1-800-Pet-Meds bills itself as “America’s Largest Pet Pharmacy”. And you might expect them to have good privacy policies, too, right?

You’d be wrong.

First off, they seem to have a problem with unsubscribing people from their lists. There’s an article that came across my desk today (courtesy of Google’s news alerts) from The Consumerist:

Saturday, she checks her e-mail again, and a second message: “Is Mandy dealing with Spring allergies?” Again, my mother broke into tears. I was furious. I clicked unsubscribe to NOT get their e-mails anymore. . . . Sunday, yet ANOTHER e-mail. . . . I called them and spoke with a representative on the phone. She looked up the account information and verified that we were NOT taken off the mailing list. I asked her to do so, and she said it would take 7-10 days to remove us from the mailing list.

When people click “Unsubscribe” they expect to be removed from your list immediately. Yes, CAN-SPAM allows you 10 days to do it, but the expectation is immediate removal. So, it looks like someone’s unsubscribe mechanisms need not just some, but a lot of, work.

And this prompted me to look at their privacy policy. Here’s the section on email:

Your e-mail address and personal information will be used only by 1-800-PetMeds® to notify you of your order status and when it is time to re-order your pet’s medication. Occasionally 1-800-PetMeds® will have promotions or special offers which we feel you may benefit from and we will send you a notice. If for any reason you don’t want to receive 1-800-PetMeds® promotions or special offers, you can e-mail optout@1800petmeds.com or click the Opt-Out link in any e-mail that you may receive from 1-800-PetMeds®. You can also Opt-Out online by using the following URL: http://www.1800petmeds.com/request.jsp and entering your email address.

So, will my email be used only for order status and re-order reminders or will it be used for email marketing too? The word “only” is somewhat exclusive in its meaning. But before the ink is dry on that sentence they promise to send me “special offers” as well. That also needs work.

The lessons here for marketers:

1. Just because you can take 10 business days to unsubscribe someone doesn’t mean that you should take 10 business days to unsubscribe someone.
2. Write a clear policy that says what you’re going to do. Don’t say “only” if you don’t mean “only.”

Someone’s mother got upset by this company’s marketing practices. Now, thanks to the Internet a whole lot of people know about it. They used to say that a happy customer tells a friend about their experience, but an unhappy customer tells 10. Now, the unhappy customer has global, unlimited reach along with amplifiers and repeaters. One person doesn’t tell 10 anymore, they tell 100, and each of those 100 tell another 100, and all with a few keystrokes.

If you’re 1-800-Pet-Meds, that’s potentially a very large problem.