Overheard my boss say 'just unsubscribe' like it's that simple

Last week I was sitting in our open office and my manager was on a call. He goes 'yeah just unsubscribe from all those emails, easy fix.' Easy fix? I had 847 unread promotional emails at that point. Each one is from some store I bought socks from in 2019. Half of them make you click five links just to opt out. Took me 2 hours over three days to clean it out. And some still keep coming back like roaches. Anyone else deal with companies ignoring your unsub requests? How do you handle the stubborn ones?

2 comments

2 Comments

jesse_nguyen7d ago

Oh man, that's the thing that gets me. It's like this whole unsubscribe thing is a perfect example of how broken our systems are (you know, where companies make things just annoying enough that we give up). I noticed this pattern everywhere now - like trying to cancel a gym membership or return a package. They design it to be a hassle on purpose, hoping you'll just live with it. For the stubborn ones that ignore your unsub requests, I started reporting them as spam directly to my email provider. It's a tiny victory but it helps a little.

claire_butler16d ago

Actually, reporting them as spam can sometimes backfire if you ever actually signed up for their service. I made that mistake with a newsletter I genuinely wanted at first but changed my mind on later. The email provider just blocked all their emails entirely, including the ones tied to my actual account. What works better for me is creating an email alias or a separate junk folder and routing the stubborn ones there. That way you still control it without risking your main inbox. It's a pain but less of a fight than the whole spam report game.