Amazon Credit Card

"What is spam? Spam emails are emails sent to you without consent. It is email that you don't want and didn't ask for, and its content can cause embarrassment and distress."

A sometimes successful trick to do is use the sales / marketing phone number to call them up (also it's normally a freefone [0800] number). If you can get no satisfaction directly, ask to speak to a supervisor. ie. waste as much of their sales time as possible.

No. Under the Privacy and Electronic Communications Regulations 2003 they are obliged to get your prior permission /before/ sending you marketing emails. (As you will probably know most companies ignore this rule).

However breaches of this regulation are investigated by the ICO and they are so busy there is no chance that they will look into your case within 8 weeks, more like 8 months.

I have complained to the ICO about numerous companies doing this kind of thing. The ICO upholds my complaints and I stop getting spam from that company. However the same company carries on spamming.

I'm sure you could cut up the card. It's easy with scissors ;-) I'd be tempted to do it when still on the phone to demonstrate it is quite possible!

distress."

What does the law say? The Privacy and Electronic Communications Regulations 2003 cover the sending of email marketing. This legislation says that organisations must only send marketing emails to individuals if you have agreed to receive them, except where there is a clearly defined customer relationship.

distress."

Then the OP will probably have to contact the ICO (whose contact details I gave in my original reply) to clarify it. However, that does not mean that because you are a customer they can start sending spam. The company must provide the option (in the signing up) not to receive marketing material. According to the OP, there is none.

I think it says quite clearly that an organisation is free to send you marketing email as long as you are a customer. I'm not happy about that either and have sent some quite abusive responses to companies who think that just because I once bought something from them they can spam me for ever more.

Quote: ... If you're planning a marketing campaign, you'll have to comply with a number of regulations. Some of these apply to unsolicited electronic messages sent by telephone, fax, email or text, while others apply to marketing material sent by post.

Electronic mail marketing The most important thing to remember is that you can only carry out unsolicited electronic marketing if the person you're targeting has given you their permission.

However, there is an exception to this rule. Known as the 'soft opt-in' it applies if the following conditions are met; a.. where you've obtained a person's details in the course of a sale or negotiations for a sale of a product or service; b.. where the messages are only marketing similiar products or services; and c.. where the person is given a simple opportunity to refuse marketing when their details are collected, and if they don't opt out at this point, are given a simple way to do so in future messages.

What is the difference between a 'solicited marketing message' and an 'unsolicited marketing message'? Put simply, a solicited message is one that is actively invited. We accept that this invitation can be given via a third party. An unsolicited marketing message that a subscriber has opted into receiving is one that they have not invited but they have indicated that they do not, for the time being, object to receiving it. If challenged, you would need to demonstrate that the subscriber has positively opted in to receiving further information from you.

distress."

I think it says quite clearly that an organisation is free to send you marketing email as long as you are a customer. I'm not happy about that either and have sent some quite abusive responses to companies who think that just because I once bought something from them they can spam me for ever more.

There is a fundamental problem in your tactics. If you want to get someone to help you the first thing to do is get them on your side. Quite apart from being infantile sending abusive responses does just the opposite. Put yourself in the position of the person receiving an abusive complaint. Would you be prepared to help some who was abusive to you? Try sending a polite request instead because it gets far better results.

Peter Crosland

distress."

I think it says quite clearly that an organisation is free to send you marketing email as long as you are a customer.

---------------------------------------------------------------- I don't think it does

You seem to have missed:

"where the person is given a simple opportunity to refuse marketing when their details are collected, and if they don't opt out at this point, are given a simple way to do so in future messages"

So if either they don't ask, or you say no, they are not free to send it to you

tim

distress."

Regardless of what the law says, it doesn't seem to make sense to upset customers who may otherwise be quite happy with the service they've received from you. I don't understand why companies risk driving customers away by annoying them in this way.

In general, I'm happy to receive unsolicited marketing emails from companies I have had dealings with, as long as the email contains a link which makes it easy to unsubscribe, and any request to do so is honoured immediately.

Chris

distress."

Presumably, on balance, revenue generated from new business exceeds that from repeat business in these cases - but possibly only short-term. Back to the money-obsessed and -orientated model.

distress."

I think that very unlikely.

Apparently, it can cost 10 times as much to generate new business as it does to generate repeat business.

A company pisses off its customers at its peril!

tim,

distress."

You have to build into this equation a measure of how many of your customers you are actually pissing off by sending these emails. Some will react badly to it, while others won't be bothered much at all, and some might actually welcome them.

People's reactions to advertising vary a lot. Advertisements about something which you have no interest in is usually annoying, whereas adverts for things that do interest you can often be welcome. In some cases people will even pay money just to read advertisements. Look at how popular Exchange & Mart used to be some years ago, with many people going out to buy it when it was published every Thursday.

Chris

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Indeed. It must be harder to attact new customers than to keep existing ones.

But many do.

One thing that really pisses me off is when companies offer big discounts for new business and /refuse/ to match these prices for existing customers. They will always lose my business if they do this. Worst offenders are insurance & motoring organisations IME.

In message , Mark writes

When I recently called the AA to tell them I was thinking of leaving after many years of membership I was quickly given a discount of around £70.

distress."

The point isn't that they send them

It's that they (sometimes) make you jump through hoops not to receive them

tim

On another subject.

I'm surprised that after a discount of 70 pounds there anything left of their charge.

I really don't understand why this sort of thing costs so much in this country.

In Europe you can get full Europe wide cover for about 30 quid and in the UK you have to pay almost 100 pounds JUST for own country cover.

And whilst some of this is explained by "windfall" profits, the difference is far too large for this to be the whole reason. There really must be something different about the cost base in Europe that makes it so much cheaper there.

tim

"Have to"?? I've got Europe-wide cover for something like 55. Have a look on the price comparison sites.

Like what? Maybe they are less likely to abuse insurance.

But more likely, there are more Brits who really do believe "you get what you pay for" and so are stupid enough to think a cheaper product or service must be somehow correspondingly worse.

"Mark" wrote

What really pisses me off is when people who have already received the introductory discount (ie existing customers) *expect* to get it again....

In message , tim.... writes

My AA cover is the full Monte - Roadside rescue, Homestart, Relay, and complementary Stay Motoring. That last is the use of either a hire car for three days or hotel accommodation.