Dick Smith database, web store sold to Kogan

Australian online retailer Kogan has announced it's going to buy the online properties of the failed Dick Smith Electronics, chiefly because it reckons the brand retains enough recognition to make it worth the effort. Well: there's also the matter of a customer database, and here, the story gets interesting, because users were …

[LINCARD1000]

Opted out as soon as I got the email this morning, but it's actually kinda nice (if a little surprising) to see that the receivers are acting in such a responsible manner with regards to privacy of customer records and the like. Good on 'em - you don't see many such actions these days.

[Sway]

Or you just confirmed to them that your email address/details are still active.

Kinda like unsubscribing from a spam email.

[Phil Kingston]

The opt-out page requires re-entry of first and last names and email address. Sloppy. Either they can't handle mail unsubscriptions nicely, or perhaps they're just harvesting valid details.

Plus the email I got was sent to an email address I haven't given out in several years.

Self-promotion under the guise of privacy protection is a bit sly. If they even thought such a mail-out was sensible, it should have been opt-in.

[kiwi8mail]

An odd way to go about things...

I had the same experience of Phil Kingston - users wanting to opt out need to enter information into four separate fields on four separate screens - in sequence: first name, last name, email address, and confirm email address.

It seemed needlessly complicated when a single personalised opt-out link could have been provided in the email body. The fact that they make opting-out so unnecessarily long-winded intrigues me.

[Anonymous Coward]

Kogan!

I subscribe to nothing!

[JJKing]

Kogan "spam"

Suggest the online Dick Smith people unsubscribe NOW or your Inbox will be inundated with Kogan averts. They really are shocking with the torrent of "spam" they send. Have to unsubscribe (or delete email address) after each purchase from them.

[Mark Exclamation]

I unsubscribed from the DSE daily email several weeks ago as it was the same crap every day, just re-arranged a little.

Kogan is a great online store, and I have a lot of respect for its founder, although I feel he has wasted his money buying anything to do with the DSE brand. The administrators killed any remaining goodwill in the company when they refused to honour gift cards which had been purchased in good faith.