This was just too shocking, too egregious not to write. I sign up for new communities/web services and so on all the time. I typically uncheck the box that says, email me all the time. On a rare occasion I’ll use my regular email address to sign up for IT services (I usually use an alias). And it back-fired. I signed up for IT Toolbox. I thought I unchecked all of the boxes. And then I got an unwanted email. It was a subscription for a thread I viewed.
Sidebar: ITToolBox communities are a little annoying. They are like Facebook groups, except you have to join to view the comments. Why can’t i just look at the messages, and then decide if I’d like to take part? Probably because the service is meant to be a boon to B2B marketers.
Back to the story. So I thought after I had completed that unsubscription I was safe from further emails. But I was wrong. About a week later I got an email. I don’t remember what it was. I decided to unsubscribe. The requirements were send an email to “remove@ittoolbox.com” or whatever it was. I thought it was a little strange, but do able. for once I wasn’t dealing with a forwarded message from another inbox, and I didn’t need to login with the other online account for these subscriptions.
A few hours later another email arrived in my box. It said “you need to confirm your unsubscription request.”
Wasn’t it clear, that since I sent an email, I didn’t want more messages from you?
And then it said send an email to “remove@ittoolbox.com.” I thought, isn’t that what I did the first time?
Well I had made a mistake. There was a special confirmation code, so the appropriate course of action was to actually to reply to the email.
So there you have it: a double opt-out email unsubscription process. So why am I so upset? I had to send you an email, from my email account. And then send a second one. This wasn’t click on a link, and click on a second link. This isn’t a critical email subscription, where it is absolutely essential for me to get your message. So be nice, let me leave freely and easily.
That convoluted process is unacceptable.
Filed under: b2b marketing, email communications | Tagged: email communications, email marketing, opt-out
[...] A few weeks ago I talked about email don’ts. Here is another. I got this email from one of my vendors in response to my open issue. This [...]
[...] Now of course, I don’t have issues with these mails if I request them. But as you can see here, in my previous post, I requested to never get messages from them. The other day I received a message on new upgrades [...]
[...] Stop Spamming Me. Now! So I have already complained about this here and here. Over the weekend, I got another message. I think from one of their partners. But I [...]