Addressing Email Bombardment from Friend's Home Business

I'd just delete them. We get emails from someone my husband use to work with and is now retired, he sends anywhere from 5 to 15 emails a day, recipes, jokes, political stuff, etc. Sometimes it drives me crazy but it's not worth saying anything.

If you're close enough you might want to softly question her sales and maybe some people don't care for so many emails and such.

I would ask her to remove you from her list. What I tell all my friends/acquaintances who sell stuff (and I have several) is to give me a catalog. If I'm interested, I will contact them. Only one person has been offended by it so far. :)

Or, just block the address (as long as it is one they have set up specifically for the business...) They won't know the difference, so no worries about guilt.

If you feel you can be honest (you would be doing her a huge favor), tell her.

"Honey, there seem to be a problem with the emails your company is sending out. For some reason I am getting 2 emails a day from them. I am sure this is a mistake."

"If they cannot fix this, I am afraid I will have to block them, they are overloading my email capacity."

If you do not feel like you can just be honest, mark it and send it to your spam or block it. If you do not know how to do this ask a teen ager, they can help you. That is what I do, Ha!

If she is a friend, & not just an acquaintance, I would talk with her about it. Something to the effect of "Jane, I'm excited for you that you are trying a new career opportunity. However, I've been getting a lot of emails - about 2-3 a day. As a friend, I wanted you to be aware that this is just way too many. If you aren't the one sending them out personally, you might need to talk to your company mentor to find out how to fix the settings. I want to see you be successful, and I'm worried that so many emails will turn people off of your company."

I know that if I were starting in a new business, & something I were doing was annoying, I'd want to know! And if she is the one sending these out, & wonders what would be a more appropriate number, I would stick with no more than one or two a week. I'm not sure from your post whether these are "catalog info - shop/order now!" or "newsletter article" type of emails, but even if they are the 2nd, once a week or so is all I get from the newsletters I subscribe to with other companies. More than that, & I tend to just delete them because I don't have the time to read them all. T.

I would mention it to her. Many of the MLM 'a are ruthless and very pushy.

In my area, once someone is known to be in one of the MLM deals, we run like crazy. A few people lost friends over it. I wish them the best but I don't like being hounded to make purchases of something I don't want and be pressured to sign up in the program. I view the constant emails and party invites as invoices so when I get hounded like that, I offer the person some cash instead of ordering something I don't want. That usually gets the message across.

She might appreciate your honesty and I agree that too many emails will push people away. I would ask if the emails are generated by her or the group.

No one knows something is bothersome unless someone has the guts to bring it up.

I feel your pain!!

Yes, say something politely.

A reputable business does not do this. It doesn't matter if it's an MLM or a bricks-and-morter business. Home Depot emails are just as annoying as those from an at-home distributor, so despite TF/Plano's comments about an MLM, I don't think you can brand any particular business this way. Andrea B. is right - a well-trained rep/distributor from a good company (particularly one invited into membership in the Direct Selling Association) would know not to do this. It's annoying, unprofessional and unsuccessful.

I think you first have to find out if SHE is sending you the emails or if you are somehow on a list from the company itself. I don't know this particular company so I can't tell from your post.

So I would try any of Laurie A.'s suggestions. What's happening isn't right. That's not how people buy jewelry, that's not how companies build loyalty, and that's not how good reps are trained. If her company is not offering free training to her, maybe she's in the wrong business. She may be just so excited about her new venture that she's inundating people. But honestly, it's not how to build an income.

I would spend less time asking her about how it's going and more time telling her this is overloading your system or your patience, and ask her what she and her company recommend to stop this. Approach it as if it's a glitch or a problem where you just got on some e-blast list, and not like she's intending to do this. Tell her the top companies in the DSA are forbidden from doing this, and you're afraid she's going to be branded by her friends and prospective customers as a nuisance rather than a reliable sales rep.

Is she a VERY good friend or a "friend"? if she's a VERY GOOD friend? Talk to her about it. Communication is key.

I have a girlfriend who is selling Plexxus.....and it got bad....so I told her, I love you, please don't ruin our friendship over this. I truly support you and this venture but I can't. No more e-mails.

I've ordered Pampered Chef or 31 from people - and the messages I get afterwards was just BAD!!! I ordered to help a friend or their child's school...do NOT send me e-mails.

Tell her the e-mails are turning you off to her product. Be honest.

Good luck!

I ordered a piece of art work from a lady who makes personalized items...I regret it every day. I love the piece, but hated the emails. I emailed her one day and had my piece the next. She also asked me to email all of my friends, so I did, but I blind carbon copied them so she didn't have all of their contact. She wrote me back and asked me to provide their emails so she could reach out to them. NOPE! I gave your information them and if they want, they will contact you.

The emails got SO annoying for me though. I tried to spam them, but they kept getting through. Ugh. I emailed her time and time again, telling her while I loved her product, I didn't need anything else from her at the moment, but would contact her if I did in the future. Nothing worked to make it stop. I finally sent her an email with all of my emails attached asking her to stop contacting me and told her if she kept me on her list, I was going to sue her for harrassment. Extreme? Absolutely...but the emails stopped.

Everyone else who ordered products from her says the same thing- she is talked about all over the place because of it. I get promoting your business, but when you do it to the point that people HATE seeing your name...it's too much.

Now she works in my office. Whoops!! We get along great though - we just don't talk her personal business AT ALL.

Tell her you like ad emails about once a week or once every 2 weeks.
Anything more than that and you end up putting them on your spam/block list.
OR set up a gmail account specifically spam ads and keep those separate from your personal email address.

We've had friends that were representatives of "QuickStar", I think it's the new brand of Amway. It got to the point where Tyler and I felt the only reason they invited us over to their home was to pitch the new catalog.

We were getting e-mails too. Tyler and I had a long talk about and together told them that we supported their adventure in QuickStar, it wasn't for us. IF we want something, we will contact you.

Maybe you could tell her, I want you to succeed in this enterprise you are doing, it's just not for me. Please stop with the e-mails. If I want or need something, I will reach out to you.

"Sheila, I hope you're doing well with your jewelry business. But I'm getting too many e-mails about it, my friend. It's turning me off to Kitsy Lane. Please ease up on the e-mails, and I may be more disposed to contact you when I'm interested in buying jewelry."

She may get it or she may not. Some people are actually taught this sort of heavy-duty sales method.

rude isn't blocking the emails, rude is spamming your friends.
i would block the emails and say pleasantly to her, 'sorry i can't keep up with all those emails, hon. had to block your business. but of course i always like to hear from you personally.'
don't 'advise' her per se, just matter-of-factly state your position.
if she's got any business savvy whatsoever she'll appreciate it, and make better business decisions.
khairete
S.

Check the bottom to see if there's a way to unsubscribe or to change the settings to "weekly". If not, do what Laurie says, and you could even suggest she look into making that possible. Once a week is fine, 2-3x/day is not cool. She needs to know in case it's not supposed to be going out this often. It could be costing her money, so you'd be doing her a favor if so.

I agree to find out if the company is sending you messages or if she is, and either way tell her that while you want her to be successful, she is currently spamming people and needs to reduce the volume.

This would depend on whether or not it is company e-mails that they are sending or ones that she is sending. If it is the company there is not much you can do as they found out it works. If it is her then as a direct selling rep myself...I would tell her to look for some training on how to contact others and to how to keep a business like this going. Hitting them with emails every day 2-3 times a day does not work personally. There a lot of training videos out there and even her leader should be able to help her in the area.

Make a different email address for that friend and let them go to that. I have a friend who sells pampered chef and another with tastefully simple I ignore the emails unless I need something

If she were my friend, I would ask her if she thought it might do more harm than good, sending out SO many emails to people. If she asks you why you think that, just tell her that when people get emails every day trying to sell them something, they pretty much consider it to be spam.

You could suggest once a week would be better. People would be less likely to just delete them.

Then you quietly delete them from your own inbox. If she doesn't listen to you, she'll most likely learn the hard way.

I like Laurie's no confrontational way of handling this!

There should be an "unsubscribe" button at the bottom of the e-mails, right? Click on that, and there may be an option to reduce the number of e-mails you're receiving from her (some places have a once per week option, or once per month). If not, then unsubscribe from the list entirely. If your friend notices and asks, simply tell her the number of e-mails you were receiving was overwhelming. Surely you're not the only person who feels this way. Nobody wants to buy jewelry three times per day.