MySpace spamming former members

I'll never understand why companies like MySpace, with so much on the line in terms of reputation and brand, think it's worthwhile to engage in unethical business practices.

I deleted my MySpace account a while back. I have many reasons for deleting the account, but I'll save those for another post. Before I deleted the account, I unsubscribed from all their e-mail notifications, newsletters, etc. — just in case they didn't have the sense to stop sending me e-mail automatically after deleting my account. Apparently even that wasn't enough to prevent them from spamming me. Today I received another Member Newsletter from them. Of all the crap they might send, sending someone who is no longer a member the Member Newsletter seems pretty pathetic.

Annoyed, but wanting to get MySpace out of MyFace, I thought, "Fine, I'll unsubscribe again." I should have known they wouldn't allow that. Rather than having a one click unsubscribe option in the e-mail like real, ethical companies do, they instruct you to log in to your account to change your subscription settings. Well guess what. I don't have an account! So I have no way at all to unsubscribe from the MySpace Member Newsletter. And that is, without any doubt, by very careful design. If I want to truly rid myself of MySpace, I'm going to have to spend more of MyTime chasing down an e-mail address or phone number and haggling with someone.

If you want to know how trustworthy a company is and whether you should give them your time, information and/or business, take a look at how easy they make it to stop giving them your time, information and/or business. The harder they make it, the more you should avoid them.

Comments

[Tom Hogarty]

I have the exact same problem, I contacted them by email a while ago and got a similar useless response about changing my account settings (no account to change, I deleted it a while ago). MySpace sucks royally! I can't believe the record labels are taking them seriously for the upcoming online music service.

[stumptown girl]

I've been lucky not to receive any emails from MySpace since I deleted my account a few months ago. Musicians need to find a better way to market themselves - MySpace sucks.