Facebook Creeping for the Greater Good

Last Christmas, my dad didn't bother with the subscriptions Mom used to buy us each year to a major publication known for heartwarming stories and condensed books--we'd all decided it had become too insipid and slipped from inspiring tales of everyday people to something more like People magazine with its increasing focus on pop culture icons.

Then they sent us the gift subscriptions in Mom and Dad's name anyway--same with my sisters. He decided to pay for them, path of least resistance, I guess. He quit paying for his own, though, figuring they'd just stop sending them.

They didn't. They did start sending him nagging letters demanding payment for magazines he didn't want. By this fall I told him I'd deal with it. I wrote the magazine, directing my strongly-worded letter to the name at the bottom of these repetitive annoyance mailings.

That was October 1. I made it clear: no more money was coming from my dad, and no more subscriptions were wanted.

Then, a week and a half ago, we get a card notifiying us my parents had given us another gift subscription. No--Mom always bought those and she died in February. Apparently, though, to this great magazine (so great the american side of the company is in bankruptcy protection) even telling them by letter won't stop their negative billing campaign.

So, last weekend I found what I had bookmarked back when I searched (unsuccessfully) for email addresses for people in the publication to make sure they knew we were opting out. (I guess email addresses would make it easier for people to tell them to stop sending them unwanted crap.)

I had researched the guy whose name appeared on all those statements. He was real, and fortunately, before Facebook changed all the privacy settings, I figured out which one of several guys with the same name was actually him.

I sent him a facebook message. I copied the wording from my previous letter and made a bit of a threat about going to the media about their harassment of a bereaved senior citizen at Christmas time.

Within a few hours I had a return message. He would get someone on it on Monday. He was true to his word. The email apology came from that person with assurances they wouldn't bug my dad any more.

Score one for facebook creeping.