get a phone call and then a credit for $50 on my first bill from the new company.

My advice, then, is to bill them for any service you provide in reconciling their accounts.

I might be on the wrong side of the fence here but I think email and electronic transactions are a huge benefit and value, saving time, money and anxieties of all kinds while providing legal trails for easy retrieval if needed.

I feel your pain with the incessant BS though and have incorporated a couple things for a long time that have definitely made the difference between our perspectives (even though I think I can tell you're just blowing off steam).

1) Create a separate junk email address.  I have one, conveniently called spammineggs@dslextreme.com (feel free to send me your proposals, offers and solicitations for foreign born beautiful wife material there).  I use it when I know I'm signing up for free giveaways and investment strategies that can make you millions overnight.  I rarely look at it and it doesn't go to my phone.

2) learn the steps it takes to set up filters and periodically create new ones or expand them.  Here's how it works with gmail:

select some crap -> Filter Messages Like These -> Create Filter -> Skip Inbox -> Send to Archive

Your life instantly becomes lighter.

Don't be a soft target...

While I agree that email can be a REAL pain in the tush it does have it's place.  I have a neighbor with whom I must communicate a few times a year.  His veracity is almost worthless.  Any communication I have with him is in writing, either good old US (snail) Mail or via email with carbon copies to the other affected parties.  Verbal communication with him is a definite no go.

Andy

@paden-cash 

"It's a free-for-all when someone gets a hold of a current address."

And the spam goes on for years. I have an email address that I used in 2005 to send pictures to a real estate agent to help my stepdaughter sell her dad's house. That's the only connection I can think of between her and that address. I still occasionally get spam addressed to her at that address.

What is worse is when some search engine that finds people has erroneous connections tied to you.  If I go to White Pages, for example, and put in my name and zip code, a few odd entries exist.  One is a former boyfriend of Daughter #2 who neither of us has seen since 1999.  Two weeks ago I received a call from someone who was trying to find him to notify him that if he did not appear in court two days later the penalties could include..............................................................  I get these calls several times each year.

I had to go to the office Chief. She swung into action and fixed it. Just trying to keep it at staff level but if people won’t respond to messages then I have no choice.

email is good when the other side reads and responds to it.

I’m tired of electronic stuff. Got security cameras for the wife (I resisted for 5 years). Had to get a Wi-Fi repeater for one of them. Can’t believe the unnecessarily difficult effort to change it to the new SSID. Had to get up there on a ladder then the first time it failed because I had SSID wrong, fixed it on 2nd try but in its infinite wisdom it switched back to the wrong SSID %#$%%++-$%% thing 3rd try got it. Can’t just switch it from my easy chair, no it wants to be next to the router to connect.