Yes what they are doing is bad, but they probably are learners - probably using AOL or similar to set up the website, or paying a friend's son/daughter to do it - education (i.e. prevention) is better than getting angry and chewing them up, messing with their website (i.e. cure). You never know, maybe they'll improve the website and stop the spam. I agree with you totally, spamming without being able to opt out is evil and comparable to what you've said, but as I say, better do things calmly and euducate people. Of course as I've learnt, there's no educating people though.
That's just my two cents anyway.
Cheers - Piers
Stewart, John wrote:
So, I was taking a shower this morning and was thinking I might send out a confessional email to this list... and then something else happened that has changed my outlook.
The story is this... in my town, I've not been able for the longest time to find a reliable person to cut my hair. The choices have always been Supercuts/Costcutters where for very cheap you can have a blind person suffering from seizures cut your hair, or you can pay out the nose for a decent haircut at a snooty salon.
A year or so ago, I found a salon where not only could you make an appointment online (through a very kludgy web interface, mind you), but the cut was very cheap in comparison to a normal "salon" cut (not Costcutters price, but also no worries about coming out looking like an escaped convict who cut his own hair with a sharpened spoon).
Well, a couple of weeks ago, I got a spam from this salon about frickin' pedicure specials or some garbage. There was no link to opt out, and so I replied to the sender address saying please take me off, etc.
The very next day I get another spam from them. At this point, I was *livid*, enraged, off my rocker pissed. I emailed them again and to every possible alias I could think of (postmaster, webmaster, etc...) saying how totally unacceptable it was, etc. I also called them, and made a couple of fake appointments to get their attention.
I did get a voice mail back from the owner of the salon apologizing and saying "we were trying out some stuff". It's all very obviously very amateurish and low tech, by the way.
I even got into a big argument with my wife about this. She said she didn't mind the spams, since Apple and every other vendor she deals with also sends them out. I blew up over this; I think I may have even compared the salon to the Nazis in the resulting conflagration.
In the past couple of weeks, though, my ire has faded and I have grown increasingly in bad need of a haircut (and my sister's wedding is coming up, so I really kind of need to get one). So I made an appointment yesterday online, where suspiciously I had to create a new account. I also thought this morning about confessing all of this to y'all.
I do feel it is immoral to do business with any company which sends spam, and especially so ones where you can't get off.
Well, guess what was in my inbox this morning? Another one... apparently their method of opting me out was to simply nuke my account; their spam seems to go out to everyone they have an address for, every time.
Why I signed up with a valid email address, I'm not sure (tempting them?). I did put down "Please Don't Spam Me; Thank you!" for my snail mail address, though apparently no one sees these before the spam goes out.
So I've replied again to this spam (I'm not sure anyone actually reads them, though, as the only response I have received over this was over the phone, and she might have just been responding to my call).
So I have a 1pm haircut appointment today with the owner of the salon. I've also emailed her (don't know if it will be read) and left a voice mail for her (she is not in until noon).
Do I:
- Never go there again, as I said would be the case in my previous email?
- Show up and try to convince her what a horrible thing she is doing?
- Just screw with their (horribly insecure) online site, signing up for appointments all day for Elmer Fudd, etc?
- Simply ban their domain from my mailserver and report them to the RBLs?
johnS
