Just a small rant....

Re: Just a small rant....

Hanna Bennett — Mon, 20 May 2013 20:41:33 GMT

as a medium sized practice (7 f-t vets) we like the faxes, stick them up on a noticeboard in order to allow them to rummage through and then request cpd allowance - most of our vets are not pro-active enough to go searching but will ruffle thru a few faxes

Re: Just a small rant....

Rob Loxley — Fri, 17 May 2013 21:05:54 GMT

I like faxes :)

Re: Just a small rant....

Cat Henstridge — Fri, 17 May 2013 19:50:57 GMT

Thanks everyone for your replies and support!

I know not everyone appreciates faxes but I only send 1-2 a month and they are at least relevant to veterinary practice (and promote some really great courses )

It was the tone and design of the fax that got to me but I feel a lot better now!

Re: Just a small rant....

Evelyn Barbour-Hill — Fri, 17 May 2013 19:29:22 GMT

[quote user="Cat Henstridge"] Do other people feel this way about faxes to the practice[/quote]

Ackshally, yes.

But I haven't had a fax machine for years. (Or any other means of receiving incoming faxes.)

The line that used to be for the fax now has an ordinary ex-directory telephone on it. It still rings from time to time, so the junk senders are still trying to get through.

Any cold-calling salesman that wants to "fax me the details" is requested to put them in the post. Of course I usually hear nothing more from them.

Re: Just a small rant....

Martin Atkinson — Fri, 17 May 2013 18:49:46 GMT

I think they were being very petty I would have no problem receiving this sort of fax, it is relevant and would be of interest to me, it uses hardly any ink and I can recycle the other side of the paper for the next fax if I'm not interested. The ones that annoy me are those from companies that have nothing to do with the veterinary profession but they are becoming less common and doing their cold calling by email as a fax call still costs them something whereas email is nothing. What really cheeses me off is if I request a case history from another vet and their computer system is so crap that the history, which on mine would be compressed on 2 pages, is on 10. As for those cold callers who ask how I am I tell them, actually I'm dying and probably will be dead by the time they get round to telling me what they're selling - that usually sorts the wheat from the chaff.

Re: Just a small rant....

Thomas Johnson — Fri, 17 May 2013 18:02:25 GMT

I have booked CPD from information that has been faxed to the surgery, though you are a little far away from us. I agree that it's the method of requesting not to be faxed that seems a little unnecessary.

Re: Just a small rant....

Anne Seawright — Fri, 17 May 2013 17:25:25 GMT

I also sympathise with Cat. I don't see this small business marketing as spam. This kind of marketing could very well influence my decision to use their services as I am too busy to search all possible cpd and something may come through that could catch my eye that I may not necessarily go out to look for. If the practice has multiple branches in different areas then it makes perfect sense to fax both. I think the reaction from the them must have been due to a cumulative effect rather than aimed directly at you, and I would say in my mind it says more about them than you!

Re: Just a small rant....

Bob Russell — Fri, 17 May 2013 17:15:56 GMT

Our faxes are collected by one of the computers using windows fax. It costs next to nothing to get a USB modem, easy to set up and you print only what you need. I have to admit I thought everyone was doing this and the dedicated fax machine was dead!

Our printers have scanners so easy enough to send things the other way!

This is not spam! If you were sending white on black adverts at high definition I would be a little more concerned if I had a traditional fax machine. In the old days spam faxes would come through taking up a lot of ink and coming with a very expensive premium number to cancel!

I cannot see you did anything wrong but would also agree email is easier to control (we are well outside your area). Perhaps the practice has been inundated with junk faxes and you got caught in the cross-fire!

Unsolicited sales calls and constant calls from locum agencies cause us real problems and will generally get a polite no thank you followed by bu**er off if they are extremely persistent!

Re: Just a small rant....

James Laidlaw — Fri, 17 May 2013 17:05:23 GMT

If they have 2 fax numbers, it would make sense to send a fax to each, as different staff at different branches may not get the info otherwise. Maybe they're having a bad day?

Re: Just a small rant....

Mark Rowland — Fri, 17 May 2013 16:55:45 GMT

I sympathise with Cat. When looking for providers people usually go for the bigger CPD companies. Smaller cheaper set ups cannot match the heavy marketing strategies that these guys employ. Think of it how often do you get a CPD flyer. It's got to be almost weekly. BSAVA don't do talks in Kent any more so the only way I can reach my audience is to Fax. There are cheaper alternatives giving good CPD out there, getting the message out is the issue IMO

Re: Just a small rant....

Mark Hedberg — Fri, 17 May 2013 16:50:28 GMT

I see your point, Mark - the fact is, though, that when we fax short course adverts, we get excellent response rates, much better than social media and online directories. So despite the fact that I don't particularly like spam mail either, it works really well for us. I understand your issues and if you're on a 'do not fax' list, I think you probably don't get anything from CAW. (if you do, I apologize unreservedly and will see to it that it's stopped.)

Re: Just a small rant....

Mark Holmes — Fri, 17 May 2013 16:48:26 GMT

[quote user="Niall Taylor"]

[quote user="Cat Henstridge"]I will make sure we don't send anything to you.[/quote]

Email is fine

[quote user="Cat Henstridge"]It was the pettiness of this message that riled me more than anything[/quote]

Absolutely agreed - especially if this was the first time of asking. Politeness costs nothing as my old mum says!

Cheers,

Niall

[/quote] It may be the first time he asked you to take him of the list. It can be a full time occupation teing people to stop calling and it gets very frustrating.

Re: Just a small rant....

Mark Holmes — Fri, 17 May 2013 16:38:25 GMT

I hate any form of direct marketing post - phone calls - e-mail and faxes in particular because I cannot tell people how exactly I would like them to off. Faxes really annoy me because they use ink and paper. If it were only the occasional one it wouldn't be a problem but you get loads. Paper to dispose of, fax's memory taken up with crap and stopping important stuff getting through and then the ink has run out AGAIN. I know it's your business but please don't fax. If I want a service I go and source a provider. If somebody rings and asks how I am and they aren't a Doctor the phone gets hung up, anybody noticed that people who care how you are don't generally ask as soon as you answer the phone ?

Re: Just a small rant....

Cat Henstridge — Fri, 17 May 2013 16:30:21 GMT

[quote user="Niall Taylor"]Absolutely agreed - especially if this was the first time of asking. Politeness costs nothing as my old mum says![/quote]

It was! Needless to say, they are now off the list!

Re: Just a small rant....

Niall Taylor — Fri, 17 May 2013 16:25:48 GMT

[quote user="Cat Henstridge"]I will make sure we don't send anything to you.[/quote]

Email is fine

[quote user="Cat Henstridge"]It was the pettiness of this message that riled me more than anything[/quote]

Absolutely agreed - especially if this was the first time of asking. Politeness costs nothing as my old mum says!

Cheers,

Niall

Re: Just a small rant....

Cat Henstridge — Fri, 17 May 2013 16:03:24 GMT

@ Mark - That makes me feel better, thank you!

@Naill - I will make sure we don't send anything to you. The issue for me is that posting is very expensive, whereas faxing is cost effective and (rarely!) causes me any problems. As we are a tiny company and the whole point of us is to try to offer courses at low prices, we don't have a very big advertising budget.

It was the pettiness of this message that riled me more than anything.

Re: Just a small rant....

Mark Hedberg — Fri, 17 May 2013 15:52:24 GMT

We got similar issues until we outsourced faxing to an external company; wasn't expensive at all, surprisingly, and because they were up on the 'do not fax' lists, they deal with the 'take me off the list' thing. I think I know who you're talking about; they sent us a fax like that too. (Same font n' all!)

(we have online fax receipt too, so no big loss there!)

Re: Just a small rant....

Cat Henstridge — Fri, 17 May 2013 15:44:42 GMT

Oh dear, I was hoping to keep them anonymous, I don't want to make them any crosser!

You can register your email on the website but I don't think I fax to you as you are quite a way from the West Midlands.

However, thanks for the support, I got quite depressed when I received it!

Re: Just a small rant....

Niall Taylor — Fri, 17 May 2013 15:43:47 GMT

[quote user="Cat Henstridge"]Do other people feel this way about faxes to the practice...[/quote]

'fraid so, don't like it at all. We got so much unsolicited fax spam, wasting paper and ink that we ended up having to change numbers.

Cheers,

Niall

Re: Just a small rant....

Michael Woodhouse — Fri, 17 May 2013 15:40:22 GMT

Cat - name and shame. From the area codes I am guessing that the name is a means to cross a river?

They do have a black and white logo so it could be their colour scheme.

You can fax me as often as you want - the ink cost is minuscule compared to everything else. I'd prefer email communication.