If you’re like me, your email address has somehow found its way onto numerous political lists that are then sold to various candidates who proceed to inundate you with fundraising emails ad nauseum.
One such list I landed on is the Republican National Committee’s (RNC). And their fundraising pitches are not only incessant, but often down-right insulting. A recent one had as its subject line “You never responded,” and opened up with this…
“According to our records, you NEVER completed our Trump Approval Survey. 🚨 If you don’t complete it ASAP, you are at risk of being marked as a TRUMP HATER! 🚨“
Oh, bite me.
Agitated at such an absurd scolding and warning – which I guess, on some level, must work on some people or they wouldn’t keep doing it – I tried to unsubscribe from the list.
But instead of just clicking on the “unsubscribe” link buried at the bottom and being immediately unsubscribed, I was redirected to a webpage that required me to answer five questions – including “Do you support the Republican agenda?” and “Do you still support the Republican Party?”
Pack your bags, we’re goin’ on a guilt trip!
It also required that I enter not only my email address, but my first name, last name and zip code. Plus, I was required to check off an “I’m not a robot” reCAPTCHA box…all to get off a list I never asked to be on in the first place. Ugh.
So instead of jumping through all their hoops to be removed from their spam fundraising pitches, I tried to “block” them and have their emails automatically re-routed to my “junk” file. But for some reason, even THAT didn’t work. I kept getting the annoying/insulting solicitations.
So I’ve gone from someone who simply wasn’t interested at the time to someone who is now extremely and permanently irritated to the point of telling others (this newsletter is but one example) how ticked off I am!
This is NOT how to win friends and influence people. The sour taste in my mouth from the insulting email that caused me to want to unsubscribe in the first place was doubled by not removing me quickly and easily. And will not be forgotten.
The RNC does a lot of things well in their fundraising. This ain’t one of them.