Wow – so I guess we’re following up on this old post tonight!
Earlier this afternoon, I got yet another e-mail from the same Sears mailing list that I’ve asked them to remove me from three different times now. The one that I never technically requested to be on in the first place. Out of sheer curiosity because every now and then you see companies respond better via social media than their own websites, I threw a quick tweet out there in chance that someone at Sears might see it…
@Sears What's it take to get off your damn email list? I never asked to be on it and unsubscribed 3x, but you keep spamming me anyways!!!
— Scott Sevener (@ssevener) September 27, 2012
Sure enough, they did, and somebody actually replied pretty quick offering to look into the issue for me…
@ssevener Sorry to hear about your troubles with our email list. We'd like to help. Please dm your contact information. Thanks, Liz…
— Sears Cares (@searscares) September 27, 2012
I was pretty impressed, so I followed and sent them a couple of direct messages to explain the situation and it’s longevity, and I also shared that old blog post to help explain that this is been an issue for a while. I was angry, but I wouldn’t go so far as to say that I’ve been an asshole about the situation or anything. At least not enough to warrant this lovely example of customer service that appeared in my inbox about an hour ago!
From: Sears Social Media Customer Service 2 <[email protected]>
Date: Thu, Sep 27, 2012 at 6:38 PM
Subject: RE: S / 3 / Twitter / ssevener/Scott Sevener / Marketing
To: [email protected]Scott
You are too damn stupid to be worked with. Please stop compalining about your issue. This company has more important issues then dealing with your whining about alleged spamming. Now PISS OFF!!<mailto:[email protected]>
<mailto:[email protected]>
Thank you,Agent Name
Social Media Support – Senior Case Manager
Email: [email protected]
Hours: Monday – Friday 8:00 AM – 7:00 PM (CST)
That’s right – a frustrated customer raised an issue to Sears that their system wasn’t removing him from one of their mailing lists properly, and in return I got called stupid and told to piss off. I worked in a call center for a number of years, and not for nothing but that kind of outburst to a customer would’ve gotten pretty much anyone fired on the spot.
(note the lack of a real name – only Agent Name … that’s convenient)
After ranting about this absolutely insane response on Twitter, the Twitter Sears person must’ve seen at least one of my tweets – I’m guessing only the one where I included @SearsCares in the body – because I got a follow-up apologizing again for my frustrations, and also offering to forward these concerns to my case manager for review! 😯
@searscares @Sears Liz – You mean the Senior Case Manager who just sent me THIS??? (http://t.co/IX5mpFR9)
— Scott Sevener (@ssevener) September 27, 2012
Kinda curious to see where it goes from here. I mean, maybe their social media gurus don’t take it seriously, but there are some pretty hefty fines associated with the CAN-SPAM Act if a company refuses to honor opt-out requests properly. I don’t think what I’m asking for is unreasonable, though – I just don’t want to get e-mail from Sears that I never asked to receive in the first place.
Then again, it’d be cool if they didn’t call me stupid, either … I do still tend to shop there quite a bit. Might need to re-think that one…
Mr. Sevener,
We noticed your post and wanted to reach out to you to acknowledge once again your issue and offer our apologies for the email you received. We have investigated the matter and determined that the person who sent this email is now no longer employed with Sears. We have also taken all appropriate security measures to ensure that this type of issue does not repeat itself. You may also have noticed that your case manager has reached out to you on your twitter account to ensure all issues with your purchase have been properly addressed. Feel free to contact us if there is any assistance needed from us. You can do that by sending an email to [email protected] and we’ll have a dedicated Executive Escalations manager contact you.
Thanks for taking the time to write. I did get a follow-up from a case manager about a day later, but didn’t really feel like working with that person because not a word was mentioned about the nasty reply that I had received – for all I knew, it was the same person who sent the original reply.
For what it’s worth, I haven’t received any further mailing list spam since all of this, but it’s hard for me to tell at this point if my address was actually removed from anything or if it’s merely coincidental.
Thank you for posting this. I recently got scammed by Sears. I paid for 3 water filters and they only sent me 1. They then told me to commit fraud and lie to UPS saying the box was opened and damaged so that UPS can deal with it even though I told the representatives at Sears several times that the box was not damaged or opened, Sears just never shipped me the remaining items. They have since been ignoring my emails for weeks. I had been a loyal customer for over 20 years but never again after this awful experience.