By Paul McGowan of PS Audio

I get a lot of SPAM in my inbox.  When I go to unsubscribe I sometimes get a notice that my request will be processed in 24 to 48 hours.  This implies there is some human being involved – a clerk perhaps sitting behind a desk with a big inbox overflowing because of all the requests.  This over worked employee is trying as hard as she can to get to my request but golly, it may take a couple of days.

Really?  Of course there’s no employee and my request is handled in a few milliseconds by a computer who places me on yet another list of people who aren’t interested in the one subject but how about if we try the next one?  Maybe then I’ll be interested.

Does that hurt the credibility of the product or service I got the email from?  Yes if I get another email from them and no if I don’t – and I probably won’t because the clever email marketer just used my unsubscribe request to move me from one list to another list so I don’t point the blame at the original unsubscribed vendor.  It’s what we call an endless loop in programming language.

The real problem I see is credibility and confidence in receiving any email at all – which hurts the medium.  There are certain emails I subscribe to and want to receive but I am ever so cautious as to which I sign up for – in case I get locked into an endless loop again.  That’s a shame because there’s a lot of good content waiting to be read.

I don’t have a solution, I am just whining.