July 27, 2009
Customer Complaint Department
Micro Electronics, Inc.
4119 Leap Road
Hilliard, OH 43026
To whom it may concern:
I first asked you to permanently remove me from your postal mailing list on October 10, 2007. I received a response that same day confirming my request. I received two more mailings that month, and then the mailings stopped. At least, they did until February 2009, when they started again after I bought something at one of your stores.
On February 16, I sent a message through your Web form, asking you once again to permanently unsubscribe me from your mailing list (yes, that means that even if I buy something from one of your stores, I don’t want you to put me back on the list!). I sent another request March 15, and a third on April 30, this time by email to csrs@microcenterorder.com.
Since I asked you on February 16 to stop sending me mailings, I’ve received six, most recently today.
As a result of your repeatedly ignoring the requests I’ve sent through the obviously useless mechanisms you tell customers to use, I have now been forced to spend my own money to send you this letter.
For two years, I have been attempting to eliminate junk mail from my mailbox. In addition to signing up for the Direct Marketing Association’s “do not mail” list, I have contacted every single entity that has sent me junk mail, literally hundreds of them, and asked them to remove me from their lists. I can count on one hand the number of entities who have been incapable of honoring my request. Same on you for being one of them.
I’ve spent so much time and effort combating junk mail because it is a huge scourge on the environment, and I actually care about the future of our planet. Apparently, your company does not.
I will, of course, be posting this letter on my blog and encouraging all those who read it to shop elsewhere. Why should we patronize a store which thinks nothing of ignoring its customers’ wishes and destroying the environment?
Sincerely,
Jonathan Kamens
P.S. Given the difficulties I’ve encountered getting you to stop sending me junk mail, I find it rather ironic that the “Privacy Policy” URL printed on your mailings, http://www.microcenter.com/privacy_policy.html, is invalid.
Pingback: Seven years later, Micro Center is still in the Junk Mail Hall of Shame – Something better to do
By the way the pricvacy policy on the mailers is still an invalid link. 5 Years later and they still can’t fix a webpage… and we wonder why they can’t stop a mailer. For all the technology they sell you’d think they could hire someone to fix a webpage.
Why do they insist on putting you back on the mailing list when you buy something? That explains why I continue to be frustrated by their mailers. Now when I go into the store, which will be more infrequently now, I will use cash. Apparently they can’t be trusted to link my purchase to my account because it will trigger endless amounts of unwanted mail. Congratulations Micro Center for annoying me into shopping elsewhere. I wish you cared more about your customers… maybe one day you will.
Please stop sending me this junk mail i do not want it please do not let me have to start a signature list. enough is enough already
Amazingly the privacy policy URL they provide with their recent mailings is still invalid: http://www.microcenter.com/privacy_policy.html
I have the same problem. Ed: Do I have to start a blog and hreaten to shop elsewhere to get the same attention?
Jonathan,
Please accept my apology that you have continued to receive mailings from Micro Center. I have discussed your situation with the person in charge of our direct mail programs and she has removed you from the mailing list.
BTW-Micro Center has greatly reduced our use of direct mail as more and more customers prefer to receive communications via email and view our catalogs online.
Thank you for bringing your situation to our attention. Please email meicustrel@microcenter.com if you encounter any further problems or we fail to meet your expectations in any way.
@Ed Lukens: Utter BULLSH*T. I’ve been removed three times and added yet again for the fourth time. I have explicitly stated in store after making the connection that I did not want to be added to the mailing list, and yet despite acknowledgement/misdirection from employees and repeated requests to unsubscribe, I still receive mailings after shopping in-store. It smacks of monetization / incentivization to add people to the mailing list at the register.
To the people reading for a possible fix: File a Prohibitory Order form with your Post Office. Yes, it talks about s*xual material but read the wikipedia article about it – The only absolute requirement (of the Order) is that it must be possible to construe the mailpiece as an offer to sell goods or services. After an allowance of 30 days of processing time, if they should continue to send even one article of mail they break the law, and you may elect to have a court hearing. I don’t know what Micro Center will do about your presence in the store at the register after the fact.