115 Comments
deletedApr 11, 2022·edited Apr 12, 2022Liked by Bill Murphy Jr.
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That is a creative idea!

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Apr 11, 2022Liked by Bill Murphy Jr.

OMG… you sent me more than 1 email because of glitch! I’m PISSED (said no one with whom I would like to be associated with)

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I agree. I try to have a thick skin, but I literally get alerts on my phone when the volume of emails spike ... so I'm out with my daughter at a festival and my phone dings, and there are 20 messages and the first one I see is like: "F you spammer!" Of course it leave me thinking what the heck did i do? Anyway, I'm glad to be rid of them of course.

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I did not email you about the glitch of repeat emails because I figured many others would. I am a loyal subscriber so this is not a deterrent for me to keep enjoying Understandably.

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Thank you Lynne you're one of my favorites. :)

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That's such a sweet thing to say, Bill. I love Understandably. You know that. Doing is risking being criticized by those that don't do. Keep up the great work:).

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Apr 11, 2022Liked by Bill Murphy Jr.

Received just one this morning. I don't understand why people would cancel over something that was obviously a glitch. I just deleted the extras - took all of about two seconds out of my day.

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I agree. Honestly, I think there is a culture of trolling and complaining that we've somehow created. You are reminding me to write about something — I had a string where I got a lot of very angry, crass, insulting emails. "I NEVER SIGNED UP FOR THIS YOU !#$@#$!@#!!!!" For my own amusement I started replying to them all with extreme politeness ... "I'm very sorry to hear that you don't recall you signed up for the free version of my newsletter on January 9, 2022 at 10:43 am ET, as evidenced by this receipt that I saved. Thank you for trying it, I will be happy to remove you." 75% of the time or so I'd get follow up emails apologizing for the tone and saying that they assumed I was a giant company, or that the email wouldn't be seen by a human. I do need to write that article if I can find them all!

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Love it!!

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Apr 11, 2022·edited Apr 11, 2022Liked by Bill Murphy Jr.

I’ll take your glitch - and raise you one! I never got multiple emails from you, but that may have been because I was hacked. I went to put in a new streaming device but it wouldn’t allow me to connect to my internet. Come to find out that I’d been hacked and didn’t have any internet, phone or tv service at all yesterday. Of course, that’s the day everyone decided to contact me. Naturally. So like you, trust and verify. I’ll see how today goes. If the people trying to contact me were angry, then I guess I was spared their wrath. I can usually find an upside.

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Good upside.

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All communications from Bill Murphy Jr. are worth it, even the repeats.

Don't Worry Be Happy https://g.co/kgs/eVnwRu

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Thank you! Good song by the way.

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Apr 11, 2022Liked by Bill Murphy Jr.

Only one today! Three on Saturday. Hard to believe a thousand readers were so upset with a server issue that they cancelled.

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Over 3 days, yep. I'm better off without them I am sure.

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Apr 11, 2022Liked by Bill Murphy Jr.

It is beyond my comprehension why anyone would be angry, or unsubscribe due to a couple of duplicate emails.

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I would consider this technological glitch a way to weed out the riffraff then, haha. Unbelievable that 1000 people would unsubscribe over a technological glitch.

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yes that's the way to look at it.

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Apr 11, 2022Liked by Bill Murphy Jr.

Bill - I enjoy being part of your community. Sorry to hear that, despite your continued efforts to deliver a really outstanding experience, problems seem to persist. Rooting for you, man!

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Apr 11, 2022Liked by Bill Murphy Jr.

Your doing fine, regards

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Apr 11, 2022Liked by Bill Murphy Jr.

Bill, only once so far. Sorry to hear you had some “pissed” subscribers. Grace is always in order, since none of us is perfect. If the worst thing that happened to you over the weekend is that you received five unwanted emails.....? Well good for you. Sorry that disturbs you!

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Apr 11, 2022Liked by Bill Murphy Jr.

I've only ever received one copy. Must be very low on the priority list! :-))

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Let’s put this in perspective. Print newspapers traditionally have strived for one complaint per 1,000 deliveries. I say strive for because they more often than not hit somewhere between two and four/1,000. It takes somewhere in the five consecutive days in a row misses for someone to think about canceling. That’s for a missed paper. In my 40-year newspaper career I don’t recall ever hearing of someone that canceled for receiving too many newspapers.

I’m not going to do the math here (after all, I am retired) but I feel you are safely within an acceptable range, especially when you consider readers did not miss an issue, only that they received a couple of extra “copies.”

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I agree! Besides the general bent toward trolling, I think there's the issue that everbody and their brother now has a newsletter or something else where they're asking for your email address. It's not the best medium ever. But exploring something else would take resources and time I just don't have at the moment. Oh well, we're still doing fine!

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Apr 11, 2022Liked by Bill Murphy Jr.

I subscribed from the get go and find the work and your team do extremely valuable way more often than not. The negative reactions referenced made me want to subscribe all over again. I think I'll do so with a second account to a second email address. Keep on keeping on. We can all and should all strive to do better and be better at everything, and it starts with us being better humans (hopefully).

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Thank you very much Jerry!

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Bill, I am one of those who received multiple emails in the last few days. I don't know if it's a technical glitch as much as an IT tech with a substance abuse problem. But, here's the thing: The glitch has caused you damages in the form of lost paid subscribers. This entitles you to file a liability claim against the vendor. The vendor will have Cyber liability coverage (most likely of at least $1 million). As an insurance professional I encourage you to seek remedy by filing the claim.

I am proud of PM Johnson for his visit. It gives the impression of saying "screw you" to Putin. Standing up to a bully is the only course of action.

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Tempting, for sure, to ask for remedies for damages. However, claims on insurance only tend to raise premiums (and cost to end user) and challenge customer-supplier relationships, unless it truly was an unforeseen event beyond the supplier’s control.

I would rather you receive convincing evidence from Substack that their email program has been revised to correct selective(!?) batch runs which caused only some(?) subscribers to receive more than one distribution. How did they verify their fixes? More than one issue at play, it seems.

And, have they done any investigation as to ‘extent of condition’? Which other customers of theirs also have this program running, and do they have a similar problem?

A much more thorough response by Substack would show them to be a quality-conscious supplier, as opposed to now being a vendor who I would transition away from.

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Unfortunately, most of the info you reference would only be revealed as a result of a discovery motion in court. If a claim is filed then Substack would review internal processes to determine liability (which in the case of Cyber is pretty much absolute). I am not in favor of using the possibility of future premium costs to determine the necessity of filing a claim. If damages are incurred then the claimant needs to be made whole.

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If the subscribers lost were paid subscribers, I would bother pursuing it. If they are just free subscribers, I would consider this a way of weeding out the riffraff. It may turn out to be a good thing after all, getting rid of people who complain for nonsense. Some customers are not worth the effort it requires to keep them. Tim Ferris speaks of this in his books, and I fully agree with him.

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Thanks Greg. I wouldn't be interested to pursue anything ... the damages would be minimal and beyond that I am grateful for Substack. I can't say I'd never consider using anything else, as I would—but it would have been very difficult and expensive to start this via another platform. I wish them well but I'm also glad the issue seems resolved.

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