Bad Bulk Email From ft.com

Here’s a good example of how not to run a bulk email list.

Some time ago I registered with the Financial Times web site. At that time I must have given them my email address. But I’m certain that I wouldn’t have ticked any boxes marked “send me email”. I never tick those boxes and I always untick them if the come pre-ticked.

So I was surprised to get email from the FT yesterday. It wasn’t even an important email. Just some kind of regular newletter. I’m pretty sure I’d never seen one before. But the FT are a responsible organisation so I gave them the benefit of the doubt. I followed the instructions at the bottom of the email explaining how to get off the mailing list. This involved sending an email to the FT.

Then it all started to go wrong.

First I got an email in reply confirming that my request had been received. It said this:

Your request to not receive promotional emails about your subscription has been received and will be processed within the next 10 working days.

Ten working days. Two weeks! It takes them two weeks to remove an email address from a mailing list. That’s ridiculous. Anyone would think they didn’t have any computers to do the work for them. There is no good reason why a request to be removed from a mailing list shouldn’t be honoured immediately. Anyone who tells you otherwise is using software that should have been retired years ago.

And then to add insult to injury I got another copy of the original email a few minutes later.

I’m forced to reach the conclusion that the bulk mailing part of the FT’s IT group is run by idiots. Or maybe they outsource it to idiots. The mail comes from interelate.net. I wonder if they are a (rubbish) bulk mail company.