Gripe on third-party selling

Posted by Marielle in Weddings.

So two posts back, I was praising David’s Bridal for giving me a boutique experience when shopping for my wedding gown. It took less than a week for them to destroy the image that they worked so hard to build. I’m talking about David’s Bridal selling your information — your personal phone number, your e-mail address, your home address — to third-party wedding-related companies. This problem was compounded when I made the mistake of signing up for The Great Bridal Expo. In the end, I didn’t attend the event, but that didn’t stop their vendors from latching onto my contact info. Soon my phone was flooded with calls from mysterious 800 numbers and my inbox was drowning in spam e-mails so annoying that they would offend the creator of even the thorniest bridal diet Facebook ads.

Worst of all, I almost fell victim to a honeymoon scam very similar to this one. I received a voicemail from an 800 number that said that my fiance and I had been selected from among 5% of Bridal Expo registrants for a free honeymoon vacation. The only condition was that I had to claim my tickets before the end of the upcoming weekend. I was on the phone calling them back when I Googled their name and discovered the scam. I hung up just in time. Regrettably, I can’t remember what their name was now, but always remember that it’s better to just ignore these calls. Don’t be lured in no matter how attractive the prize sounds!

The 800 calls lasted for about 6 weeks after my free dress-fitting and about a month after the Expo. Meanwhile, I suspect I will be receiving wedding vendor spam eternally, long after our 50th anniversary has passed and our kids are starting their own families.

The moral of this story is, if you are going to have commercial adventures in the land of bridal expos and David’s Bridal, be prepared to get screwed over when it comes to your privacy. On the bright side, this is exactly what your spam folder is for! And never a better time to use it.

Weddings |