Sadly, some major Israeli companies view Yom Kippur as a day to promote commerce, to entice Israelis to violate the holy day in the name of a good business deal.
That was the case with Mei Eden, the nation’s largest bottled water company, which sent emails to subscribers on Yom Kippur offering them to visit the company website to click to view one’s monthly statement and to place an order – adding that special offers await them on the website.
The emails went out on Yom Kippur at 08:06, telling subscribers they must act to avoid missing the special offer, signed by the company’s customer service department.
Chadrei Chareidim turned to the Eida Chareidit for a response, which gives hashgacha to the water company, and was told the matter was being investigated.
Mei Eden issued a statement that the company is Shomer Shabbos and does not do anything that compels chilul Shabbos, adding the Yom Kippur incident was unfortunate and the result of a technical error.
(YWN – Israel Desk, Jerusalem)
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9 Responses
I love technical errors.
Today’s technology u could set up the email to be sent out by it self (e.g. by this time &this date) probably there where an mistake on the set up system
Was the special offer one that required doing something on Yuntuf or Shabbos? Offering a discount to hilonim (as in “quick, get your order in before Shabbos ends to get a discount”) would be a serious matter.
Was it the computer routinely sends out statements with attached “junk mail”? Was the email sent out by a Jew, a goy, or a computer that operates on its own (and certainly if you wanted something to be the first item seen by someone frum after Shabbos, set your computer to send the emails immediately after sundown on Friday so it would be the first thing to be seen when the person checked email after Shabbos).
Some details are missing from the article.
HAHA, a case of 6 Gallons of PURE technical error!!! Another great BUBBEH MAISEH.
This really is an innocent error on the part of an outsourcing contractor, as that is who handles most marketing campaigns. The mails probably went out from an offshore server, and someone failed to notify the marketing service that they should not have been sent on YK.
“The emails went out on Yom Kippur at 08:06”
Is this AM, PM? When was Yom Kippur over? When was the email written and programmed to be sent out? Did they entice people to drink up on yom Kippur or to shop on Yom Kippur? Either a lot of facts are missing or are not being shared.
They for sure had it scheduled to send out at certain date/time and made a mistake somehow. Silly article.
Heyliga Artscroll has an email go out every Motzai Shabbos – about 30 mins the zman.
It would be a mistake if there would be another email at the right time. Is there another day that the sale actually did take place?