MADD enters the junk mail hall of shame

By | April 20, 2011

April 20, 2011

Kimberly Earle, CEO
Mothers Against Drunk Driving
Fax: (972) 869-2206

To whom it may concern:

My efforts to get MADD to stop sending me junk mail commenced almost exactly a year ago, on April 21, 2010, with a message sent to you through your web site. I received a response the same day, claiming that it would take “two to three months” for the mailings to stop.

I received another mailing on September 7, 2010, so I sent email to donations@madd.org and asked again to be removed from your list. I received a response on September 14: ““We are looking into why was this change. But know that we have flag your account again for future removal.” How embarrassing it must be for you that the people whom you have responding to emails can’t write proper English.

I received another mailing on November 19, 2010. I emailed donations@madd.org again and received no response.

I received another mailing around the end of 2010. On January 2, 2011, I sent you a fax at (972) 869-2206 asking, for the fourth time, for you to stop sending me junk mail. Again, I received no response.

I’ve received another mailing from you today.

Your abject failure over the course of an entire year to abide by my simple request to be removed from your mailing list has ensured two things:

  1. I will never, ever donate another penny to your organization or support it in any other way.
  2. I will publish this letter on my popular consumer activism blog, urging all of my readers to direct their support to organizations which don’t waste money sending mailings to people who don’t want them or ignore the express wishes of their supporters.

I have been contacting merchants and political and charitable organizations for over three and a half years to eliminate the flood of junk mail in my mailbox. I can count on one hand the number of organizations which have been incapable of honoring unsubscribe requests. How sad that a supposedly reputable organization like MADD is a member of that disreputable group.

Sincerely,

Jonathan Kamens

CC: donations@madd.org

 

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5 thoughts on “MADD enters the junk mail hall of shame

  1. F

    You want to contact [Name and email address of MADD employee, whom I doubt would want his name and email address posted on a public blog, removed. – ed.] and ask for him to erase you from the database.

    Reply
    1. jik Post author

      Already taken care of. See the link in the pingback below.

      Reply
  2. Pingback: MADD cleans up its act « Something better to do

  3. jik Post author

    Wow, this is promising. Someone from MADD actually wrote to me and asked for more information:

    My apologies for the extra mailings you’ve received. I’m trying to get to the bottom of why this has occurred. Do you happen to have a copy of any of the recent mailings you’ve received? This would help us track down why this has happened and, while I know it will not assuage your own justified annoyance at our failings to refrain from mailing you, it would help us prevent us from doing likewise to others.

    I’m beginning to believe that they’re actually trying to fix the problem.

    It’s a pity that it took five requests over the course of a year, culminating in a letter to the CEO and a blog posting, to make them do so.

    Reply
  4. jik Post author

    I received this answer today from the CEO of MADD:

    Dear Mr. Kamens:

    Thank you for letting us know that you continue to receive mail from us. Our database does show that your name was removed in 2010; we are investigating why you would still be receiving mail. Please accept my apologies for the inconvenience and frustration, and bear with us as we work to ensure that you receive no more mailings.

    We appreciate your past support and wish you the very best.

    Sincerely,

    Kimberly

    That’s all well and good, but it isn’t worth squat unless MADD actually solves the problem and figures out how to avoid having the same problem impact other donors in the future. We’ll see.

    Reply

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