Living as I do in Hove I became interested in the Sussex Mac Users’ Group email discussion list and susbscribed on 17 February thinking that it might be enjoyable to chat to other Mac users in the sussex area. The info at the Sussex Mac Users’ Group website certainly suggests that this is what it is for.
Unfortunately what is not explained at the group’s website is that the email discussion list receives and distributes promotional emails from retailers such as Cancom UK.
Two days after I joined an email was sent to the list from a Cancom UK representative with the subject title: On the subject of Quark….
Hello all.
If anyone would like to try Quark Xpress 8.0 for 60 days, free of charge, let me know. I can arrange for a 5 user, 60 day, fully functional trial version to be sent to you.
Have a good day.
But if you go to the Quark 8 page at the Quark website you will see that in fact a 60 day test drive is available from there. So, there really is no need to go to Cancom UK to get a 60 day test drive.
On the same day, 19 February, an email is sent to Sussex Mac Users’ Group asking:
On the apple site i see iwork09 is £70 quid does anybody here sell it cheaper?
Six minutes later Cancom UK responds:
Only a little bit, £68.99. However if you want to order a copy, I can do it for £60.00 inc VAT. No shipping charge if you collect from one of our stores, £7.00 carriage cost if you want it delivered.
What is not mentioned is that you can buy it from Amazon UK for £59.80 at this time. You will not have to pay any delivery charge with Amazon’s Super Saver Delivery option.
On 25 February an email is sent to the discussion list with the subject title: “expanding hard drive”:
Hi – the hard drive on my iMac (PowerPc G5) now has only 4 GB free space. I would like to add a larger internal drive. Is this fairly straightforward or should I just take it into a shop and have them do it?
Also, do people have any recommendations for particular internal drives?
All the following emails I quote take place in the thread “expanding hard drive” on 25 February.
Within thirty three minutes of the “expanding hard drive” enquiry an email arrives from Cancom UK:
If you’re anywhere near Brighton, go and see (or call) [name removed] in our Brighton store, he’ll be able to give you a quote on a larger internal drive, including fitting and if you wish, transferring all your data.
His number is [number removed].
By now I’ve had enough of this, so I send an email myself:
Hi
I’m afraid I find a posting like this a bit disappointing.
There are a number of places that [name removed] could go to have her hard drive upgraded.
She asked if she would need to take it to a shop, not if there is a shop.
My response to [name removed] is that, yes, she will need to take it to a shop but it would be a good idea for her to shop around.
I have found it to be very beneficial price-wise to get things done in London.
The replacement of the hard drive is not difficult.
I recommend that [name removed] backs up all her data onto an external hard drive before she does anything. If [name removed] uses a utility like SuperDuper! she will be able to make a first class clone of her hard drive.
This is followed by a contribution from another list subscriber addressing the Cancom UK representative:
Apologies for going OT.
No offence meant [name removed], but you do seem to mostly reply when there’s an opportunity for a sale. I’d have thought as an Apple-related professional you’d also have some more insightful stuff to share.
Like I said, no offence. Not looking to start a flame war, just an observation.
The Cancom UK representative responds to my email:
My apologies. You’re right there are numerous places she can go. I was just letting her know about one of those.
No harm intended.
And the Cancom UK representative responds to the other subscriber’s email:
None taken.
Hands up, I’ve been found out.
I’m afraid I don’t always have time to read every email that comes in. As a sales person, I’m trained to look for sales opportunities.
Being in charge of sales for 4 APR stores and our head office, I don’t always have time to read every mail that comes through from SMUG, there’s not enough time in the day.
However, I will make more of an effort to join in and help out as best I can with some of the other subjects.
I will continue to send any special offers we or Apple have, like the Quark offer I sent last week, which, if you remember was a ‘free of charge’ 60 day trial of Quark 8, not making me a penny.
I will also continue to let you all know about the ‘free’ events Cancom hold from time to time with Apple and other vendors, Adobe for example.
He refers to the special offers he is going to continue to send, such as the Quark one. That’s the 60 days free of charge trial which you can get from Quark by simply going to their website.
A different retailer, someone with a very large graphic “signature” in their email advertising services for Macs and PCs sends an email to the list:
At the risk of starting a debate on the commercial presences in the SMUG, I’d just like to say that [name removed] and Cancom have in the past offered some pretty decent discounts to members of the list, most recently the iWork suite.
I’m sure [name removed, this refers to the original enquirer concerning changing a hard drive in an iMac] realises there are other alternatives available (I emailed her a quote myself). There were no mention of exact prices in [name removed] post so personally I don’t feel a line has been crossed but I do understand the concerns raised.
My two pence
One retailer defends another. The retailer refers to the iWork suite “offer” but of course iWork is available at Amazon for less than that offer as I’ve pointed out. It is revealed that the person enquiring about whether it is simple or not to upgrade the hard-drive in her Mac got an email giving a quote for her to do this job off-list as well as the quote to do the job on-list.
To this email I respond:
Hi
Speaking for myself I don’t want to be offered “pretty decent discounts”.
I don’t know how others feel about this but I’d like just a good Mac user group without promotion from retailers thank you very much.
There then follows a series of emails which are in favour of being offered these “discounts”:
First:
Sorry, but have to say I appreciate the occasional discounts offered to the group.
My tupence!
Second:
I am happy to be offered discounts as part of the collective as with the recent Quark thing, or the iWork saga.
Individual “negotiations” are another matter and should be off list once it has been agreed that is the way forward for those individuals.
Third:
Personally, I don’t have a problem. [name removed, referring to Cancom reprsentative] can hardly be accused of ‘hard-hitting, Sun-type’ adverts. On behalf of my school, I’ve spent a lot of money with Cancom and they’ve served us well enough. If it helps keep money flowing, so much the better. Other options are always available…
Fourth:
I’ve always appreciated [name removed, referring to Cancom representative] comments, and never found it a hard sell. I guess it’s because I’ve always used Cancom and liked the contact with him.
Fifth:
Me too. We’re all grown up here and can chose to pass on [name removed, referring to Cancom UK representative] tempting offers if we so wish. It’s also useful to have a Mac retailer’s take on things in the group.
I now send the following email:
Hi
Well personally I’ve seen enough and I’m off.
I don’t like spam and I’m not subscribing to a list that carries it.
I’ll just have to do without the possibility of 60 days free trial of Quark 8.0.
Of course I could just email Quark myself to get that, it’s no problem. Oops – sorry I mentioned that 
And shaving a couple of quid of iWork? I don’t think I’d have too much difficulty with that one either.
Bye bye.
Having unsubscribed I don’t have any knowledge about the discussion which followed however I felt that my expectations of the Sussex Mac Users’ Group were very different from those of the other participants.
I do feel that the description of the group at their website should be changed. That retailers use it for promotion should be explicit. It is not possible to view the messages in the list before subscribing because the archive can only be read by members.
Have you tried LMUG-Talk?
Hi Chris
I’ve just done an Internet search for LMUG and I see it is the London Mac User Group. I might well give it a try when I’m next inclined to subscribing to something like that. Thank you for the suggestion!