Massage Collage

How many pieces of SPAM do you receive in your email every day?  Am I the only one who is irritated by this?  Am I the only one who thinks it’s an unethical way to advertise?  I’d like to hear how others feel about this.

A couple of months ago, I received an email from a chiropractor, who is an approved provider, advertising his courses and books he was selling about carpal tunnel syndrome.  The occasional unsolicited email doesn’t bother me; once in awhile it even turns out that it’s something I’m interested in, but this man emailed me three and sometimes more times a day for weeks.  When it first started, there was no disclaimer on his ad and no way to unsubscribe, so I just started replying and putting “REMOVE” in the subject line, which is the standard practice.  It had no effect.  It went on for weeks.  Even though I put him on my SPAM blocker, he apparently used several different addresses for his mailings and it kept coming through.

He finally put instructions on the email that unsubscribing takes two weeks.  What’s the excuse for that?

After a couple of months of receiving three or four emails a day from him with no regard for my repeated requests to be removed, I called the phone number on his email and left a less than polite message about being removed from his mailing list.  It had no effect; the spam continued to arrive three times a day.  By this point in time, I was so irritated by it that I wouldn’t buy anything from him or attend a class of his if he was the last provider on earth.  I finally wrote a letter of complaint to the National Board.  I don’t know if they took any action or not, or if he finally just got the message that I wanted to be removed, but his emails finally stopped–until today.  This morning, once again, he’s the first person in my inbox.  Out of spite, I immediately sent him a dozen emails telling him to remove me.  If I get another, I’ll send two dozen!  I’ve decided to just give him a taste of his own medicine.

I’m an approved provider myself.  My advertising channels are magazine ads, my own website and some others I have paid to be listed on, the AMTA website, and email.  My email advertising is only sent to people who have attended my classes before and given me their email address specifically because they wanted to be notified that way, and I also have a link on my website for people who request to be added to my mailing list.  My website does not harvest cookies, and a visit to my site does not mean you are going to start receiving email from me.  You have to ask, and if you ask to be removed, it happens immediately, not two weeks from now.

The Internet has made the world a small place.  I use it for research on a daily basis.  I love being able to communicate with friends and acquaintances across the world without having to pay for a long distance call.  I appreciate every email I get from the massage therapists who contact me for one reason or another; sometimes it’s a comment on my writing, or a hello from someone I met at the national convention, or a catch-up email from a former student.  I love those; I don’t consider those SPAM. 

I do consider what the above-mentioned chiropractor is doing to be SPAM, and I think that’s an unethical way to advertise.  If he had sent one email, and then honored my request to be removed, I wouldn’t be mad, but three times a day for weeks on end is just over the line. 

Thanks for letting me vent, and I’d love to know how others feel about this.

Peace & Prosperity,

Laura Allen

Posted on December 6th, 2007 by Laura Allen
Filed under: General