I would delete my account immediately. I wonder what prompted them to send this out. Someone had a bright idea and ran with it without thinking about the implications. The worse part is I'm sure a few will sign-up and it will be viewed as a success.

There isn't really any evidence that Steve or Shane (at least not from what Consumerist posted) chose to opt-out of their e-mails, certainly no evidence that either person specifically told Consumerist they did not sign up.

Nothing about that screen cap says to me that Steve "explicitly opted out of receiving any email communications from them in the future."

It says he registered on their website, but did not opt-in for their emails. Most websites send a confirmation e-mail of registration (this is what this is) and will also include information as to their other services, such as opting-in for e-mails. This is hardly a problem.

We don't have any information as to whether Steve or Shane at their respective universities are B&N account holders through their campus bookstore, or whether they are simply being spammed by B&N's campus division because they are students, and everyone gets the e-mail. But it clearly says "thank you for registering" which indicates that a student had to have initiated contact to receive a welcome e-mail.

@pecan 3.14159265: Clarification on my part: What I mean to say is that I see that Steve DID opt-out of the e-mails, but this e-mail in particular is clearly a "welcome" letter and a confirmation of registration, NOT a random "check out our deals" e-mail, which is the kind that he opted-out from.

wow, this would make my blood boil

1. Write a note that says: I'm glad to be your customer, but you didn't opt in to letting me throw rocks through your windows.

2. Tie note to a rock.

3. Throw it through B&N's window.

I received this, too, and I go to Clemson, with B&N running our campus bookstore.

I got this e-mail too. I registered way back in September, opted out of e-mails, and hadn't gotten one until this little gem popped up in my inbox a week ago. So, it does seem like a random "check out the things you're missing!" email

@Cindy Cardona: Otherwise known as "spam."

By the way, does anybody have a new URL for spam reporting on the FTC site? The old one doesn't work, and the only complaint form I could find was for the reporting of fraud.

Okay, so now there's confirmation that this ISN'T a welcome e-mail. I would remove my comment previously, but there's no edit button.

I also got this e-mail. I am at University of Massachusetts at Lowell. I was not pleased when I received an e-mail that I explicitly opted out of. Barnes & Noble did not please me with this.

This is becoming reasonably common practice, actually.

It happens once every few weeks that I'll get an e-mail from some company that I've done business with saying, basically, "We're just e-mailing you to be sure that you wanted to opt-out, 'cause if you were getting our mail you'd be drowning in AWESOME right now."

The last couple of these have been wedding-stuff-related, and they're the worst damn bunch of shysters and information-sellers anyway, so I didn't take much notice. (I can't remember most of the specific businesses, because I delete the e-mails on sight and it's been a few weeks.)

@Etoiles: I'm still getting e-mails from Modern Bride even though I've opted out twice, and block their e-mails with the Gmail spam filters. Once in a while they sneak by anyway.

Steve and Sean should send each other email reminding them that they didn't want to get any email from B&N.

@perruptor: Then they should forward it to Shane.

Hey Consumerist readers! None of you have visited my website and entered your email to register for my hourly emails! You are missing out! Don't forget to register now!

@Etoiles: Since it's "common" practice, it must be reasonable then.

@vladthepaler: Simply brilliant.

I also received this from my B&N-run bookstore at Northeastern. I mostly just laughed, though- I think B&N bookstores tend to be a little smarmy as a general rule.

@pecan 3.14159265:
Pretty much; I don't think I've ever seen an e-commerce website that allows you to "explicitly opt out of receiving any email communications from them in the future." They send stuff like order confirmations and communication about your account via e-mail. Without being able to e-mail you, they're going to have a hard time communicating with you.

Opting out of regular mailings does not preclude the occasional one-off mailing that is deemed important enough to be sent to everyone.

This particular e-mail isn't really important and doesn't really warrant a special mailing, but is it that big a deal? If this is the sort of thing that "makes your blood boil," perhaps you have rage issues.

@vastrightwing: Etoiles wasn't saying that it was acceptable, just that companies were increasing their practice of these e-mails. It's becoming more common but common doesn't equal acceptable.

Big freaking deal. They're trying to show him the advantages of opting in to their email. Seems like good, invasive marketing to me.

I got one from Sierra College in Rocklin, CA as well. Nice of them to remind me. "oops, you forgot to let us know not to send you emails." I think it's the same company running the programs there.

It's like someone saying "I'm going to take a nap, don't wake me." Then 10 minutes later someone waking them saying "I know you told me not to wake you, but I wanna make sure you haven't changed your mind."

Hahaha! The B&N on the Georgia Tech campus, poor guy.

Do you know how much spam I receive from Georgia Tech alone? More than my junk Yahoo accounts receive combined. And even though it's legit, you still can't unsubscribe: they'll forward campus-wide notices from what I guess are student groups, but there are no signatures on the email and no settings in any account I've searched to stop these notices. I get weekly notices from the Alumni Association, and I'm still registered as a student. My department sends everyone the same reminders over and over and over again. Now the campus has this condensed announcement system... except they send announcements every couple days, it seems. Madness! Heh, it's just natural to get it from the Georgia Tech B&N, too.

But this is about Barnes & Noble, not Georgia Tech. I just felt like sharing.

@chrisjames:
They own your school e-mail account, they can send you whatever they want.

@I_am_Awesome:

I got this same e-mail from my law school bookstore. I registered an account with them almost a year ago, so this wasn't a welcome letter. While I don't specifically remember a check box to opt out of e-mails when I registered a year ago, I ALWAYS make sure I check or uncheck the boxes so that I don't receive e-mails when I register for anything.

@AlteredBeast: And you just DONT mess with a guy and his naps!

yeah i got this too at university of baltimore...

guess it's a B&N University thing...

Consumerist, I think you may have missed the boat on this one. From the example you are showing, this email is simply a last ditch effort on behalf of B&N to get the customer to sign up for email after they registered on the B&N site. Perfectly legit practice.

@Etoiles: They really are. I advise any of my friends who are getting married to create a wedding account and delete it after the ceremony. what really annoys me are the catalogs that I keep getting, since I hate to waste so much paper

The other favorite trick of companies like this is to change their opt-in/out options around slightly. (From "sales" and "coupon" newsletters to "promotions" "events" and "bargains" newsletters for example). They then send a message saying "Our options have changed. Since we don't know what your preference will with these new options, we have helpfully re-subscribed you to everything" When you go to opt-out again, it takes 4 to 6 weeks to take effect, and the options magically change again 7 weeks later.

@pecan 3.14159265: To echo what spicyarmadillo wrote, this is NOT a "Welcome to our site!" email. I received the same thing, and I registered for the site over a year ago.

Also, because I was curious, I checked out the registration page again (because I couldn't remember how it was set up). The page loads with the "Email me with sales promotions, etc." box PRE-CHECKED. Which means that I would have had to physically un-check that box during registration in order to opt out.

I don't know how I could have made my intentions more clear to them.

@pecan 3.14159265: Whoops, sorry for taking you to task up above...I didn't scroll down!

@HIV 2 Elway Resurrected: From my view, there are no advantages. If I thought there were, I wouldn't have opted out.

@tgrwillki: GOOOO TIGERS!!!

@Its The Beer Talking: What about the "We're paying %50 for any of the books you own?"

If you don't opt-in or sign up for emails companies should assume you don't want any emails from them. Common sense.

@edwardso: I'm using my old "real name" GMail account, but I'm changing my name (and therefore, also my e-mail) after the wedding so it's the same effect. ;)

@pecan 3.14159265: This, exactly. "Common" and "acceptable" are not synonyms.

@HIV 2 Elway Resurrected: Lots of people want to give me money. Did you know how much I could save by refinancing my mortgage? I sure do, because of the 100 pieces of mail sitting in my spam filter.

Note: I do not own a home, nor am I shopping for one.

we've had users contact us (we = my job) saying, "why didn't you email us?" We say, "You chose not to be contacted at all, even for free product updates."

"Oh but I wanted updates, I just don't want spam!"

I'm 'just saying'...

I believe this violates the Can Spam act. Check your local statutes.

@Etoiles: This is why I often use a nonexistent email. I can figure out what I need to know from credit card bills or information on the site. I've got at least one place where I regret not doing so (that's you, HMV, you unsubscribe-ignoring twits).

@HIV 2 Elway Resurrected: Well, it's invasive. I don't think it's good to annoy people you've already told not to contact you though.

@Ninja007: Over one email? Please.

I got the same email yesterday from my campus bookstore at York Tech in Rock Hill, SC. It was very annoying but I just deleted it instead of complaining.

Hypothetical question: when you choose not to opt-in to regular e-mails from a company, how often can they get away with sending you something before you cry foul?

I don't think you can fairly say, "the very first time", because really there are some things that are important enough to go out to everyone. If someplace sent you a message, say, once a year, not explicitly trying to sell a product or service, but as a reminder that they were still out there, would you make a stink about it? What about once a quarter? What is the threshold?

@supercereal: It would make mine too. Sure, it's one simple thing, but when every company you've ever contacted starts doing it, regularly, what makes that not spam? It's like explicitly telling someone not to poke you in the face, but then, about an hour later, they poke you in the face, saying "I know you told me not to poke you in the face, but I thought maybe you forgot about telling me that and actually wanted me to poke you in the face." It's disrespectful, and it puts them in the same league with some of the more prolific spammers who say "I know they say they don't want these emails, but that's just because they don't realize that they do want them".

@parliboy: I don't think there are any things that are important enough to go out to everyone via email. Wanting to let me know they're out there certainly isn't enough--tons of places would like me to know they're out there, and they just have to suck it up. If they're closing, I'll find out one way or another.

So I'll most definitely cry foul the first time, and I can't even see why you'd except that. That's my threshold.

Email??? I thought that was dead due to 94% of the traffic being spam and viruses.