Companies you buy from that go on to spam you every single day

[WeBuiltThisBuffetOnSausageRoll]

Why do they do it? Does it really have the desired effect on the recipients - any of them? Companies that sell things that most people don't buy that often, but they persist in sending an email (sometimes two) every single day.

Clearly, they've realised that they can easily do it, but it doesn't seem to occur to them that, at best, their emails will cease to become 'special' in any way and, at worst, customers will ignore every one and probably unsubscribe after a few days once they realise the intention is to stalk and irritate them on a daily basis? It's not even like they have new items of interest in every day. Do they really think that every single customer cares just as much about their business and sales figures as they do?

I imagine their thinking is that they don't know on which day somebody might want/need to buy something that they sell, so they'll cover all bases by making sure that you've had an email from them whenever that day might happen to arrive. Apparently oblivious to all of their spam you have to contend with on every single other day - and also from every company that thinks this is a bright idea.

Have I misunderstood something here? Wouldn't a well-crafted email once every fortnight be welcomed much more positively and make likely customers actually look with some interest to see what's new rather than thinking "Ugh, not them again" once or twice every day, before shortly unsubscribing altogether? Why wouldn't a company want to keep customers willingly subscribed for marketing contact every fortnight/month rather than driving them to unsubscribe and lose that potential sales link altogether?

I find charities are the worst for this! I make a ten pound donation for a friend and they send me £20 worth of crap!! It drives me mad! Not even a box to say please don’t send anything on some of them. Puts me off supporting!

I unsubscribed to do much in lockdown. Turns out I don't need to hear from Clarks EVERY SINGLE DAY.

It annoys me that they think their product has such a big part to play in my life that I need that many emails about it. If they sent me one a month I'd be willing to stay subscribed.

They all do it! I used to always use a different email address, but I have let it creep in out of laziness.
I don't read them, they just get deleted straight away if it's a company I use a lot, or marked as spam if not. It's pretty easy to change back.
I agree that it doesn't seem like a very effective marketing technique, but maybe it does work for some people?

@daisychain01

They spam because they can.

They get round GDPR by exercising the clause that talks about "legitimate interest" ie they would defend the spamming by saying they are making you aware of other products and services so you can "benefit" from them.

That's it! And they're all taking 'legitimate interest' to mean 'merely looking at the fucking website'. I did wonder how they've circumvented GDPR and there we have it. I ignored all those 'please consent to receiving emails' and was looking forwards to a spam free life but now it's worse than ever as any website you look at will now send marketing emails because they find you via your Google or Apple email address.

It's already backfired for them with me, because I never look at any of them.

I'm also being spammed with catalogues and receive several a year from Woolovers, Land's End and Kettlewell colours. Who even looks at catalogues any more? I have a pile of these that I want to cancel, because it's just so wasteful. I buy one jumper from someone and they then spend all the profit they must have made and then some on sending multiple catalogues for the rest of time.

Beer 52. I’ve emailed, phoned. Go away for a few weeks then it’s like the cat came back.
And Mumsnet. I signed up with an unused yahoo account,looked the other day, bloody hell.

There’s an excellent website called Unroll.me where you put in your email address and it shows you what you’ve subscribed to. It then consolidates all the subscriptions into one daily email which you receive (you can choose which ones to consolidate.) You can also unsubscribe from the emails there. It hugely tidied up my inbox. I’m aware it sounds like I work at Unrolll.me - I do not, just think it’s an excellent service!

Boden were really annoying a few years ago but that was post they kept sending me after I requested a catalogue. They didn't have my email address thankfully 😅.
Never ordered from them, it put me right off them.
Can you just click the 'unsubscribe' button in an email?

I've never heard of unroll me, so googled. Sounds slightly concerning that they also apparently sell your email address?

emailmate.com/blog/2018/11/alternatives-unrollme-free-safe/

But I like the idea, so this is something I'm going to investigate further.

On the matter of just deleting the emails, why the hell should I have to do that? I get very few personal emails especially as I don't do things like book flights at the moment and even when I do, these spam emails outnumber the real ones at least 10 to one, turning a problem that shouldn't exist into a daily admin task that I can do without.

Dorothy perkins, sometimes 3 a day before I unsubscribed. Clarks too.

The amount of mumsnet 'Check out the AIBU polls' emails that come through every day is ridiculous.

@AnExcellentWalker

I was previously engaged to another man, we were looking to go on honeymoon via Kuoni. In 2004. I still get emails from them, despite having unsubscribed multiple times. My enduring impression of them is that they've harassed me for 17 years.

I get the same from Journey Latin America! I think I requested a brochure from them in the early 2000s and can't get myself removed from their mailing list no matter how many times I unsubscribe.

One recent annoying company was Penhaligon's- I love their perfume but I was not impressed with their constant emails. Luckily I seem to have unsubscribed after a few attempts.

I agree with you OP it is an odd marketing tactic and just makes people less warm to which ever brand is clogging up their inbox!

Bloody Laithwaites Wine. They used to actually physically ring me up too.

I got so fed up I told them I’d died, in the end.

I don't get any emails from Mumsnet, so it must be possible to stop those.

@Temp023

I’m sorry, fucking Mumsnet.. I do not want a bloody text every time someone sends a message to a thread I’ve been on!

That's not really spamming though, that's just you not having turned off your notifications!

Matalan is fucking disgraceful with their constant emails.

So annoying, I agree. I also find that even visiting a website for a browse or checking out a link posted on the MN S&B board seems to trigger a mini catalogue arriving in the post

I go through and have a mass unsubscribe/clean up every couple of months but they creep back in.

My worst is stuff my American namesake signs up to using my fucking email, and when I unsubscribe seems to sign back up to them - they’re just going to haunt me forever, aren’t they?

All of them, but Amazon are among the worst. You buy a camera then they spam you with adverts of not only camera accessories (which you might need) but other cameras. Jeeze. How many cameras does one person need? I have 4 but only 2 in use at present. I dont need any more cameras at the mo thank you.

Gap.

Every bloody day.

Anthropologie also

Lands End. Two cut price bikinis now spammed with emails.

My professional body tells me I have to go back to clients for feedback. I hate to do it as know how annoying I find it!

It took me ages to work out how to successfully unsubscribe from MN updates.
It was a shock how much I'm on here.

Netflix
Sports direct and Gap. As soon as I receive an order from them I have to remember to unsubscribe so I'm not spammed every day.
I have a separate admin account for shopping so my personal e-mail never gets clogged up.

The Entertainer (the toy shop). They're not so bad if you actually buy something, sending the usual thanks for the order and it's been dispatched emails.

But if I so much as look at their website and don't buy anything, I get an email ten minutes later asking if I found what I was looking for and if not, would I like to look at this instead? Argh.

Modibodi for period underwear. The whole point of the product is that it replaces disposables and you use it for years. So then why would want an email from the company 5 times a week! If I bought a pair every time I got an email I'd have hundreds of pairs by now, rather defeating the purpose.

All marketing emails have to have an unsubscribe button by law, so you can just click this if it annoys you so much. It's at the bottom of the email. Big names like Clark's, sports Direct etc will definitely have this or they would be breaking the law.

Stop moaning, click unsubscribe and get on with your life.