Consumerist Forums moderator Brian is moderating a problem of his own. His mother, who is mourning the recent loss of their dog Mandy, is receiving a relentless flood of spam email from 1-800 PetMeds with titles such as: “Take Mandy on a picnic this Memorial Day Weekend!” and “Summer showers are around the corner, make sure Mandy is dressed properly!” Considering the fact that Mandy passed only a few days before, the emails are causing Brian’s mother a great amount of grief and tears. He has set up email filters to block the email, but like an intelligent virus the email changes its signature to bypass the filters. Unfortunately, he cannot simply filter the word “Mandy” because his mother is still sending and receiving email regarding her demise. His letter, inside…
Over the past few days, I’ve been having a real problem with 1-800 PetMeds. The odd thing is, it’s not over an order that I placed, it’s with their e-mails. A while back, my mother started ordering heartworm pills from 1-800 PetMeds, because they were about $10 cheaper than the vets. Because of ordering them online, and forgetting to uncheck an e-mail subscriber list box, she got e-mails about special offers and such. No big deal there, until this week.
On Wednesday, we had to put our dog (named Mandy) down. On Friday, my mother was checking her e-mail and had an e-mail from 1-800 PetMeds with the subject “Take Mandy [our dog] on a picnic this Memorial Day Weekend!” 2 days after we put Mandy down, this e-mail comes. It was enough to get my mother worked up into tears. I had her log into her e-mail, and I clicked the unsubscribe link at the bottom, so we wouldn’t get any more e-mails from them – we just don’t need that.
Saturday, she checks her e-mail again, and a second message: “Is Mandy dealing with Spring allergies?” Again, my mother broke into tears. I was furious. I clicked unsubscribe to NOT get their e-mails anymore. So I set up a filter to automatically delete 1-800 PetMeds e-mails. I had to be specific on the filter, so I put a ban on from 1-800 P* (wildcard) and 1-800 PetMeds.
Sunday, yet ANOTHER e-mail: “Summer showers are around the corner, make sure Mandy is dressed properly!” This time, my mother didn’t break down into tears, but this has gone too far. The from in the e-mail: Your PetMed Alert. I blocked that, but who knows when the next e-mail is going to come?
I called them and spoke with a representative on the phone. She looked up the account information and verified that we were NOT taken off the mailing list. I asked her to do so, and she said it would take 7-10 days to remove us from the mailing list. That seems like s bit much, but if it will stop the e-mails from coming, it will be worth it.
I’ve never had this problem trying to get rid of e-mails that I don’t want before. It’s not like these are spam, these are notices from a company that we bought something from again.
I hope that the woman on the phone removing the e-mail address from the list is enough to stop them from coming. Otherwise, I’m not sure what other options I have with 1-800 PetMeds.
We’re sorry to hear about your loss, Brian. According to the CAN-SPAM act of 2003, the law allows 10 business days for businesses to comply with opt-out requests. Hopefully, the spam emails will stop sooner rather than later.
1800 PetMeds Problem [Consumerist Forums]
The CAN-SPAM Act: Requirements for Commercial Emailers [FTC]
(Photo: Getty)
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It’s a shame, because Mandy came and she gave without taking.
Can you change email settings to automatically send those emails into the trashbin??
Same thing happened with my parents and my dead grandpa, care of VitaminShoppe or one of the others.
Poor guy never even got that penis enlargement he was planning on…
@RobinB: Seriously? Maybe it’s time to work on your reading comprehension. Let’s try this again:
He has set up email filters to block the email, but like an intelligent virus the email changes its signature to bypass the filters.
What criteria is being used for the filter? What address is it coming from? What info is in the header? This is not a blame the op post, but maybe there is some tweaking that could be done to rule to filter out these emails while they wait for the address to get off the list.
It’s unfortunate your mother lost her dog. However, I can’t blame 1-800-PetMeds here. How were they to know? They had a subscription and are removing the user from the list within the prescribed time (10 business days) to do so. It’s unfortunate, but I can’t see how they are to blame.
@RandoX: What, do they keep sending from different domains or something?
Blocking everything from 1800petmeds.com isn’t exactly hard, no matter how shitty your email client is.
Has she tried clicking the “Unsubscribe” link in the e-mail?
@EBounding: You idiot, it says she did.
I’d assume that all these emails are coming from the same source domain.
If not, post some headers from these emails and we can come up with a filter to help stop them.
Maybe on the opt out form they could ask why you no longer wish to receive their e-mails and then they could expedite the ones that say “my pet died”.
Holy cow… that sucks. I had the same problem after partially completing an order on drugstore.com
Here’s one idea…
1. Create a GMail account.
2. Use your ISP’s mail control panel and forward all email to that GMail address.
3. Use GMail’s spam filters and/or create a special filter to block stuff from Petmeds.
4. Check email at GMail.
5. Problem solved.
I know you’re doing filtering anyway, but I find that GMail’s filters are a bit better at this. If that doesn’t do it, you may have to be more creative with your filtering keywords. Also you should check the IPs to see if they’re coming from the same email company (I doubt PetMeds is using a botnet, and if they are, that’s a whole ‘nother story).
I actually use GMail scrubbing with my small business server, forwarding stuff to GMail to be cleansed, which then forwards back to a hidden address on my server where I then check it. My spam problem has dwindled to almost nothing.
If that sounds like too much work, then you should do it anyway and consider it as investment that gives your mom another layer against spam, phishing, and 419 emails.
On another note, I was getting ready to buy some Frontline for tick control. PetMeds sounds like it’s very spam-friendly, and I’ve seen a lot of businesses who operate that way and make tons of cash buying and selling customer data, something I do not agree with. I will definitely not be doing business with them.
And boy, as far as your mom goes, they picked the wrong person to mess with!
my comment did not appear, trying again
It’s sad, but she’s going to have to wait the 7 to 10 days to be removed from the mailing list. That’s it. 1-800PetMeds just isn’t going to have a staff of email address changers on hand, OVER MEMORIAL DAY WEEKEND, to remove dead pets immediately from their subscription list.
This comes from someone with two dogs and three cats.
It’s her own fault for having a live pet in the first place. Aibo’s can still be found on ebay.
/sarcasm
Get mommy a Gmail account.
@chiieddy: 10 days to remove an e-mail address from a list is a crock of sh*t as far as I’m concerned. There are plenty of mailing lists out there that you can unsubscribe from in literally seconds. On top of that, a company that sells medication for pets should recognize that a lot of their customers are going to lose beloved pets eventually and that those personalized e-mails may cause this sort of distress in owners. For that reason alone they should have a well designed opt-out system that takes minutes instead of over a week.
I lost my Mother to cancer several years ago. I started getting all of these harrrassing CC and collection calls from a couple of her creditors about late payments and delinquent accounts.
With the first couple I tried to explain the situation but they insisted on “original” copies of death certificates, of which I only had a couple, and all this other crap.
Not exactly being in the mindset of compliance – I began encourageing them to continue try and track her down.
The balances were very low and my hope is they spent way more money trying to track her down than what she owed.
Sorry for your loss – automated marketing is pretty common but Spam blocking should do the trick fairly quickly.
The failure to unsubscribe through their automated system is bad, but their abuse of customer information is worse.
Multiple marketing emails in a week are completely inappropriate regardless of the situation. I do not expect my email address – which I give to place an order, for that transaction – to be used whenever a company wishes. Similarly, if I bought something at a store and started getting junk mail from them this often, I would be angry, too.
My company has almost entirely sworn off email marketing because of its negative perception. When we do, it’s from an opt-in (not an opt-out – people actually have to check the box that they want promotional emails), and only done maybe once or twice a year.
I blame the poster. You are expecting a business, who exists to make money, to be sensitive to the needs of a pet owner.
That is unrealistic, unless you’re dealing with a business that specifically caters to pet owners….oh right, nevermind.
Take your dog on a picnic?
@Whitey Fisk: But they sent her away, oh Mandy!
You don’t have to put up with that crap.
Contact the FTC about them. [www.ftc.gov]
The FTC has an email address set up for people to forward spam email to them according to the Can Spam act.
Every junk email you get, forward it to spam@uce.gov
NOT a joke, read about it at
[rn.ftc.gov]
1-800PetMeds sends more spam to my account than any other business. I only check my “spam” hotmail account every few weeks, but they are usually grouped in 3-4 messages just days apart.
Oh Christ dogs are fungible just get another Mandy and keep feeding her more pet meds!
@mgy:
I love taking my dog on picnics! We even make a picnic lunch just for her and then run around with her in the park for hours. Good times
I tolerated the email I got from 1-800 PetMeds until they sent me one “addressed” to my dog along the lines of “Bowser, tell your mommy that…”
Ick. Ick. Ick. Ick. I unsubscribed about 30 seconds after that email landed in my inbox.
I hate when people argue emotions when it comes to dealing with a problem. Crying does not lend anything to an argument. I also have a hard time being able to quantify “emotional distress.” Either there’s a problem with a company or there isn’t. Someone’s emotional response really has no weight on the situation.
This is similar to that issue with the drag-racing Comcast trucks. The issue was emotionally charged, yet few failed to realize that Comcast does not tell its drivers to drag race. Was Comcast responsible? If they failed to check driving history, fail to reprimand drivers for reckless driving, etc… then sure. Otherwise, Comcast really has no power over its employees doing stupid things the first time.
The same thing goes here. It’s very unfortunate your mother lost her dog. Is it reasonable for PetMeds to know that your mother’s dog died? No. Psychics aren’t real. Did she fail to uncheck the box? Yes. That’s completely on her. Is it reasonable for the company to take 7 days to take you off the mailer? The law seems to think so. You think it’s unreasonable, but don’t explain why. Do you know how a mailer works? Can you explain how much work it would take to not mail her the information? If you don’t know of the process, I can’t say that your opinion has any merit.
So far, PetMeds seem like any average, mediocre company and hardly some terrible monster like Paypal or BoA. Also, to the infinite people who didn’t read the story, this isn’t spam. She had a business relationship with the company and failed to uncheck the correspondence box. RTF Story next time.
Congratulations on using this forum and your position here to voice this complaint though.
Not really sure why this is a consumerist issue – or why to blame 1800-petmeds.
They signed up to receive e-mails (well did not uncheck box when they signed up, which most people now days know that means getting their e-mails)
Plus it sounds like Petmeds have a easy system setup for them to unsubscribe – but like everything, it takes a few days (7-10 as the phone support told them)
So why is this a consumerist issue again? Maybe after 10 days of unsubscribing and the e-mails continue, then that may be a consumerist issue – but I don’t see why this story is here, sorry.
That would be like me buying a pet toy from Amazon, but upset once it got here because the pet got hid by a car a few hours earlier. HOW DARE AMAZON SEND THAT!
@EBone:
UPDATE customers
SET email_opt_in = 0
WHERE customer_id = 8765432
would take two seconds after someone presses the unsubscribe button on the web-page even on a very laggy database. They’re taking 10 days to remove the address not because they don’t have employees working on the holiday weekend but because their marketing department has decreed that the company will continue to send ads to unwilling customers for the maximum legal time.
Does anybody have Jay’s email so I can tell him how this post fails in so many ways?
@Garbanzo: But, of course, you’re using parameterized arguments to avoid a SQL injection, right?
Seriously. Get the fuck over it. My wife had a miscarriage last year and we still get free samples for formula and diapers. Yeah it sucks but they’re not doing it to offend you. They don’t know any better. The company isn’t sitting there laughing while sending the email hoping you’ll cry.
Cry me a river! Get a new dog and e-mail account.
Pathetic!
@Garbanzo: Your dog’s name is Bowser? Sweet.
@RogueSophist:
Not, really, sorry.
I guess it is not considered spam if you add yourself to a company’s mailing list. However, many companies like Borders Books and A.C. Moore abuse the privilege and are relentless in sending out member emails. I get several a week from them. I don’t want to completely unsubscribe from receiving their coupons so what I do is filter their emails to delete upon arrival until I need a coupon. Then, I turn the filter off so I can receive the coupon email, and turn it back on when I am finished.
Now I am not bombarded by their emails unless I want to use them for my purposes.
I am not blaming 1800Petmeds. This is a problem that occurred because of happenstance. The reason to highlight the problem was to try to find a solution through the commenters. If you see any blame that *I* put on 1800petmeds you are hallucinating.
@Jay Slatkin: But someone needs to make the bad man stop.
/sarcasm
Problem is, we live in a zero sum society, someone is always to blame, two cars merging into the same lane. Blame. Smoke and get lung cancer, Cigarette Company. Blame. Meteor falls out of the sky and kills the girl you’ve been stalking. Blame.
It’s a vicious arrow man, vicious.
@coan_net: (And others):
For all the comments saying to just opt-out of emails, or just unsubscribe, I can say from experience that opting out or unsubscribing does not work. I ordered one item from them a couple years ago and still get email. (I ended up adding them to my server’s spam filters … if I had more time on my hands I would probably document the emails and unsubscribe attempts and sue in small claims, would be an easy win.)
1-800-Petmeds completely ignores opt-out and unsubscribe requests.
OP here, thanks for all the helpful comments. I never thought of trying Gmail to sort this out, but I’m going to give that a shot.
@Jay Slatkin:
The reason to highlight the problem was to try to find a solution through the commenters
Having read the comments, it seems to me that the consensus would be that you’ve already found the solution… unsubscribe. If, in 10 days or so, you mom is still receiving the emails, then come back and we’ll talk.
@Jay Slatkin: I think the point was to draw attention that this letter did not deserve front page (even if from a forum moderator) and that your judgment that it did deserve front page was incorrect.
Oh Mandy, you came and found me a turkey. On my day off of work-y
As another suggested, you can try submitting your complaint to the FTC. But I find this more effective:
Send an email to every department of 1800petmeds you can think of.
customerservice@1800petmeds.com, sales@1800petmeds.com, webmaster@1800petmeds.com, admin@1800petmeds.com
In the email let them know that what they are doing is illegal, and you will be contacting the FTC if your name is not removed from their list. This usually gets a response from someone.
@Noris: You’re wrong on the Comcast employees. Your actions are in your employer’s name while you’re on the clock and while operating company equipment.
This is totally different and is an example of a company harassing a no-longer-willing-to-be-marketed-to former customer because the law says they can, not because it’s the right thing to do.
@Noris: Hmmm…I have a hard time being able to quantify ‘deserving front page’. Perhaps being a moderator carries a few perks. An occasional indulgence like this doesn’t really bother me. Perhaps a bit of relaxation is in order.
I had the exact same problem when my pet rock died.
@Jay Slatkin: If you see any blame that *I* put on 1800petmeds you are hallucinating
The hell I am. Did you not write the headline:
1-800PetMeds’ Relentless Spam Email Makes Your Mother Cry
You turned what could have been a reasonable discussion of spam filtering into a mud fest with your shit-journalism headline. Note: MY mother is not crying, and 1-800PetMeds did not MAKE the OP’s mother cry. Also, nothing in the post indicates that their emails are either relentless or spam. They were solicited, albeit accidentally, and a total of three have been received.
This entire thread has been worthless, and it’s all due to your stupid headline.
@Noris:
Incredibly well put.