executive discount order form

harvard business review, your special offers are unappreciated.

i was about to send an email to about ten of the kind-of-could-be-the-right-one email addresses i managed to find on the hbr.org website that looked as follows:

Hi there

I'm contacting you in utter vexation and desperation. Your company website has made it impossible to figure out who precisely I should be addressing this to, and there is no "unsubscribe me" functionality available anywhere online.

I am unable to discover a way to stop receiving offers from Harvard Business Review in my (physical) mailbox.

I do not want to pay more postage to send you back another physical form with a tick in the checkbox to unsubscribe me because apparently it isn't enough to stop bits of dead trees finding their way back to me.

Could you please assist me in this matter? In addition to annoying me with spam, I feel like you're destroying forests in the names of your already paying customers. If this continues, I will not be renewing and I will attempt to find resolution in a less polite manner. Somehow. Your company has me at wits' end.

Thank you, please show mercy,

<total waste>
Tel Aviv, Israel

PS. The return envelope is addressed to the Netherlands, but I couldn't find any Netherlands contacts on the site.


On Sun, Oct 9, 2011 at 1:52 PM, <total waste> wrote:
Hi

I keep receiving "special offers" from Harvard Business Review for other subscriptions, and I'm really not interested. Please stop spamming me. If there are any details you need in order to stop these offers from arriving on my doorstep, I will be only to happy to provide them.

Thank you,

<total waste>
Tel Aviv, Israel


and then, like a massive, shiny, outstretched arm breaking through the storm clouds, i found a chat link tucked away on their login page.

Please wait while we find an agent to assist you...
All agents are currently busy. Please stand by.
An agent will be with you in a moment. Thank you for your patience.
You have been connected to <helpful support person>.
<helpful support person>: Thank you for contacting Harvard Business Publishing. How may I help you?
<total waste>: hi there
i'm absolutely at my wits' end, vexed and desperate.
i cannot find a way to unsubscribe online from the special offers that keep arriving in my mailbox
There's a form for reply, and I'm supposed to tick the checkbox and mission off to the post office and pay postage so that your company will stop spamming me?!
I'm so sorry for the trouble. I can contact our marketing department and make sure they get everything removed.
That's a little unfair, and very frustrating. This is not the first time I've tried to contact HBR, but apparently emails are disregarded over there.
Thank you
Are you getting both emails and physical mail? Or is just postal mail that is coming?
And please - pretty please - if you could ask them to make it easier to get in touch online
It's just postal mail - but I don't want email offers either. I have a subscription and I'm happy with it
I'll definitely do that -- I've been working on a lot of requests to opt-out this week and it's become clear that we could use an easier process!
It seems absolutely ridiculous that there's no "unsubscribe me" from the HBR or the Wired sites.
Thank you - you have all my details in front of you, I assume?
I have your email address and phone -- if you can bear with me one moment, let me see if I can pull up your subscription and address information.
Did you happen to have any of the mailings with you right now?
I ask because there's a code that can help our marketers confirm which mailing list you're on, so they can more easily remove you.
Thank you - you're doing a good job of rescuing me from website hell. Yes,the offer is in front of me
I'm glad I could help! Let me find an example of the code we're looking for.
Do you see a code that looks something like this?
XXXXXXXXXX XXXXXXX XXXXX
If so, we would be interested in that last five digit code.
I have a Wired subscription, so for me it should end in XXXXX?
That sounds like the right one -- does that appear after the other two codes? If so, I'll send that along with your details.
XXXXXXXXXX XXXXXXX XXXXX
That's perfect, thank you. I will send that along to our marketing team and let them know you wish to be removed from special offers.
I know they plan their mailings about two weeks in advance, so I would say by mid-February you will stop seeing mailings.
If it's okay with you, I will share this conversation with them so they have it as a reference. If you have any future questions or continue to see any special offers, you can refer to this conversation if you chat with us again.
Fantastic! And please pass along my suggestion that they add the "unsubscribe" checkbox from the physical form to the virtual one at www.success.hbr.org
I'm more than happy for you to share it - I was tearing hair out for about fifteen minutes before finding this chat
I'm so sorry for the trouble. I will definitely pass on your suggestion.
Is there anything further that I can help you with?
No, that's about it. Thank you so much!

so you see: i CAN uses capitals when i need to.