Will you, won't you… Blackwell's Quadrille

Will you, won’t you… Blackwell’s Quadrille (Jerz’s Literacy Weblog)

“Will you, won’t you, will you, won’t you, will you join the dance?” — Lewis Carroll’s “Lobster Quadrille”

I just tried to order an examination copy of a book from Blackwell Publishing, and when I got what looked like an error message on the final screen (or was it the final screen? I couldn’t tell.) I sent feedback to the web designer. In so doing, I noticed that on the pages you fill out when you want to get a free book, you have to opt out of being contacted — ticking a box if you do NOT want to be contacted in a certain medium.

I noticed that, and thought it was obnoxious, but I chalked it up to ignorance on the part of the marketers. Naturally they want to collect your contact information, and perhaps they thought they were being kind by letting people opt out.

On the webmaster’s feedback form, you tick a box if you DO want to be contacted in a certain medium.

Now it looks like the marketing page is set up deliberately, in order to harvest information as quickly as possible. It makes me suspicious of the publisher, which — along with the four-page ordering form that choked on the fourth page and wouldn’t let me use the “go back” button to try again — is not for customer relations.