MyPetVideo.TV get their lawyers to be condescending to me via email

I’ve been holding out on you, and not telling you the interesting stories and “goings on”.  So, I’ll share the story about MyPetVideos.tv.  You might remember that I wrote a blog entry about them a couple of weeks ago, because I was so annoyed that they wouldn’t remove me from their subscriber list.  They kept sending their weekly newsletter to three of my email addresses, and wouldn’t stop, so I figured a blog entry would at least let me vent my frustrations.  I was actually a bit surprised when it got the company’s attention, but whatever works.  Their “administrator” wrote to me, and asked for my side of the story.  I told him I’d be trying to unsubscribe for weeks, and even told him the dates of my removal request emails (as they were still in with my “sent” mail), and he said he would investigate.  About a week later, he’d concluded his very thorough, “unbiased” investigation, and stated that I’d never asked to be removed from their list.  I was making my story up.  He conclude with some huffy and indignant stuff about how I needed to remove my blog entry immediately, because I was a liar.  He didn’t say the word, “Liar”, but he did say that I had never asked to be taken off their subscriber list, so that’s sort of the same interpretation.  I wrote back and said no, I would not remove my blog entry.  The really hilarious thing was that in the “Administrators” snotty email to me, he never denied or even addressed my claims that he sent unwanted email (aka, “spam"), and that he bought lists of people to send email to.  He also didn’t deny that the first couple months of newsletters contained absolutely no unsubscribe information, which had been another thing which initially pissed me off.  But the best part was that after he’d huffed and puffed about his company’s morals and values and you get the idea, what arrived in my email inbox but a newsletter from MyPetVideos.TV?!  In other words, after making a big production out of telling me that I’d no longer receive their emails, I got one of their emails.  It made me smile smile

Jump ahead about a week, and I get an email from a law office in CT, ordering me to remove my blog entry about MyPetVideos.tv, claiming it contained lies, defamation, yada, yada.  I wrote back and mentioned that the lawyer was paraphrasing sentences from my blog and taking them out of context, making them say things I hadn’t said.  For example, I questioned why a legitimate company would want to put their servers in Costa Rica, and suggested it would be a way to avoid following American laws.  The lawyer wrangled that down to me saying that “MyPetVideos.tv isn’t a legitimate company”.  I don’t even know what kind of insult that would be if I had said it… a lame one, if nothing else.  The lawyer also claimed that his client didn’t spam, so I told him about all the emails I’d saved as proof that I kept asking to be removed from the subscriber list, but I was not being removed.  And I explained that “spam” is email a person didn’t ask to receive, so his clients were indeed “spammers” under US law.  The lawyer said he’d take what I’d said “under advisement” with his client.  The saddest part is that I pissed the lawyer off, by telling him to “bite me”, so now he won’t communicate with me via email.  One of those sensitive types, I guess.  I’m being “punished” because I have to communicate through postal mail, oh, the humanity.

When I blog, I tell the truth.  I don’t have trouble remembering details because my entries are based on what actually happened.  I really do have proof that MyPetVideos.tv sent their newsletter to three of my email addresses without my permission.  I have proof their first emails didn’t contain information on how to get off the list—I know this because I searched high and low for their contact info via Whois, and that’s how I figured they were hosted in Costa Rica.  I have proof that I asked to be removed three times via email, and was never removed.  And if nothing else, MyPetVideos.tv doesn’t have proof that I ever asked to receive their mailings.  I didn’t fill out a form on a website, I didn’t write back to confirm my email address—you know all the steps you go through to sign up for a proper newsletter. 

I guess I’ll just wait and see what happens.  Mostly, I’m just happy to no longer receive their stupid videos (idea ripped off from YouTube and CuteOverload), although I seem to still be getting one of them.  I don’t mind removing my statement that you potentially could get spyware or malware on their website, even though that can (and has) happened from Flash ads on huge sites like MySpace and the Wall Street Journal, through no fault of the websites themselves.  I caught malware which had taken over the servers at a Canadian government website and also on a retail website where I was buying printing supplies.  It happens, and now that Flash can be infected, you need to be diligent on Flash websites.

Anyway, it was a bit of excitement to brighten up my dull week… nothing says “good times” that meeting a lawyer with no sense of humour.  The lawyer said I had, “no manners”, as if that’s my biggest concern in life.  Maybe Emily Post will want to come and teach me manners in the nice cardboard box we’re living in next month.

Posted by Leigh-Ann on 04/06 at 12:25 PM

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  1. Oh for pete’s sake.  How much harder would it have been for them to remove you from all lists, apologise for the hassle and wait for your blog entry where you posted that they were actually quite nice and you were pleased with their responsiveness?

    So much better to sic a threatening lawyer on you, I suppose.  A sign of the times - never admit you were wrong, always villify the party who was right and pound them mercilessly until no one can remember what the true issues are.  The long arm of Karl Rove makes it to internet commerce!

    ‘Bite me’ was a restrained response.  Sheesh!

    Posted by Print  on  04/06  at  02:56 PM

  2. Oh wow - what a pain over nothing!  It’s kind of egg on their face though.  How can they dispute all your proof?  At least you’ll be able to stick it to them.

    Posted by Calichis  on  04/06  at  09:16 PM

  3. Too bad they couldn’t just respond to your remove requests as quickly as they responded to your blog entry.

    I have been receiving a newsletter from a website for about 3 years now that I never requested (I’d never heard of it before I started getting their newsletter). It claims to be “opt in only” and it includes remove instructions. I’ve requested multiple times to be removed but I still receive it. I finally gave up and set up a filter to dump it directly into my trash, which is exactly where it belongs.

    Posted by jg  on  04/07  at  09:09 AM

  4. Fight the POWER!

    Posted by von Krankipantzen  on  04/08  at  12:23 AM

  5. Good to see you standing your ground. It really ticks me off when companies try to push people around. Good on you.

    Posted by Richard Laplante  on  04/08  at  08:07 PM
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