This is certainly not the first time something like this has happened but it has become so irritating that I wanted to say something about it.

To answer my own question from above, yes I hate spam. I have always hated spam and I hate it more than you can imagine.

The issue here is not the typical spam you might get for online pharmacies or, ahem, organ enlargement products. This spam is from businesses that would be considered very legitimate and are may be good companies to do business with. The problem with them is that their e-mail promotion tactics are a bit too sleazy for my taste.

In many cases, when you make a purchase from an online business, you will see an option to subscribe to an e-mail newsletter during the checkout process. Nothing wrong with that, right?

Well, my problem is the ones that decide to turn that option on by default and force you to take action to prevent you from being subscribed to their newsletter, when it should be the other way around.

Businesses that do this take the risk of angering customers that did not want to be subscribed to a newsletter and end up subscribed anyway because they simply did not notice that the option was turned on by default during the checkout process. That is no doubt, why some business use this sleazy tactic.

This is what happened to be yesterday when I placed an order on the Northern Tool web site at NorthernTool.com.

I’ve done business with this company in the past and have been satisfied with my experience, so I did not hesitate to place an order on their site.

This morning I wake up, turn on my computer, check my e-mail and find that I have been subscribed to the Northern Tool e-mail newsletter, which I do not want! I buy the kind of things offered by Northern Tool only rarely, and I do not want an e-mail newsletter telling me about all the nifty tools and stuff they have on sale that I don’t want!

This is a very sneaky tactic and I consider this type of e-mail to be spam. Even though they most likely are technically in compliance with spam regulations, I still consider this spam, plain and simple, and I’ll tell you why.

At the bottom of the e-mail newsletter, there is a paragraph that states: ”

You’re receiving this email because you subscribed and requested news and promotions from NorthernTool.com. This will be a recurring mailing. If you change your mind, and would like to unsubscribe from future mailings; click the unsubscribe link below, reply to this email with ?unsubscribe? in the subject line or print and mail this page to the attention of “Unsubscribe Request” at 959 Skyway Road, Suite 150, San Carlos, CA 94070.”

Well, here’s a little dose of the truth for Northern Tool. It was you who decided that I should be subscribed to your newsletter, not me! I never took any specific action on your site to sign myself up for a newsletter, unless you consider placing an order a request for a newsletter. To me, this means the newsletter you sent to me is nothing but spam!

My strong suspicion is that there was an option during checkout that I would have to turn off if I did not want to be subscribed the the newsletter. I don’t remember seeing one, but it was probably there, and if it was, it had to be turned on by default.

Normally I would just click the “Unsubscribe” link at the bottom of this newsletter to remove my subscription and not think much about it after I grumbled a few unkind words to myself about whomever sent it.

In this case however, clicking the “Unsubscribe” link simply escalated my irritation level and prompted me to share my experience here. Why? Well, clicking the “Unsubscribe” link results in a “Page Not Found” error from my browser, which means I cannot reach the site to unsubscribe from the newsletter.

Strangely, their main site seems to be up and working just fine, but the site for unsubscribing from the newsletter (newsletter.northerntool.com) is not up. Now that’s irritating!

I just checked the site again, and it appears to be up now. I will be removing my e-mail address from their newsletter subscription list and leaving them a few comments as well, as you might imagine.

If they had been less sneaky in the first place about getting customers signed up for their newsletter, they would have saved this customer some irritation and avoided this little bit of bad publicity.

Update: Well, well, well. I left my comments on the “Unsubscribe” page of their site and clicked the “Unsubscribe” button. Guess what happened? I was served a page that thanked me for signing up for their newsletter!

I don’t know if the text on the page was in error and should have said I was unsubscribed or whether their newsletter system is so screwed up that it actually keeps people subscribed when they want to be unsubscribed!

I guess I’ll find out soon enough. You can be sure of one thing. If I am still subscribed to that newsletter, you will hear more about it right here and I sure as hell have no plans to print out the e-mail I got from them and send it through snail mail to them!

This company is close to losing my business forever, and all because they sign people up for their newsletter using sleazy tactics.

Welcome back!