Let them go!

Unsubscribing should be so simple. Even if someone signed up for mail, senders should let them go when they unsubscribe. Unfortunately, there are a lot of senders that make it difficult to unsubscribe. In fact, many companies are still hiding unsubscribe links behind login pages.

Neither a sender nor any person acting on behalf of a sender may require that any recipient pay any fee, provide any information other than the recipient’s electronic mail address and opt-out preferences, or take any other steps except sending a reply electronic mail message or visiting a single Internet Web page, in order to:
(a) Use a return electronic mail address or other Internet-based mechanism, required by 15 U.S.C. 7704(a)(3), to submit a request not to receive future commercial electronic mail messages from a sender; or
(b) Have such a request honored as required by 15 U.S.C. 7704(a)(3)(B) and (a)(4). CFR 15 U.S.C. 7701-7713

I’ve recently been inundated with emails from our credit union. We opened an account there a few months ago, and I gave them an address when they asked for it. Even though I didn’t think I was interested in their mail, I wanted to give them a chance. And, I figured I could always opt-out if it was a problem.
Sadly, I was mistaken. I’ve tried to opt-out multiple times. None of them seem to have taken. Even worse, I got the email on my phone today and tried to opt-out again only to discover that their opt-out page is broken on smart phones. There was actually no place to put in my email address, as the page wouldn’t scroll on the phone.
As I said earlier, the CAN SPAM police are not going to be breaking down the door of these companies to force them to comply with the law. At least with tagged addresses I can block, bounce or filter the spam as I want. Other people aren’t so lucky.