Tuesday, October 28, 2008

Is It A Scam, Or Perhaps Information Mining

This coupon came in a loaf of bread. So I thought, what the heck and went on-line. The site asked me about three questions and then it told me I was not eligible for the survey.

Wrong answer I thought since by responding I had already participated in the survey. So I sent Pepperidge Farm an e-mail pointing out the coupon did not say I would get the $3.00 coupon if I was eligible but that I would get it by participating which I did. Pepperidge Farms said they would mail me a coupon and they did.

About a week later, my sister-in-law took the survey all the way to the last question where she was informed she was not eligible for the coupon. Last I heard she was on the phone looking for someone to explain why she did not rate a coupon.

Soap Box Ravings can not help but wonder what kind of nitwit wrote this survey program. I ran in-house and post graduate surveys for a large Department of Defense school prior to retiring and anyone that responded was included in the survey. The question therefore is this a poorly administrative legitimate survey (in which good and not so good answers should be recorded) or is this a information mining scam looking to get e-mail addresses. Either way it doesn't appear to be helping the good name of Pepperidge Farms.