Yesterday I got an nasty email from a company (lets call them F), based here in Germany. I had purchase a product from F some time at the end of 2006, and I think they have an opt in email list on purchasing a product, which is checked automatically.
Granted there were problem with the order and I complained but didn’t even receive an apology. So in January I started to get emails from about their service times etc. I sent an email asking them to be removed from the mailings but sadly they continued, they don’t have an opt out link or details in their emails, so I guess sending a reply stating that they shouldn’t email me again would be fine.
Yesterday I had a bit of time on my hands, and when I got yet another email from F, I decided to forward it to spamcop (www.spamcop.net). I considered it SPAM under the Article 13(1) (Paragraph 2) of the Privacy and Electronic Communications Directive [here]. So I replied to the email address stating what I did, and the at around 8pm last night I get a call, thankfully I didn’t answer it. But it was the owner or a worker of F who said “I know who you are, you an an ex-customer of ours, I want to know why you did what you did, you will be hearing from our lawyers if any damage is done, etc…”. Fine I can see why someone is annoyed, but they clearly missed the whole point of why I had reported them. They even sent me an email, stating the thing about the lawyers once again. So I explained why I had considered it SPAM and told them to contact my family lawyers (back in Cork) in all further correspondence.
The funny thing in all this is how someone thinks that they can threaten to sue me for damages after then sent SPAM. Also when someone starts to mention lawyers, I am no longer playing around. I would have take the time to explain it properly to them and maybe what they should do in future. But now that they say the L word, I am no longer interested in helping them, I did point them to the reference I quoted above. Hopefully that will keep them busy for awhile and maybe they will even update their policy for sending mailings.
See it’s not always good to feel wanted 😉
this that these and those… but anyway yes a lot of companies abuse mailing lists! [even some job search sites have been known to do it on occasion!] If they refuse to take you off the list they are spamming
sweet – stick it to the man! 😉
Ciaran : it was always possible to un-subscribe though. Anyway that was about 5 years ago now and there are more EU regulations in place now 😉
Joe : Yeah, I’ve been doing that. He even said in a follow up email that he was wondering if I was linked to a “mini-DoS”, because his email address was getting spammed. And it started around the time I requested to be taken off the list. The guy didn’t know that he could be spammed easily because the company email address was posted around the web. The mind boggles about some people ! (Plus I don’t think it would be classed as a DoS anyway)
haha, i don’t even think there is such a thing as a “mini DOS”. Either you DOS someone, or you don’t. Anything that doesn’t create a full DOS should just be classified as slightly increased traffic!
A follow up to this the company has now sent me an apology (of sorts). They don’t know why they didn’t get my complaint in January, so I guess my solicitors won’t be getting any mail any time soon 😉