So by running an ineffective email campaign they have turned a consumer evanglists into a toxic consumer and we all understand the power of word of mouth....
It is always a major annoyance when a large retailer or company cannot get the basics of online marketing right and turns a loyal customer into well an angry consumer! One of the retail brands that I used to admire and respect because it was smart edgy but recently I have been trying to cut down the number of newsletters and marketing collateral that fills my inbox each day.
- E-Privacy Directive: Directive 2002/58/EC Concerning the Processing of Personal Data and the Protection of Privacy in the Electronic Communications Sector, 2002 O.J. (L 201) 37
- E-Commerce Directive: Directive 2000/31/EC on Certain Legal Aspects of Information Society Services, in Particular Electronic Commerce, in the Internal Market, 2000 O.J. (L 178) 1
- Distance Contracts Directive: Directive 97/7/EC on the Protection of Consumers in Respect of Distance Contracts, 1997 O.J. (L 144) 19
- Data Protection Directive: Directive 95/46/EC on the Protection of Individuals with Regard to the Processing of Personal Data and on the Free Movement of Such Data, 1995 O.J. (L 281) 31
They are an EU based company and email marketing provider, and the email was originally subscribed to while I was a resident within the EU, so they should have to answer to EU privacy and data protection directives and let their subscribers leave their email lists.
Who is to blame for failure?
So the question is who is really responsible for the email failure is it Diesel for not picking an email solution that allows consumers to leave when they request to do so? Or was the Diesel email marketing failure dependent on eCircle’s email software solution for failing to accept and process several of my unsubscribe requests and ignore my personal email which many other solutions would have flagged. So how can companies expect consumers to trust them with their details and address privacy concerns when they can’t even do the basics?
It is unreasonable that a consumer should have to goto such efforts to be removed from a marketing list that I originally opted into, I was a legitimate Diesel customer who really was interested in finding out more about their products. This process doesn’t look like it is over yet, so it is likely myself and Diesel won’t leave on amiable terms and may turn nasty in this breakup with a brand.
Hi there, I have the same exact problem. I’ve tried unsubscribing (and got that “It’s all over” page) at least 4 times, and just today received another message. This is hugely annoying.
Ah yes, i got a new one yesterday, no idea how to make it stop, i found an email address on their website for their HQ… so hopefully i will hear something back?
Thanks for bringing this to our attention. Diesel were using their own unsubscribe link so we were unaware that this problem existed. However thanks to this blog post, we have worked with the client to rectify this situation and are pleased to report that it’s been fixed, tested and should work fully now.
The eCircle Italy Team
Hello Jody,
Thank you for the update and im happy that the article highlighted the issue and you took the time to explain how it occurred. But it is still a concern even after the article link was sent to the client “Diesel” on the 18th March, no action was taken.
It is a worry that a client as big as Diesel had this issue affecting their subscribers for maybe longer than 6 months, but it still highlights the issue of if a client doesn’t use all the email marketing functionality who should be accountable, the delivery system or the client?
Definitely agree with you. We often find that many of the organisations we work with are very large with a huge value attached to their brand. It continues to amaze us how some companies don’t realise the significance and harm that can be caused by not following good practice and ensuring mistakes like this are avoided.
In this case, the most likely explanation is that replies of their emails were sent to an unmonitored mailbox (which of course all ‘best practice’ advises against), which meant that unfortunately they continued sending emails to unsubscribers like you in error.
We’re glad that we were able to work with the client and rectify the problem. Thanks once again.
thank you jodie for the followup comment, even the use of some social media monitoring tools would have reduce the impact of these types of mistakes can have on both your email marketing platform and the clients brand. I know one solution I use seems to work well is ViralHeat but the common use of unmonitored addresses idea is maybe due to a lack of education about its side issues. But i have worked with big business who think that this unmonitored mailbox is something that doesn’t even need to be checked or as if we can’t see or hear about the problems then everything is fine.
So it seems that this was something that just does not want to die off, i’ve started getting emails again from Diesel atleast this time my spam filter is capturing them, but its a real joke how difficult it is to get away from these companies lists!