Photos Latest Purchases Thread: v2.0

Got the box, and it's exactly what you'd expect: ten 330ml cans of questionable beer (no, Beer52, 4.7% is *not* a "session IPA" unless you're a pickled alcoholic, and the word "puree" should not appear on any beer's ingredients list), two of the tiniest little snack packs (a spicy corn snack and some salted pretzels) you've ever seen, and a crappy mag.

Used the website's "general enquiry" form to send in a cancellation request, 'cos there's no way I'm spending my time on hold listening to a recorded and ever-repeating "here's why you don't want to cancel" message in order to get through to a salesdroid who'll spend ten minutes offering me the world to continue as a member using a script that becomes immediately obvious through a quick scan of TrustPilot reviews:

1. How are you, how was your weekend, been up to anything, we're all mates here aren't we?
2. Did you like the beers? I like $RANDOMBEER, it's $TASTINGNOTESSUMMARY. Isn't beer great? I'm a Craft Beer Advisor, and definitely wouldn't switch to being a wine expert if you'd come through on the Wine52 number instead.
3. Our next box, $UPCOMINGBOX, is our best yet, I'd hate for you to miss out! It's got $LISTOFBEERS, you like $BEERTYPEYOUMENTIONED. See? I care for you, my friend!
4. You've got $MADEUPCREDITYOUCAN'TSEEUNLESSYOUCALLUS on your account, if you cancel that'll be lost! That would mean your next box would only cost $MORETHANTWICETHESIGNUPOFFER! Bargain!
5. I'll even throw in The Story of Craft Beer, a book by Pete Brown valued at £12.99 RRP¹! What a great bargain, and definitely not something you would have received in your third box anyway.
6. Are you poor? We can drop you down to just eight beers instead, and you'll save money²! You love beer, remember?
7. Don't cancel, we can simply pause your subscription for a month instead!
8. Or we can move you to deliveries once every two months, or three months³!
9. Fine, your account is cancelled. But we'll hang on to your details and call you every few months to see if you want more beer. Oh, and it'll be shared with our 407 trusted partners who will have all manner of offers you may be interested in!

Yeah, no thanks. As it is, the reply hit the high notes with a blatantly mail-merged form letter: "I have taken a look at your account and I can see that you have £12 credit that hasn't been used yet which will be lost if you cancel. This means your next box of '10 Scandinavia 2024 Beers', one of our best themes yet, would only cost a total of £21, delivered to your door. I’ll also add in 'The Story of Craft Beer' book by Pete Brown (Valued at £12.99 RRP) completely free of charge!"

The kicker: they've confirmed cancellation of my subscription, which is nice, and I've replied to remind 'em I'd also like account closure and PII deletion per GDPR... only to immediately receive an "ambassador offer" asking if there are friends I'd like to sign up...

1: Currently available second-hand on Awesome Books for £2.79, fact-fans.
2: Yes, that odd sort of "saving money" that means spending money.
3: "Weirdly," this offer is not available through the website, only through the cancellation line.

 

I can suggest throwing a "I request deletion of all Personally Identifiable Information (PII) held by your company, subsidiaries, partners, and any other associated entities, as required by the Data Protection Act (2018), enacted as the UK's implementation of the EU General Data Protection Regulation (GDPR)" at dataprotection@beer52.com and support@beer52.freshdesk.com.

You'll probably need to identify yourself too: add full name on the account, first line of your address, postcode, and the value of the most recent charge (so zero, if you've only ever had a free box) at the top.

Then, for an added bonus, set up a Gmail filter to automatically mark anything from beer52.com as spam.

(I was very careful to use my domain's catch-all feature to set up a beer52@ address for the account, so if they fail to lose my email I can just ash-can the address and they can shout into the abyss!)

EDIT:
I was the lucky recipient of a "golden ticket" code to give a friend a free case, too. I have little doubt everyone is.

I threw it in the bin.