By: Jeffrey Lapin of Lapin Law Offices
OfficeMax sent a letter to Mike Seay, whose daughter had been killed in a car crash last year, with the second line: "Daughter Killed in Car Crash."
OfficeMax has issued a press release, which states, in part:
This mailing is a result of a mailing list rented through a third-party provider. We have reached out to the third-party mailing list provider to research what happened. Based on a preliminary investigation today we believe this to be an inadvertent error; and we are continuing the investigation.
Besides being extremely cruel and reminding this family of their loss, this shows how much information retailers have about their customers.
Two lessons from this very unfortunate incident:
- To Consumers: Be careful what information you give out to companies. This information is likely being accumulated and sold.
- To Marketers: Watch out what you send to customers or potential customers.