Dear John Lewis, your suggested purchases are not very useful

[andrewducker]

As I bought a washing machine from you last week, and am currently waiting for it to be delivered, the chances of me wanting _another_ washing machine already is not high. Should I worry that the one you sold me will immediately cease to function, leaving me in urgent need of its replacement?

(It came with a multi-year warranty, so I'm not actually worried about that.)

Comments

[zornhau.livejournal.com]

Fool! If you had purchased both, aligned them correctly, then run them with heavy loads on full spin, the resulting interaction of sound waves would have opened a hyper portal!

[meaningrequired.livejournal.com]

++

[channelpenguin.livejournal.com]

:-) :-) MUST.TRY.....

[a-pawson.livejournal.com]

Amazon is just as bad. I regularly get Emails showing the full range of wide screen TVs and iPods. Much as I would like another TV it wouldn't fit in the house!

[kashandara.livejournal.com]

It's not just technology with Amazon. Maybe it's too difficult for them to connect the dots, but it drives me nuts that just weeks after people have bought me a pile of DVD boxsets from my wishlist, that Amazon are throwing the same shows back at me as recommendations of things I might like to try...

[rhythmaning.livejournal.com]

Amazon keeps suggesting I might want to buy things I already own. Which I bought from Amazon!!!

[hawkida.livejournal.com]

I presume you know why this happens? In case you don't (or anyone reading doesn't), it's because the adverts you see are not based on what you bought, they haven't linked the "advertise at this man" to your purchases. What they DO know, however, is that you're a person who's been going around the web looking at pages of washing machines, and they have washing machines to sell. There's a good chance that if you went to ebay right now, or Facebook, they too would be encouraging you to consider the beautiful washing machines their advertisers can supply.

[bart-calendar.livejournal.com]

It's like when Google puts up ads for condoms on impregnation or bareback sex fetish sites.

Everyone is all worried about how Google and Facebook are invading our privacy, but, really, they pretty much suck at it.

[del-c.livejournal.com]

I don't worry that large establishments will accurately conclude I'm a terrorist, I worry that they will mistakenly conclude it. From this point of view, incompetence is worse.

ObSF: Computers Don't Argue by Gordon R. Dickson

[bart-calendar.livejournal.com]

Facebook clearly thinks I'm a terrorist. I intentionally put up bullshit posts and interests to fuck with their advertising algorithm and currently all my ads are for how to make your own bullets at home and how to build a log cabin in the woods that will help you survive the eventual UN enslavement of America.

[rhythmaning.livejournal.com]

Dell do the same - I'd bought a laptop from them, so they sent me emails suggesting I might want to buy a laptop.

Funnily enough, they ended up in my spam bin...