Ignoring opt-outs

One of the marketing solutions to the spam problem is just to have recipients opt out.

We think that commercial e-mail should always — and I emphasize always — provide for a way for the consumer to say: “I don’t want to hear from you again. One bite of the apple is enough. Having heard from you, I don’t want you to send me email again.” So we think that the approach of allowing a single message, and then an opt-out, makes the most sense. Bob Weitzen, DMA President, 2003

The problem with this approach is that some companies ignore the opt out from consumers. Even in the face of the CAN SPAM act, they still find ways to send mail to people who opted out.

Today’s example is from Microsoft. They sent out a mail this morning  to an address that was not given to Microsoft and has not received mail here since 2011.

Subject: We miss you! Re-subscribe to receive the latest tech news from Microsoft

Dear Laura,
Did you know your current contact settings have cancelled all Microsoft email communications to your inbox? We’d like to encourage you to re-subscribe so you won’t miss out on any of our great content and resources to help you and your organization realize its full potential. Opt-in to receive the latest information from Microsoft — all it takes is one click. If the content you receive is not to your liking, you can opt back out at any time.

I’m hearing from other people, on Facebook and to our contact address, that they have received this email as well. This seems to be a widespread “re-engagement” campaign by Microsoft. Some folks I’ve talked to say that the address they’ve received the mail to has been unused for years. Others say the message came addressed to the wrong name.
Overall, this was an extremely poorly done campaign by Microsoft. They are sending mail to recipients who have specifically said that they don’t want mail from Microsoft. They are admitting that the recipients don’t want the mail. I wish I could say I was surprised, but I’m really not. Consumer preferences just don’t matter to many marketers.
Edit: Consumerist article on Microsoft sending to opt-outs.

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Getting a bunch of irrelevant mail was annoying enough. Even worse, there was no unsub link in the email. Eventually, I discovered an entire page of email options that were not made clear to me up front. I also sent mail to support and suggested that they talk to their lawyers to clarify whether their opt-out option was consistent with CAN SPAM. I’m pretty sure it doesn’t, but I am not a lawyer.
To the company’s credit, they did have good support and my questions through support were answered in a timely fashion. One of their support reps even called me on the phone to clarify what it was that I wanted to happen and walk me through their email options. She was very upfront about yes, they opted everyone in to all the mail at the very beginning of the process. “We’re like match.com for businesses!”
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I know I’m a little more sensitive to bad mailing processes than most people, but this was quite an unpleasant experience from the multiple identical emails and reminders before I signed up to the irrelevant stuff I got afterwards.

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Atari_Optout
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How_was_I_added_to_this_list_
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