Persistence is good - peskiness is not!

Are there businesses in your life whose emails, letters, and phone calls make you react with "Not that again?"

There are in mine. The two that come to mind first are Consumer Reports and Sirius.

We've discontinued subscriptions with both of them, but they won't give up! I get mail or email from Consumer Reports at least weekly. If I wanted to re-subscribe, I'd have done it!

Sirius is even more persistent - they also call on the phone. This is in spite of the fact that it took me many calls to finally end that subscription. It was my son's, but since he was off working in Southern California, it fell to me to either pay their bill or get the service discontinued. There was no sense in him having it, since the receiver was in his truck in Idaho and he was in California.

I finally got it stopped after many discussions and listening to someone tell me repeatedly that I didn't need to pay for the whole year - I could pay only $18+ per month instead.

Because there was something in the small print that said they could renew without authorization, I had to pay for one month, even though it hadn't been used.

Now they just keep writing and calling: "Come back, come back, come back!"

He might have considered signing up again when (if) he's ever working near home and using his truck, but after all this pestering, he won't.

Funny - there are many other companies who email weekly, or even more often, without becoming annoying. Theirs are sales messages, but it's not the same promotion every time, and they don't come across as trying to make people feel guilty for abandoning them. They just make an offer - take it or leave it as you please.

Then there are messages that arrive daily - Bob Bly's for instance. Some of them are promotions and some of them are simply good, useful information. I read every one.

I think there are three lessons to learn from these people:

• Too much is too much.
• Don't beg, and don't pressure people.
• If you want your message to be welcomed, send something interesting or valuable - not just a sales message.

Being persistent is good. Being a pest is only being a pest - like a mosquito you want to slap.

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