hermens@ted.cs.uidaho.edu (04/19/91)
Registration card and warranty cards are NEVER used in any business
for registering the user. Marketing wants a survey of those who actually
turned them in. Two reasons:
1) You don't legally have to return them to validate a warranty.
2) Why else do they ask you so many questions that relate
to your age, sex, annual income, etc.?
I turned in the Apple card for one thing only: The freebies.
I will never turn in any other warranty cards in the future because:
I didn't get any freebies.
BTW, other companies try to get you to turn them in case of "...the unlikely
event of a safety notice regarding your new <product>."
I thought companies routinely hide the flaws in their products until the
government tells them to recall... :-)
Leonard
In article <1991Apr18.213720.13310@edsr.eds.com> wjb@tantalum.eds.com (Bill Biesty) writes:
>Reading all of these complaints about not getting free gifts for sending
>in the ergistration card reminded me about a passage in Guy Kawasaki's
>book "The Macintosh Way". Basically Apple uses registration cards as a way
>to audit sales in a region (he explains this is the most relaible way
>to credit sales people--all of the details I can't remember). This
>incentive may just be a smokes screen to get this method to work.
>
>Comments from Apple?
>
>Billmdavis@pro-sol.cts.com (Morgan Davis) (04/21/91)
In-Reply-To: message from hermens@ted.cs.uidaho.edu } Registration card and warranty cards are NEVER used in any business } for registering the user. In our company, we put the name, address, product title, version and date of each registration card we get into a database. We do this because we want to keep a mailing list of all of our customers, and also to verify technical support calls to make sure we're not giving out lots of support to a user with a pirated copy. And, we read every one that comes in -- including the questionaire portion since very often our customers have some excellent suggestions for improvements and ideas for new products. The important thing is that we get our customer's addresses, because we will occassionally run a bulk-mail campaign with a coupon toward a discount on some new product we've just released. We've found that our past customers are our best customers, and many come back to buy our new products. They are already familiar with our company and quality products, and we really do like making it easier for them to make a purchase by offering a discount. So while registration cards are probably more valuable for the company, I can give you a rather lengthy list of customers who took advantage of one of our coupon campaigns and saved a heck of lot more than the postage on their registration cards. --Morgan UUCP: crash!pro-sol!mdavis AOL, BIX: mdavis ARPA: crash!pro-sol!mdavis@nosc.mil GEnie: m.davis42 INET: mdavis@pro-sol.cts.com ProLine: mdavis@pro-sol
nilesinc@well.sf.ca.us (Avi Rappoport) (04/22/91)
hermens@ted.cs.uidaho.edu writes: > Registration card and warranty cards are NEVER used in any business >for registering the user. Marketing wants a survey of those who actually >turned them in. WRONG!!! We have a very high percentage of registered users, and we do not use the information primarily for marketing. Our main use is for sending upgrade notices and company newsletters, as well as bug fixes for certain problems. In order to do this (serve our customers better), our registration cards have US postage paid, the serial number stamped or pasted on, and all we ask for is name and address. Sure, we'd like to know where our customers bought it and what kind of machine they have, but we'd rather have a high return rate (which we do). I hope this reduces your cynicism a little -- not all companies are out to do you dirt, some of us like our customers very much! -- -- Help me justify my online bills: ask me EndNote questions, please! -- Avi Rappoport 2000 Hearst, Berkeley, CA 94709 nilesinc@well.sf.ca.us, 415-649-8176 Niles.Assoc on AppleLink fax: 415-649-8179