Today was especially bad for me for form letters.
I had thought I had hit bottom when on Linkedin, when someone sent me a solicitation, I replied, “no thank you,” and they sent me a lengthy form letter follow-up solicitation. They seemed to honestly not understand what was wrong with this because (and I quote), “I am not a salesman.”
But It got worse:
Hope you are doing well ~
I wanted to finish up the year by telling you how grateful I am to have you in my life, you are considered a friend and I only want to do business with people I know and care for. Life is so fragile, and I wanted you to know I appreciate you sharing this part of my life with me.
from someone that I had never met, never spoken to, never even heard of, asking me to invest in a company I had never heard of, in a field I've never been interested in, that at first glance looks to be so environmentally harmful, I am tempted to organize a boycott.
Even though it took only a few moments to mute / disconnect / block / unfriend them, my negative impression of them will last a lifetime.