The Unsubscribe Button of Doom

You know how it goes--you sign up for some service or other, and suddenly you're getting three and four and five emails a week that "showcase" more services.  At the bottom of the email is the legally-required "unsubscribe" link that's supposed to get you off the list, but it's in three-point font and almost impossible to see, and if you're reading email on a phone, it's too small to click on with a finger.  This is on purpose--if it's difficult or impossible to find the unsubscribe link, you won't go through the process.

And then, when you finally manage to click on said teeny-tiny link, you're directed to a page that says, "Update Your Information," and there are a whole series of ticky boxes: newsletters, offers, coupons, product updates, and more, more, more.  If you want to get rid of the emails, you have to untick each box.  This is also on purpose.  They pretend to give you lots of choices and control, but what they're really doing is making it hard for you to get off the list.

And once you've done that, you're redirected to a survey page: "We're sorry to see you go. Please let us know why," followed by a series of reasons.  Hidden in weensy type elsewhere on the page is the message, "You've been unsubscribed."  Their concern is nothing of the kind.  They're gathering information about you.  (Close the window down.  You don't need to answer.)

Once you leave this page, you're told, "Your new settings will take 10-14 days to take effect," meaning for the next two weeks, you'll still get inundated with emails.  Of course, the 10-14 days is a lie. The computer can unsubscribe you instantly.  But the company wants to keep you on the list for a couple more weeks in the hope you'll either resubscribe or, even better, buy something.

And then marketers complain that people use ad-blocking software on web sites and email filters to kill their emails and that it's hard to reach consumers.

Yeah?  Be nicer, be polite, be tasteful, and most of all, DON'T BE A JERK.  Then we consumers might listen  to you.

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Published on January 05, 2018 06:54
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