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A lighter piece on the performance of the CAN-SPAM anti-spam law:
...while I've accepted that my work inbox is going to be filled with junk, I go to great lengths to keep my private e-mail pristine. I use a personal domain instead of an emailprovider.com address, and the spammers haven't found it. Even my junk folder is empty. It's glorious.
Or at least it was, until I made the mistake of getting something at Best Buy. For a full four weeks, I received one or two e-mails a day from the ubiquitous retail store with subject lines like "4-HOUR SALE: Starts now," "You'd be crazy to pass on this," "Amazing deals end soon," and "Jon, save 15% on ink and toner."
...
It's been four weeks and my Best Buy account still hasn't been deleted. But the e-mails finally stopped, not through the efforts of Precious, Rod, or Helen, but because on June 25 I decided to write this article and contacted Best Buy's public relations team to give them a chance to comment.I described the situation, mentioned that I had just filed a complaint with the FTC, and asked why it would take even 10 business days to stop spam e-mails or two to four weeks to delete an account.
"These are things that corporations with modern, functioning computer systems should be able to accomplish in seconds," I wrote. "I would be interested in learning the technical details of the system you are using so we can figure out what the problem is."
It's a common tale of woe. The author of TFA only got the spam to stop because of the PR hit he promised to land at Best Buy's feet. CAN-SPAM hasn't stopped them. What can, if you're not a journalist?
Original Submission
(Score: 2) by lentilla on Saturday July 18 2015, @09:28AM
These are things that corporations with modern, functioning computer systems should be able to accomplish in seconds
For your consideration... here is a slightly different way of looking at your issue that might be a moderating influence on your irritation...
If you allow general employees to "change things in seconds", it also allows them to wreck absolute havoc in seconds. It won't result in World War III but it has the potential to unleash unholy hell on the entire corporation and past that into the political arena. Just imagine the result of mistakenly emailing a naughty picture to one million people would do. There isn't a strong-enough word to prepend to "-gate" (watergate, gamergate, etc) to describe the fall-out from such a blunder.
Maybe it's better some things take a couple of days.
(Score: 3, Interesting) by Anonymous Coward on Saturday July 18 2015, @10:31AM
This is not the actual reason. The reason is that the can-spam act states "10 days" and so they can take the opportunity to full fire-hose email you for 10 more days even after you've asked to unsubscribe.
The 10 days requirement was put in the law by the email marketing lobby for that single purpose. Give us 10 more days of unfettered access even after they ask to unsubscribe.
Note that in the original article, the email receiver had clicked an unsubscribe link. If the receiver of the spam is clicking a link to unsubscribe, there is no 'employee wrecking havoc in seconds', and no excuse other than "the law does not require us to act any faster than 10 days". (which is the real why).