Davis Freeberg’s Digital Connection

If there was ever a poster child for the longtail, I would be it. Every movie I rent from Netflix is from their archived content, when I search for music online it is always for indie bands, I even bought my car through an internet site that gave me more flexibility then a traditional dealership. I’m not sure that I can pinpoint the exact appeal of the longtail, but part of it, is that I like being able to support the underdog.

Whether it’s choosing a small club over a stadium concert or prefering a new restaurant over an old favorite, I’m the sort of person who will only bet on the underdog when I go to Las Vegas. It could be the demographic I’m in, it could be my natural affinity for innovation, or it may just be that I like having lots and lots of choices, but when it comes to choosing between the longtail or the short head, I’ll pick the longtail 95% of the time.

Given my natural bent towards longtail preferences, it came as no surprise, that when I needed to find new furniture for my place, I naturally turned towards the internet. This wasn’t my first move though, in fact I spent several Saturdays picking through local furniture stores, but everything I found was either generic or extremely expensive. It wasn’t until I turned to the net, that I realized I could not only save 50%, but that I could also increase my choices by expanding my search beyond the few local shops in my neighborhood, and into the thousands of local businesses across the entire US.

At first the choice was almost overwhelming, but finally I came across a store named Everything Furniture that seemed to have what I needed. Not only did they offer me a diverse and unique selection to choose from, but I found a number of positive reivews online as well.

While initially I had intended on writing a glowing review on the company by using them as an example of the benefits of living in the longtail, unfortunately my experience didn’t allow me to score this transaction as a victory for my longtail lifestyle. Yes, they delivered the furniture and yes it was much less expensive then purchasing furniture using a more traditional route, but there were several obstacles I had to overcome along the way.

The first was actually receiving the furniture itself. The delivery took longer then expected and while I didn’t mind waiting, I was disappointed when the shipping firm that they outsourced my order to, tried to extort me when it did arrive. Basically, my shipper flat out refused to move any of my furniture beyond the front door of my apartment building, despite there being an oversized elevator designed for just such a delivery.

When I protested that he he was leaving me with a lot of cargo and without any means of getting it to my apartment, I was told that for $20 (wink wink nudge nudge) he’d bend the “insurance” rules and bring the cargo to my front door. While I wouldn’t have minded paying an extra $20 for shipping, I did mind that this was never disclosed upfront and that the shipper was willing to break the rules as long as I slipped him a Lincoln. When I refused he left me to transport several large boxes on my own, without the proper equipment.

Once I managed to drag the boxes into my apartment, I quickly discovered that one of the pieces had been damaged during the shipping. I contacted Everything Furniture and they agreed to ship out a replacement piece, but it meant I had to wait another 2 – 3 weeks before completing my purchase.

While these issues were minor obstacles for me to deal with, the one that made me never want to do business with Everything Furniture again, was what happened after I completed my purchase. Shortly after receiving my furniture, I began to receive, at least, 2 catalogs a day from countless mail order companies. Over the last month, I’ve called 2 dozen companies and have asked to be taken off of their mailing lists, yet everyday I seem to get another catalog from a different company, which necessitates another telephone call on top of a 90 day waiting period, before they actually stop sending me anything. While I understand that Everything Furniture needs to turn a profit, they never asked my permission to sell my name and address to a catalog spam list and receiving junk mail is something that I’m particularly sensitive to.

We have laws against unsolicited phone calls, rules pertaining to spam and prohibitions against junk faxes, yet there is little that I can do to prevent being bombarded with one Christmas catalog after another.

I’ve never purchased anything from a catalog in my life and I don’t intend to start now. By quickly glancing over many of these mailings, I can tell that the prices are outrageous and that they are wasting their postage by sending them to me. While the discount on the furniture was nice, I would have picked another company to do business with, in a heartbeat, had I known that the cost of my purchase would be death by mail.

My experience isn’t likely to change my outlook on the longtail, but it does serve as a good warning on the dangers of living in the longtail. With many choices comes many risks and while I may have been smart enough to make sure that I wasn’t going to be ripped off by Everything Furniture, I never thought to research their business practices before placing my order. While the abundance of choice can be a good thing, something can also be said for sticking with brands that have established reputations as being good corporate citizens. Everything Furniture may have fulfilled their contractual obligation with me, but the experience now serves as an important reminder to be more careful when doing business with companies I’ve never heard of.

Posted on November 16th, 2006 by Davis
Filed under: Disclosure - I own stock in co. mentioned, Marketing, Netflix, Spam