'How do I get you to stop sending me emails?': IT director receives nonstop sales emails from digital software company, maliciously complies to get them to stop contacting him

Author image for Ben Weiss
Ben Weiss • Writer and Editor
Oct 18, 2023 2:00 PM EDT

We all know what it's like to be bombarded with nonstop emails with seemingly no end in sight. This IT director was looking for a digital signage company to partner with and tested out one company's software using their free trial. He ultimately went with another company, but unfortunately, this meant that he would be spammed with email after email for the foreseeable future. 

Now, before he resorted to malicious compliance, he tried just about everything else. He tried unsubscribing. No change. He tried emailing just about any human from the company he could get in touch with. No chance. He even managed to get his hands on a hard-to-uncover phone number to try to stop the emails. No change. Finally, he decided to set up a meeting with these guys to make it seem like he was still considering a partnership. Of course, all of a sudden, he started getting actual responses and a request for a Zoom Call. 

When that Zoom Call finally happened, the Redditor had one question for these folks: "How do I get you to stop sending me emails?" You can just imagine their responses, but keep scrolling below for the full story in the Redditor's own words and to learn how he finally got the emails to cease. For more tales of malicious compliance, check out this post about a neighbor's property dispute.

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  • 01
    Property - "You want a meeting????? Fine." V O fn ctri 1 a - A a W 2 ܠܐ S S 1 x D cmd 36 C V
    via Compare Fibre
  • 02
    Font - You want a meeting????? Fine м ос I was looking for a digital signage company for work and with one of the companies, the only way to get information was to create an account, which I did. I played with their demo and talked to the sales department and came to the conclusion they weren't a good fit based on their offering, and the fact the marked up their media playing device 2x while telling me there wasn't any discount for 20 because they sell them at cost. (When you can look up the ret
    via u/PhantomFather88
  • 03
    Font - In any case, I went with a different company (very happy with by the way). I closed my account, unsubscribed and told them I'm not interested. But every 2 or 3 weeks, I'd get an email from sales telling me about the product and wanting to setup a zoom call to discuss my project. I'd reply stop and click on the unsubscribe button at the bottom of their emails. But they still kept coming. I composed a separate email directly to the sender telling them I'm no longer interested and to remove
    via u/PhantomFather88
  • 04
    Font - Calling their very hard to find main number would only bring me to an answering service which promised to pass along my complaint. A couple times I even got a response promising me they'd take care of it... and yet....
    via u/PhantomFather88
  • 05
    Font - Filing a complaint with whatever government agency is supposed to help with this kind of spamming doesn't do anything. After spending 20 minutes filling out their forms, it basically reads "no direct action will happen because of this complaint, but if we receive a substantial amount, we MIGHT look into it". But on the rare occasions I did speak to a live person for the company, I'd give them the filing number and told them I've asked multiple times to be removed.
    via u/PhantomFather88
  • 06
    Font - So after all that I resorted to my basic strategy, which if you've read my other posts you already know whats coming. I received another email from sales with the usual link to request more information. So I clicked it. I filled out the form with the exact same information they already had. I answered their questions about how many displays, 100+ was the maximum so I chose that. Project timeline: immediate. Decision maker: ME!, etc...
    via u/PhantomFather88
  • 07
    Font - I received a response within minutes wanting to setup a zoom meeting with their sales team to discuss my project and what they could do to help and answer any questions I had. I accepted their offer and setup the meeting. Mind you this is the same exact email I was sending my unsubscribe requests to.
    via u/PhantomFather88
  • 08
    Font - So the meeting finally came and it since it was a zoom meeting I got to see their faces. I let them introduce themselves, ask my role in the company (IT Dir), go through their sales pitches, company history, etc... When they finally got around to asking me what questions I had I said "how do I get you to stop sending me emails?"
    via u/PhantomFather88
  • 09
    Font - The look of confusion on their face was priceless, along with the stuttering and squirming as I explained my history of trying to get them to stop sending me sales emails. After which they promised to get me removed, which I'd heard before. So I warned them that I would do this same thing to every single email I receive... and if you stop falling for it with my current email, I will use different emails just to cause you more pain. Amazingly, I haven't received one email since that day. I
    via u/PhantomFather88
  • 10
    Font - New-Height5258 - 12 hr. ago Phenomenal work! Well deserved on their part. Some sales people can be so....... Yeah.
    via u/PhantomFather88
  • 11
    Font - ACpony12 12 hr. ago I don't get how they think spamming you constantly when you clearly don't want their business would help them. If anything it'll hurt them if word got out about who they are and how they handle business will deter future clients.
    via u/PhantomFather88
  • 12
    Font - --RedDawg--- 10 hr. ago Typically I just create a transport rule that takes anything from their domain (or marketing domain if they've broken them up) and forwards it to everyone on linked in I can find that works at the company. Whether they resolve it or not, I never see an email from them again.
    via u/PhantomFather88
  • 13
    Font - He PhantomFather88 OP. 10 hr. ago Always good too, but in this case I was determined to beat them head on. In another case we used to get sales calls from a company over and over and wouldn't take no for an answer. Since I control our PBX, I had any calls coming from their company auto routed to a recording that said "thank you for calling <company>, please hold" and then put them into an infinite queue that had no agents assigned to it and some obnoxious hold music. Harder to do now that
    via u/PhantomFather88
  • 14
    Font - timegoesbytoofast. 10 hr. ago Don't you love the ones that say.. "did you read my last email?" Nope. Not gonna finish this one either. I also don't want to "jump on a call..."
    via u/PhantomFather88
  • 15
    Font - Captain Punisher . 8 hr. ago Another fun thing to do is to simply set up auto forwarding on your email account by sender, so that any email from their domain name will go back to them. This is even better if you can find their corporate structure and add in those people to receive their own emails through you.
    via u/PhantomFather88
  • 16
    Font - CoderJoe1 11 hr. ago Next meeting has to be at three in the morning because you're out of the country. Oops
    via u/PhantomFather88
  • 17
    Font - lazaruz76 6 hr. ago I get similar e-mails once in a while, I just report it as a phishing attempt and be done with it. I do this with all unsolicited, external e-mails. For context, I work in a warehouse processing part returns, have no influence on what the company buys, and never use my company e-mail for external matters, (internal matters only).
    via u/PhantomFather88
  • 18
    Font - debouwvakker. 2 hr. ago Great work, great technique. I had a phone call today kind of in the same league. As many of you might know, when you are a business owner your phone number is plastered all over government websites. This means that you will regularly receive unwarranted and sometimes even plain irritating sales pitches for this or that product or service. Today was such a day.
    via u/PhantomFather88
  • 19
    Font - There was a call while I was driving to the place I was having a meeting, so I had time on my hands. It was an unknown number, which I always respond to with a jolly good [part of the day] and just my given name. The other person on the line does not respond for at least 5 to 10 seconds and all I hear is muted background murmurings. After the initial wait this person introduces himself quite formally and I think I recognize it as the same company that has been calling me, emailing me and
    via u/PhantomFather88
  • 20
    Font - First off I try to warn the guy. I'm not interested in a sales pitch, so if this is your goal please save us both the time and try your luck somewhere else.
    via u/PhantomFather88
  • 21
    Font - I was once a customer of this company and now, and probably into perpetuity, they will stalk me to become their customer again. I left that service because their customer service was appallingly bad.
    via u/PhantomFather88
  • 22
    Font - So mr caller steams full ahead and launches right into his sales pitch, going blabla good company blabla new prices, especially good deals today. And after a solid 2 or 3 minutes asks why I am not a customer anymore. Before I can answer any of this he interjects and says it was probably the price that made me switch, or a nice deal from a competitor, or that their service was not high end enough. Well now, he says, now everything is better.
    via u/PhantomFather88
  • 23
    Font - After I have remained silent since having greeted him with a jolly good morning I tell him, well, its because your customer service is really, really bad. I had a problem at one point, you were hard to reach and when I tried to explain the problem nobody listened to what I had tried myself already.
    via u/PhantomFather88
  • 24
    Font - Ouch he says, this really hearts me sir he says (I was talking colloquially, but he kept a very formal tone). Our company strives for excellence, blabla. Another whole minute of him talking about everything the company does for their customers. And at the end he asks, so can I get you to at least agree with me to a meeting where we can go over the details, or I will feel really bad we cannot get you onboard.
    via u/PhantomFather88
  • 25
    Font - I told him I thought his voice sounded strong enough that I am sure he will get over it. He laughed and said that's fair and wished me a great day and hung up.
    via u/PhantomFather88
  • 26
    Font - TL;DR, after reading this story today and having had this call, the next time this company calls me I am definitely setting up a meeting to see if I can get them off my back.
    via u/PhantomFather88

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salesman work from home zoom malicious compliance malicious-compliance-reddit petty revenge emails sales reddit thread spam Reddit funny
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