About three months ago I started getting this "monthly newsletter" from CC through "large corporate email spammer who has lawyers who can sue anyone who calls them that". The email was basically the announcement of their latest issue hitting the news stands. Since I was a subscriber, this email was useless. And it was unsolicited. And it was one of many they sent out, so it was bulk. Spam.
The next month, again. I told them to stop. I even made my opinon about this practice known to Steve the Ciarcia, but since he's no longer an official of the company, he couldn't do anything.
That was it, right? I told them to stop, they'd stop, right? Nope. Another one for the May issue. Nice, convenient, informative newsletter, that told me the May issue was out -- two days after I had gotten the May issue in the mail.
Again, I told them to stop. I told them what I thought of them paying a professional spammer to send unsolicited junk mail to email addresses that they had gotten under the pretense of a requirement for a subscription renewal. So I got a nice apology in return and a promise not to do it anymore, right?
Of course not. Ms. Shannon Barraclough told me, quote:
You are welcome to unsubscribe from these emails at any time.in a 52Kb message all in HTML. Sixteen words took 52Kb.
Simply use the "Unsubscribe" option.
I am welcome to unsubscribe using the option I'd used twice before without effect. In other words, this was MY problem that I was going to have to solve, and she didn't give a damn.
So I solved it my way. Both "CircuitCellar.com" and "the large corporate email spammer" went into my bitbucket list in my mail filter. A reply email told Ms. Barraclough that I was cancelling both my Circuit Cellar and Elektor subscriptions immediately and the only thing I wanted to hear in return was the refund check.
So, I got a refund and heard nothing further, right? How naive you are, youngster.
A week after that email, someone I will refer to as "JY" from CC called me at work. Oh, he said, "we're just a small group who had to take paycuts after the sale and we're trying our hardest to stay afloat and the ads we sell in the newsletter are the only thing keeping us afloat", or words to that effect. That email wasn't spam, he claimed, it was "opt-in", only he could not explain how my email address got on the opt-in list without me ever opting-in. Some "other guy who isn't here anymore" made a mistake and reloaded the list, or something like that. They aren't paying "a large corporate email spammer that has lawyers who can sue anyone who calles them that" to spam people, they are sending the email themselves, even though the mail headers show it coming from "a large corporate email spammer that has lawyers who can sue anyone who calles them that" servers.
It reminded me of the scene in The Blues Brothers movie where Jake is confronted by his ex wife in the tunnel -- "I didn't do it, it was someone else, etc etc etc."
He said "what if we send you a refund..." and I stopped him there. "You are sending me a refund, there is no 'what if' about it."
"What if we kept sending you the paper copy, no charge?" Well, interesting. Apparently the revenue from advertising is so urgently needed that they'll send out free copies just to keep the ad rates up. I told him that doing that would just keep reminding me how CC had jumped into the pig pen and wasn't going to get me to send any further money to a company that pays spammers.
"One mistake", he went on. "You'd write us off for one mistake?" "No, three. 1. Put me on a list without asking. 2. Refuse to take me off when told to, multiple times. 3. Lie to me and say I am 'free to unsubscribe' using the same system that hasn't worked before, instead of simply saying 'we are sorry, we'll take you off the list.'" Three strikes.
"Can I have a strike four?" he asked.
A couple of days after talking to JY a check arrived in the mail. That was a good sign. It made me think maybe they were trying. I thought about it a day or two and then returned the check. I penned a note on the bottom saying "you got your strike four, please don't make me regret it." That was two weeks ago.
Today (June 1) I got a letter from CC. "Oh", I thought, "that's JY saying 'thank you' for continuing as a subscriber." I had expected a call, but a written thank-you would be much nicer.
Hah! At the very top in big, bold letters was the famous quote from Mark Twain about "a lie can travel halfway around the world...", and a further comment that implies that what I've related here is a lie. He wants me to amend my comments so "it's honest".
Well, JY, that's strike four and you've made me regret it. Congratulations for proving how you are a "dedicated and concerned employee sincerly desir[ing] to satisfy subscriber's concerns." Not.
You're welcome for the money I returned. That eleven year subscriber relationship you pretended to care about is gone forever.