Reality is this will lose them paying subscribers, so without a doubt this is an expensive mistake regardless of who’s to blame. Large subscription businesses are very careful about when to email the segment of their subscriber base that is paying but inactive. This email just reminded a bunch of people they are paying for something but not using it, and therefore should cancel (granted, it’s unclear who it went out to).
It could cause some ESP/deliverabilty problems too.
On the bright side, this can serve as a reminder to us all to make sure this doesn’t happen at our companies.
Everyone I've asked that is paying has said they got it but paid it no mind since it had no information that seemed relevant to them or they were a developer that thought it was funny.
I'm actually hard pressed to even imagine the person that is cancelling their HBO max account because this single email was just too much for them.
I don't imagine many people will cancel HBO Max because this email was just too much, but rather because this email reminded them that they have HBO Max, and might spur them to think "I never use that so I should cancel it"
It could cause some ESP/deliverabilty problems too.
On the bright side, this can serve as a reminder to us all to make sure this doesn’t happen at our companies.