Tried, and failed, so now blogging

A while back, someone got a StraightTalk Wireless account, and used one of my emails as the contact instead of their own, probably by mistake.

Every now and then, I get mail from them asking me to refill my account.  I click on the 'unsubscribe' to this email link, and it gets bounced back by the StraightTalk server with the error:

Delivery has failed to these recipients or distribution lists:
unsubscribe@straighttalk.com
The recipient's e-mail address was not found in the recipient's e-mail system. Microsoft Exchange will not try to redeliver this message for you. Please check the e-mail address and try resending this message, or provide the following diagnostic text to your system administrator.

Last week, I got annoyed, and tracked down a customer service contact and sent:

From: <me>

Subject:  Your unsubscribe link doesn't work

I occasionally get email from you requesting that I refill my account, like the one attached.   I don't have an account with you, and someone has mis-typed my email.   For months I have been trying to unsubsribe using the link in the mail, but when I do, I get a bounce such as the one below.

I suspect you are in violation of some legal regulations in not having an unsubscribe that works.

Please delete me from your mailing list, and correct your mail system.

I included both the original message from them, and the most recent bounce back as attachments.  Eventually I got the reply:

Thank you for your interest in Straight Talk Wireless. We are responding
to your recent inquiry.
We would like to take this opportunity to apologize for any
inconvenience you may have experienced with this issue.

We would like to let you know that I have requested for your information
to be removed from our contact list. This process may take up to 10 days
to complete.

If you have any further questions or concerns, please contact one of our
customer care representatives at 1-877-430-2355.  For your convenience,
our representatives are available Monday-Sunday from 8:00 AM to 11:45 PM
EST.

Thank you for being a Straight Talk Wireless customer.  We appreciate
your business.

A start, but not addressing their broken system.   I sent back:

What about your unsubscribe email going to a non-existent mailbox?

And then went into Kafka-land:

Thank you for your interest in Straight Talk Wireless. We are responding
to your recent inquiry.

We would like to take this opportunity to apologize for any
inconvenience you may have experienced with this issue.

Due to limited information you provided us, we are unable to address
your concern. Please reply to this email and provide us with the serial
number or the phone number of your phone in order for us to further
investigate your concern. The serial number/IMEI/ MEID/ DEC is 15 or 18
digits long, and can be found in your activation card or in your phone's
menu. It can also be located inside the back of the phone, under the
battery.

Well, hard to give them an account or phone info when I don't have either, and I'd already sent them everything they could possibly need to identify their problem, so I sent them:

Excuse me, my problem had nothing to do with my phone, IMEI/MEID etc.   It had to do with yoursending mail having an 'unsusbscribe' link that sent mail to a non-working email address.

I included both the original mail, sent by you, AND a bounce received in response to mail sent to your unsubscribe link.

What more could you possibly need?

   mailto:unsubscribe@straighttalk.com

does not work.   Try it yourself and see.

I repeat an observation made originally:  failure to provide a working unsubscribe mechanism may have legal implications for StraightTalk.

And got back the same Kafka response, which I won't repeat.

Then I went and looked up  CAN-SPAM, and found that I might be able to sue them for the violation, as I suspected

Time for one last good faith effort.    I found Straight Talks corporate parent, dug around that site, and found a corporate contact, and sent this to that and the ST customer service address.

Subject:   StraightTalk is in violation of the CAN-SPAM act

Hello, Corporate Parent of StraightTalk,

I have had some problems with StraightTalk that have not been resolved, and I'm thinking about suing you for your violations of the CAN-SPAM Act.

I am not and have never been a subscriber to StraightTalk.   Apparently someone else was, but made a mistake and entered one of my emails as the contact for some other account.

As a result, I have been getting periodic "please refill your account" emails from StraightTalk, for an account that I do not have.

Each and every mail comes with an "unsubscribe" link at the bottom, which sends mail to "unsubscribe@straighttalk.com"

Every time I send mail to that address, it gets bounced back with a server error from StraightTalk, and I get mail the next month.

I am certain that I am not alone in my inability to unsubscribe to your unsolicited commercial email.   I sent mail to this address that was bounced back on 4/19/2010, 5/17/2010, and again on 7/14/2010.

I recently sent mail to straighttalk customer service to try to unsubscribe, which does not meet the one-click requirements of the CAN-SPAM act.  Perhaps it will result in my unsubscription, eventually, but it does not cure your repeated violation of not having a working unsubscribe mechanism.   My attempts to resolve the unworking unsubscribe mail through straighttalk customer service have resulted in responses asking for me to call with my account number at hand.   This is not acceptable.

Please respond to the problem of the non-working "unsubscribe@straighttalk.com" email address.

For your reference, I offer StraightTalk customer service incident id's as follows:

KMM7601472V54006L0KM
KMM7592834V96884L0KM
KMM7568395V44994L0KM

We'll see what happens now.