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 <smsupport@searshc.com>

Date: Thu, Sep 27, 2012 at 6:38 PM

Subject: RE: S / 3 / Twitter / ssevener/Scott Sevener / Marketing

To: scott.sevener@justlaugh.com 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:searscares@searshc.com>

<mailto:searscares@searshc.com>

Thank you, Agent Name

Social Media Support – Senior Case Manager

Email: smsupport@searshc.com

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…