Ask HN: A company that doesn't repect the "don't email me" flag ...

14 points·ColinWright··7 comments

Very briefly, I'm in the UK and I've purchased some items from a company. I told them not to contact me promotional emails. They send me a promotional email. I told them to stop. They've sent me another.

What can I do?

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Hit the Report Spam button.

There are escalation options above this, but they're irrational.

Do the emails have an unsubscribe link or any instructions on how to be removed from the list?

Is the receipt of such emails unbearable? If so, maybe delete them as they come in. Or set up a filter.

Yes, and I followed the instructions last time. I even went to their web site and double checked that the option not to receive emails was already set.

They've sent me another one anyway.

And no, they're not unbearable. I'm just pissed off and angry that they can so flagrantly ignore a customer's wishes and not get spanked for it. And I don't have a choice as to where to go, because they have a monopoly.

What you could do is find a maximum of valid addresses for their domain name, and setup an auto-responder with a nice complaining message sent to the whole list. Each spam you receive will then trigger a payload. They should get tired of this before you do :)

Talk to your local data protection agency. Tell the company that they are breaking the law, etc. A good starting point is your local citizens information website/organisation.

"Talk to your local data protection agency."

For the UK, this is the Information Commissioner's Office:

http://www.ico.gov.uk/complaints/privacy_and_electronic_comm...

Spam filter.

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