Fair enough - I understand now that it was the inconsistency in their level of personality that was the issue. I agree that insincerity is bad but it's pretty borderline how much you'd read into one of these "semi-automated" emails anyway - most companies will give you the usual "we love what you're doing and want to help you out" and I don't think anything more if it than I do when someone says "hello how are you" without expecting a breakdown of my day.
I guess with point (3), you can't have your cake and eat it too - you either have formal but impersonal or informal but personal. Web companies often opt for the latter, because engagement with customers as real people has proved to be a great long-term strategy.
I think the thing that feels most uncomfortable is that the first sentence is basically an outright lie. It's clearly, as you say, the standard "you're cool, so are we, let's play" line. The issue, I guess, is that they've tried to masquerade that as something else.
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Fair enough - I understand now that it was the inconsistency in their level of personality that was the issue. I agree that insincerity is bad but it's pretty borderline how much you'd read into one of these "semi-automated" emails anyway - most companies will give you the usual "we love what you're doing and want to help you out" and I don't think anything more if it than I do when someone says "hello how are you" without expecting a breakdown of my day.
I guess with point (3), you can't have your cake and eat it too - you either have formal but impersonal or informal but personal. Web companies often opt for the latter, because engagement with customers as real people has proved to be a great long-term strategy.
I think the thing that feels most uncomfortable is that the first sentence is basically an outright lie. It's clearly, as you say, the standard "you're cool, so are we, let's play" line. The issue, I guess, is that they've tried to masquerade that as something else.