The other day Allison won tickets to a concert. When she signed up for the promotion, she gave out her "alternate" e-mail address because she didn't want to receive annoying e-mails from them. Unfortunately, she doesn't check her alternate account on a regular basis, so she got an "important" e-mail about the concert a couple days late.
In my Mr. Know-It-All way, I told her that it was easy to unsubscribe from e-mail lists. I told her that all you have to do is click unsubscribe at the bottom of the e-mail and you stop receiving those e-mails. I decided as an experiment, I would test out my words to see if I could unsubscribe myself from e-mail lists. As of a couple weeks ago, I regularly received junk e-mail from several sources. I hadn't taken action until now because I wasn't bothered by receiving the extra messages. What happened was that I was able to get off of most e-mail lists by clicking unsubscribe. The best e-mail lists have a simple unsubscribe button on the bottom of their e-mails which can be clicked and presto: unsubscribe successful! It was easy to unsubscribe from things like Target, Office Depot, Amazon.com, and Kimpton Hotels, just to name a few.
The Worst Offenders
There were just a few, however, that kept coming even after I was sure that I had unsubscribed. I was wrong in telling my wife that she could just click unsubscribe on all e-mail lists to stop getting those e-mails.
First, Ebay Daily Deals kept coming to my inbox. When I clicked unsubscribe, it took several minutes to figure out what I needed to do to unsubscribe. When I finally did that, it said that it would take up to two weeks to get my name off, as if they didn't have the computing capability to remove my e-mail address until then.
Next, I kept getting e-mails from Busted Tees, a website that sells funny t-shirts. I have enjoyed their t-shirts, but I have been unable to unsubscribe from their e-mail list. When I clicked unsubscribe on their e-mail list, it asked me to enter my e-mail address to finish unsubscribing. Apparently didn't work, because in a few days I got another e-mail from them. I did the unsubscribe again and once again it didn't work.
Finally, the most disappointing offender is Deseret Book. After I unsubscribed, I kept getting just as many e-mails from them as ever (which is to say, pretty much every day). When I would unsubscribe to one, it would say that I had unsubscribed from some obscure sublist of their overall list. I gave them more benefit of the doubt then the other ones, but despite my best efforts I ended up still receiving daily e-mail from them.
I just don't see what's the point of forcing me to be on their e-mail list. I read in a book the following sentiment: don't take no for an answer is the wrong attitude; people can't or shouldn't be forced to do anything; the right attitude is don't take maybe for an answer, because a maybe is waiting to be talked into a yes. I think continuing to send me unwanted e-mails is taking no for an answer and not taking maybe for an answer. I just feel like it actually makes me want to deal with them less for doing that.
Solution
My brother mentioned to me that I could just set-up an e-mail filter and stop receiving any unwanted e-mails. I went ahead and did this. I am currently using Gmail as my primary e-mail service. On each unwanted message, I clicked "More Actions" to drop down a list, and then clicked "Filter messages like these". It sent me to a menu where I could fill in criteria or simply choose all messages from an e-mail address. Once I did that, it gave me options of what I wanted to do with those messages. I decided to choose to delete them all. Problem solved. Even better, I even have the ability to filter certain school e-mail lists which I am unable to unsubscribe from.
Update (01/21/11)
The filters solution is working well. I have really reduced the amount of unimportant e-mail coming to my inbox.
I have peeked at my trash folder to see if these offending e-mails are still coming to me. It looks like Ebay Daily Deals finally stopped; I just think it's annoying that it took so long. Also, it doesn't look like I received anything else from Busted Tees after I unsubscribed from them the second time. I am therefore not mad at them anymore and would like to say that they have some cool, funny t-shirts. As for Deseret Book, I still don't understand why they need to keep spamming me. What do they gain by antagonizing my e-mail inbox?
In my Mr. Know-It-All way, I told her that it was easy to unsubscribe from e-mail lists. I told her that all you have to do is click unsubscribe at the bottom of the e-mail and you stop receiving those e-mails. I decided as an experiment, I would test out my words to see if I could unsubscribe myself from e-mail lists. As of a couple weeks ago, I regularly received junk e-mail from several sources. I hadn't taken action until now because I wasn't bothered by receiving the extra messages. What happened was that I was able to get off of most e-mail lists by clicking unsubscribe. The best e-mail lists have a simple unsubscribe button on the bottom of their e-mails which can be clicked and presto: unsubscribe successful! It was easy to unsubscribe from things like Target, Office Depot, Amazon.com, and Kimpton Hotels, just to name a few.
The Worst Offenders
There were just a few, however, that kept coming even after I was sure that I had unsubscribed. I was wrong in telling my wife that she could just click unsubscribe on all e-mail lists to stop getting those e-mails.
First, Ebay Daily Deals kept coming to my inbox. When I clicked unsubscribe, it took several minutes to figure out what I needed to do to unsubscribe. When I finally did that, it said that it would take up to two weeks to get my name off, as if they didn't have the computing capability to remove my e-mail address until then.
Next, I kept getting e-mails from Busted Tees, a website that sells funny t-shirts. I have enjoyed their t-shirts, but I have been unable to unsubscribe from their e-mail list. When I clicked unsubscribe on their e-mail list, it asked me to enter my e-mail address to finish unsubscribing. Apparently didn't work, because in a few days I got another e-mail from them. I did the unsubscribe again and once again it didn't work.
Finally, the most disappointing offender is Deseret Book. After I unsubscribed, I kept getting just as many e-mails from them as ever (which is to say, pretty much every day). When I would unsubscribe to one, it would say that I had unsubscribed from some obscure sublist of their overall list. I gave them more benefit of the doubt then the other ones, but despite my best efforts I ended up still receiving daily e-mail from them.
I just don't see what's the point of forcing me to be on their e-mail list. I read in a book the following sentiment: don't take no for an answer is the wrong attitude; people can't or shouldn't be forced to do anything; the right attitude is don't take maybe for an answer, because a maybe is waiting to be talked into a yes. I think continuing to send me unwanted e-mails is taking no for an answer and not taking maybe for an answer. I just feel like it actually makes me want to deal with them less for doing that.
Solution
My brother mentioned to me that I could just set-up an e-mail filter and stop receiving any unwanted e-mails. I went ahead and did this. I am currently using Gmail as my primary e-mail service. On each unwanted message, I clicked "More Actions" to drop down a list, and then clicked "Filter messages like these". It sent me to a menu where I could fill in criteria or simply choose all messages from an e-mail address. Once I did that, it gave me options of what I wanted to do with those messages. I decided to choose to delete them all. Problem solved. Even better, I even have the ability to filter certain school e-mail lists which I am unable to unsubscribe from.
Update (01/21/11)
The filters solution is working well. I have really reduced the amount of unimportant e-mail coming to my inbox.
I have peeked at my trash folder to see if these offending e-mails are still coming to me. It looks like Ebay Daily Deals finally stopped; I just think it's annoying that it took so long. Also, it doesn't look like I received anything else from Busted Tees after I unsubscribed from them the second time. I am therefore not mad at them anymore and would like to say that they have some cool, funny t-shirts. As for Deseret Book, I still don't understand why they need to keep spamming me. What do they gain by antagonizing my e-mail inbox?
No comments:
Post a Comment