EE marketing texts won't stop even when I text 'stop' to 2040

[mikekatell]

I've been texting "STOP" to 2040 since December and the marketing texts keep coming. What else can I do to get them to stop? I've tried at least 10 times - each time getting a reply saying "Thanks for your reply. We'll remove you from all future EE text message campaigns..." but they just keep coming. They say it may take up to 30 days, but I've been doing this and getting the same reply since December 2023, if not earlier. 

[Northerner]

Hi @mikekatell 

Are you sure these messages are from EE. 

Have you changed your preferences as detailed here: 

https://store.ee.co.uk/help/managing-your-account/how-do-i-remove-myself-from-your-mailing-lists

Thanks 

[mikekatell]

These are definitely messages from EE. I followed that link which required a new registration on the 'store' site (already registered on the main site, so that was weird) and I updated my communications preferences but there was no preference option to opt our of marketing messages by SMS. The messages I receive are def from EE. They say things like "Hi from EE. We're added our free Business Caller ID feature to your plan. This means if a business is listed with this service, you'll see their name...." and "Hi from EE. As you have a Spend Cap, we've now barred some chargeable services..."

[NoMarketing]

I don’t think you’re doing anything wrong. I signed up for a new account stating I didn’t want marketing communication, which has been ignored. So far I have received two unsolicited text marketing messages, and both times I have replied STOP to 2040 as instructed. In both cases I get an immediate w message back saying it will take 30 days to stop the messages.

This is just a cynical ploy to ignore your wishes and force marketing onto you. You already paid for the service at this point, so what are you going to do about it. I work as a dev, this delay is entirely based on company policy. If they cared in the slightest about your desires they could stop the marketing messages immediately, but they have calculated that by the time you’re at the end of whatever contact / pay as you go service, the messages will stop any you’ll forget that they’ve been abusing your choice for a month.

This conversation will make no difference because it requires a login, so we’re basically urinating into the wind. For fun, I will follow this thread and post my comment to Reddit in a month, then follow it up on Reddit with a public discussion about it.

I suspect the information commissioner may take a dim view of EE abusing my personal information when I have asked them to stop. For reference, a request under GDPR for erasure must be performed in one month, which is removing all personally identifying data from all systems including backup. I help to write the software that removes customer data from our systems at my workplace. It wasn’t difficult and can be done by the press of a button on our internal systems once a request is received. It takes about 5 minutes.

EE taking 30 days to change a single flag on your account is ridiculous. The only way it’ll change is by shaming them publicly..

[NoMarketing]

While on the subject of unwanted marketing, I hope everyone is aware of The Telephone Preference Service, and the Mailing Preference Service?

https://www.tpsonline.org.uk/

https://www.mpsonline.org.uk/

Sign up to these to indicate you do not give consent for unsolicited communications. Be warned, however, that if you ever tick or untick a box that says something like, “allow … to share your information with our trusted third parties”, you are giving them permission to override your wishes, and will have to play whack-a-mole with each new company that uses that consent to contact, asking each one individually to remove you from their marketing database.

The trusted 3rd party here is typically a Santa broker that will combine your data with anything else from the usual suspects like social media sites and search engine companies. That data will be sold to absolutely any dodgy 3rd party willing to pay for the data.

[NoMarketing]

Should say data broker, not Santa. That would be better though

[himpantsou]

I texted the word stop and 20p was deducted from my pay as you go balance. Why am I being charged for removing myself from these marketing messages??

[Linzi_H]

Hi @himpantsou 

One of of Guides will be able to double check this if you contact us directly.

We can also ensure your marketing preferences are set the way you want them to be.

Thanks so much,

Linzi 

[chrcolk]

I have just reported EE to Ofcom, sadly they probably wont do anything, I advise others to do the same though as it is a numbers game.

I have been getting this marketing spam on and off for months, if I text STOP to 2040, it says it needs 30 days which is dodgy in itself, they dont need 30 days to update a flag on a database.

There also isnt anything I can see on the website which lets you control marketing preferences, if you need to contact support, thats clearly anti consumer behaviour.

But even when this is done it just carries on anyway, and its getting beyond the micky at this point, 4 text and emails combined in one day, 8 for the week.

No I dont want your VDSL when I have FTTP, and am not interested in a new tablet or phone.

Also this link isnt valid.  Looks out of date.  There is no "my account" section to click on, no communication preferences to click on either.

https://store.ee.co.uk/help/managing-your-account/how-do-i-remove-myself-from-your-mailing-lists