Pipes & Cigars (the PA outfit) is Stalker Creepy...

[georged]

Hm.

I've never, ever, not once, at any time or in any capacity bought any sort of product from them.

Yesterday, though, a hardcopy catalog appeared in my mailbox with my full contact info printed on it including a computer-printed 12-character customer number. I'm in their system.

wtf?

Not feeling warm and fuzzy about this, the me...

 

[verporchting]

A.I. You are in the system now. Skynet sees everything. We’re doomed.

 

[VDL_Piper]

You have been cross matched by big bro on google searches and it’s just corralling your thoughts, wants, desires and bringing them to you by any means necessary

 

[WorthyStewart]

Literally in a pile of junk mail on the table I found one that was addressed to my girlfriend. I’ve never ordered from them to our address and I asked her why she got this and her reply was I figured you signed up for it. I never ordered anything from them and neither has she. They have also shown up at my parents house. They must purchase info from some data farm that keeps track of potential customers. The algorithm knows us all.

 

[telescopes]

Literally in a pile of junk mail on the table I found one that was addressed to my girlfriend. I’ve never ordered from them to our address and I asked her why she got this and her reply was I figured you signed up for it. I never ordered anything from them and neither has she. They have also shown up at my parents house. They must purchase info from some data farm that keeps track of potential customers. The algorithm knows us all.

Or... and this is just a guess, they bought Cup of Joes and a few other places and tobacco manufacturers and copied and pasted the data to Pipes and Cigars - as they publicly stated they were going to do.

 

[ClinchKnot]

 

[WorthyStewart]

Or... and this is just a guess, they bought Cup of Joes and a few other places and tobacco manufacturers and copied and pasted the data to Pipes and Cigars - as they publicly stated they were going to do.

Fair enough point but what if you’ve never bought from any of them?

 

[georged]

Or... and this is just a guess, they bought Cup of Joes and a few other places and tobacco manufacturers and copied and pasted the data to Pipes and Cigars - as they publicly stated they were going to do.

And there we have it.

I bought some pipes from CoJ about ten years ago. (Great outfit at the time)

Muchacho gracioso for the info. No longer creeped out, do I feel, the me.

 

[fireground_piper]

cupojoes and tobaccopipes were the two big ones (both domains redirect to Pipes and Cigars now). They got them when they took over Sutliff, who had previously bought both retail outfits in late 2021.

Unsure if any other smaller ones were swept up by Sutliff.

 

[jpberg]

And there we have it.

I bought some pipes from CoJ about ten years ago. (Great outfit at the time)

Muchacho gracioso for the info. No longer creeped out, do I feel, the me.

Sorry George. We’d been talking about your soon to expire GQ subscription, and I thought we could kill two birds….

 

[prairiedruid]

My fault , i got drunk and signed you up. You should be looking in the mail for the Animal Genitalia monthly newsletter, plus several items about signing up for your car's extended warranty.

 

[georged]

Sorry George. We’d been talking about your soon to expire GQ subscription, and I thought we could kill two birds….

Laugh if you want, but I only read GQ to keep track of what not to do... how the Little People live.

REAL gentlemen (like me), for example, never leave the house without being properly dressed:

 

[anotherbob]

Your info got sold. Look for the guy who's cellar just got a lot bigger (probably two or three tins at most). Sadly that's the world we live in now, our info and stuff that should be private or at least not a commodity is making money for scum bags that sell our info to anyone.
It's weird though that they would need to buy that kind of info, tells me they're not making enough on what they sell. Basically if they were better on the customer service they wouldn't be wasting money on this crap.

 

[sablebrush52]

Resistance is futile.

 

[woodsroad]

A.I. You are in the system now. Skynet sees everything. We’re doomed.

Did you buy from TobaccoPipes? Or that other e-tailer absorbed by STD?

 

[georged]

Did you buy from TobaccoPipes? Or that other e-tailer absorbed by STD?

Cup O' Joes about ten years ago.

The online part of that business got Hoovered up by some consolidation-minded operation, but the walk-in B&M part is still as it was, I understand.

 

[woodsroad]

Cup O' Joes about ten years ago.

The online part of that business got Hoovered up by some consolidation-minded operation, but the walk-in B&M part is still as it was, I understand.

Yeah, Cup O’ Joe’s was the other e-tailer bought by STD. That’s how they got your contact info.

 

[Hutch Piper]

Unreal. The worst part for me was trying to cancel my catalog subscription. They finally got it right after 3 tries.

 

[woodsroad]

Unreal. The worst part for me was trying to cancel my catalog subscription. They finally got it right after 3 tries.

Mine just goes in the trash. Let them keep paying for it.

 

[irishearl]

Mine just goes in the trash. Let them keep paying for it.

Mine does too. But, I like looking through it first. I'm an older guy who's old school- I like handling catalogues. Admittedly, though, now that we're edging closer to Christmas, am already getting a little tired of all the catalogues we're starting to receive.