This morning I woke up to an email, it basically read this:
You received this email because you have created an account on Beyond.com. This is a one-time mailer. If you have any questions, please contact us.
I’m thinking to myself, “what?!?” Actually, I’m thinking something quite a bit more colorful.
Then there’s another message from Customer Service.
Then there’s another message with my username and password.
…right.
After deciding it isn’t some email spammer trying to get me to some foreign national site, I login. And what do I find? Someone had screen scraped an old copy of my resume and contact information and made an account for me.
At this point, I figure that anyone with any common sense should completely discount beyond.com’s credibility completely. Here’s why.
First, if any arbitrary user is able to make up accounts for someone else, then clearly the database of provided by beyond.com can’t be trusted. I know my information was wrong, so clearly any potential employer looking for candidates would actually be wasting their time — it isn’t an accurate representation out there. But more over, this represents bad business and security practice if someone other than the actual person can create an account.
Second, let’s assume that such a thing isn’t possible. The alternate conclusion is that beyond.com is scraping the web, making accounts, in an attempt to build a database to give the appearance they are more than they really are. Will some suckers sign on and “correct” the information? Perhaps. But I suspect many others will ignore it. Again, this is really not helpful for anyone trying to use beyond.com for candidates.
Bottom line, either side of the coin — something is wrong. Very wrong.
And, of course, removing that profile is painful and obscure. The help files toss around words like ‘deactivate’ rather than ‘delete’. Such things should make users of beyond.com question the marketing metrics of beyond.com as well.
To me, and in my personal opinion, beyond.com isn’t worth the pixels its printed on. In fact, it sucks.
REVIEW: Walt gives Beyond.com two thumbs down.