Unsuscribing from an email mailing list... Sites claim it takes up to X days. Makes no sense.

[Robert M]

Hi everyone,

In my on-going attempt to reduce the amount of crap finding its way into my email inbox, I've begun to remove my email address from email list affiliated with web sites. You know, the kind that sends you deals of the day, customer favorites, product recommendations, sales, etc.

Keep in mind, these aren't SPAM sites. These are normal, reputable sites which I still visit regularly. I just don't want their emails unless I specifically place an order. All of these web sites include an unsubscribe link and, since they're reputable, the link works.

Maybe someone can explain to me why the sites can take up to 10 or more days to remove the address from their mailing address. It takes less than a second to get onto the list. I enter my email address and a second or two later i have an email from the site in my inbox. But, nearly two weeks to remove my address from the mailing list?

Any ideas as to why this is the case? It seems like garbage to me.

Robert

[Paul F.]

Yes, it does seem like garbage...

The rationale, in years past, was a lot of email marketing was done by outside companies, but the mailing list was kept in-house... and transmitted to the "mass emailer" only periodically... say, every month.
In that case, yes, it took a while before the emails stopped.
More and more, however, I suspect that answer is bovine excretion, because more companies are doing the emails themselves.

[pinion]

I was curious too and found this: http://www.lifehacker.com.au/2010/05/why...o-process/

[bazookaman]

My brother had an issue with a company that charged his CC then told him it would take 30 days to receive a reverse the charge. He said "No. It took you two seconds to charge my card, you can uncharge it that fast." After going round and round with the person on the other end, he finally got a manager who got a manager who reversed the charge right then. It's all horseshit.

[deckeda]

That article offered zero insight into the delay, only this speculation:

Are there already five days of marketing messages lined up ready to post?

That is almost always the case, yes, because marketing efforts take time (and so, will HAVE lead time) and even when using templates, it takes time to create the email content and build the newsletter.

However, scheduled emails still must be sent using a database of addresses and the database can be updated at any time.

It's merely a personnel issue. They don't want to pay someone a couple of bucks to update the list every day. Example: he finally got a manager who got a manager who reversed the charge right then.

Companies don't care. We pay the price.

[$tevie]

I think it's good to keep in mind that you are not the only person in the entire world that unsubscribed from that list today.

At the private college where I used to work, our database people were busy full time adding, updating, and removing student/alumni/donor/staff/faculty names and information and we were MUCH smaller than any online store or publication would be I'm sure.

This puts me in mind of people harassing our web director at my old job because they requested the site add a link to their portfolio yet it wasn't done that same day. Because after all, the web person had nothing else going on did they?

[Robert M]

$tevie,

Those are entirely different tasks and likely unrelated to what I'm talking about in this thread.

Here, we're talking web stores and such, where things are automated. Even general Internet email mailings lists didn't require days upon days of waiting for an unsubscribe request to kick into gear. We're talking as far back as the '80s.

Back then (and now) subscribing and unsubscribing to an internet email mailing list was easy. Send email to server with subscribe command. You're on the list. Or, after sending the subscribe request, you receive email confirming the request. Reply to that email and you're on the list. To unsubscribe, send email to list with unsubscribe command. Done.

Robert

[N-OS X-tasy!]

bazookaman wrote:
My brother had an issue with a company that charged his CC then told him it would take 30 days to receive a reverse the charge. He said "No. It took you two seconds to charge my card, you can uncharge it that fast." After going round and round with the person on the other end, he finally got a manager who got a manager who reversed the charge right then. It's all horseshit.

I did this recently. 1-800-FLOWERS.COM really screwed the pooch on a Valentine's Day order I placed this past February. Not only did they fail to deliver (on an order for which same-day delivery was guaranteed), they still hadn't fulfilled the order an entire month later.

An entire month, you say? Yes. My first attempt at calling their customer service department to resolve the issue was made the Monday after V-Day. I terminated that attempt after being on hold for an hour and a half. A follow-up call later that week met with similar results. Clearly I was not the only customer who experienced issues with the company's performance on V-Day. After those two abortive attempts, I decided to see whether the order would ever be filled and how long it would take.

After one month, I called time of death, picked up the phone and finally got a human being on the other end.

I give them credit for this: the CS rep with whom I spoke was very apologetic and very helpful. Honestly, he was everything you want a CS rep to be. Unfortunately for him, he was also very young (probably college-aged). I say that because I'm pretty sure I almost literally scared the crap out of him. I was not rude to him and I never raised my voice, but I left absolutely no room for doubt that our transaction would be concluded to my satisfaction.

In short, I requested three things:

1. That a representative from his company call the intended recipient of the flowers to apologize in person for their failure to deliver.
   
2. That the company fulfill the original order at no cost to me.
   
3. That the entire amount for the order I placed be refunded to me immediately.
   Item number 1 was agreed to and handled immediately. The CS rep actually placed me on hold while he placed the call himself. My friend later called to tell me that she appreciated that gesture more than if she would have actually received the flowers.
   
   Items 2 and 3 is where things got squidgy. I told the CS rep that if his company wanted to keep me as a customer, fulfillment of those two demands was non-negotiable. I spent nearly an hour on hold while he ran my conditions up the flagpole, but even after getting escalated to a CS manager they refused to comply with my demands. The best they were willing to offer was to fulfill the original order for 50% off, with a refund of the balance. I told them that, given the magnitude of their failure, that response was inadequate and that I would appreciate an immediate refund of the full amount of the order and would never bother them again once that transaction was completed.
   
   That's when they tried to tell me that the refund could take up to six weeks. I became much more direct at that point. I called bullshit and told them in no uncertain terms that since they were able to charge my CC immediately when I placed the order, they damn well could -- and would -- issue my refund by close of business that day. Which they did.
   
   And that's the story of why I will never patronize 1-800-FLOWERS.COM again.

[wurm]

Frankly, I'm a bit surprised they accommodated you. They had to know that based on the conversation(s), you would never order from them again anyway.

[N-OS X-tasy!]

I specifically told them that they had the opportunity to retain me as a customer if they could resolve this situation to my complete satisfaction - not an unreasonable condition, given the magnitude of their screw-up. They weren't interested in doing so. Which is fine with me.