Re: [tlug] B2B e-mail solicitation response

["Stephen J. Turnbull" <stephen@example.com>]

>>>>> "patrick" == patrick niessen <patrick.niessen@example.com> writes:

    patrick> Do you think it is legitimate (as in fair / appropriate),
    patrick> for IT service companies to contact us in this way.  Are
    patrick> they as bad as certain other SPAM messages?

Yes, they're as bad.  It's not that hard to find appropriate channels
in most cases.

    patrick> How would you respond to the sender?

With a place of honor in my kill file.

If I was in a really nasty mood, something like

    Dear Sir:

    You have a very interesting service offering.  However, we very
    deeply regret that it was received in the form of UCE to an
    inappropriate address, and our organization's policy does not
    permit doing business with spammers, because they quite clearly do
    not have their customers' interest at heart.

    Therefore we would appreciate your recommendation as to which of
    your non-spamming competitors is most competent, as we have
    blacklisted you and your product.

I hereby place that in the public domain.  Feel free to use it or
abuse it.

-- 
Institute of Policy and Planning Sciences     http://turnbull.sk.tsukuba.ac.jp
University of Tsukuba                    Tennodai 1-1-1 Tsukuba 305-8573 JAPAN
               Ask not how you can "do" free software business;
              ask what your business can "do for" free software.