Lately I’ve been trying to reduce some of the noise in my inbox by unsubscribing from a number of email newsletter lists.
It hasn’t been easy.
For example, I unsubscribed from the IOGEAR list and they tell me (as shown here) that it’s going to take up for four weeks to get my name off of their list.
Four weeks.
I understand if it takes four weeks to get removed from a print catalog mailing list. Labels have to be printed weeks ahead of time.
But we’re talking email here.
It’s not all that difficult to gather up all the unsubscribes and run a weekly dedupe. Is it?
I encountered one email list recently (which will remain nameless) that claimed a six week grace period.
Six weeks?
Is this going to keep getting worse. Will one day I find that it’s going to take six months to opt out of a mailing list?
I know companies hate to lose email subscribers. Perhaps this delayed removal process is the human equivalent of a clingy ex-girlfriend or boyfriend.
But I’m trying to move on with my life. And they’re not letting me.
Has anyone out there encountered similarly clingy emailers? Or is this just me?
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I tried to make the same exercise of opting out of several mailing lists a couple of times…
My conclusion: It was much easier for me to create rules and filters to delete automatically whatever I was not interested in anymore, than going through all the different opt-out protocols.
If you control your email (exchange, or even gmail, yahoo mail, etc…) put the rule at the highest level you can reach so mails do not even reach your outlook or whatever mail client you are using.
I agree it is not the way it should be, but at least it worked for me.