The Gripe
Why is it so difficult to unsubscribe from newsletters and vendor emails?
Sometimes you follow the link, hit the unsubscribe button, and then told it will take two business weeks!
Other times you follow the link, and are presented with 17 check boxes — and no unsubscribe all button 🤬
It’s hard to imagine why this MBA program believes having 17 different subscriptions makes sense.
Needless to say, I never applied to this school.
The Solution
All newsletters and subscribed to emails must (according to me) include one-click unsubscribe. It’s the least you can do in the 2020s.
On a serious note, depending on where you live there me be regulatory enforcement of bulk email and how subscribers can opt-out.
CAN-SPAM
Direct copy from FTC site.
Tell recipients how to opt out of receiving future email from you. Your message must include a clear and conspicuous explanation of how the recipient can opt out of getting email from you in the future. Craft the notice in a way that’s easy for an ordinary person to recognize, read, and understand. Creative use of type size, color, and location can improve clarity. Give a return email address or another easy Internet-based way to allow people to communicate their choice to you. You may create a menu to allow a recipient to opt out of certain types of messages, but you must include the option to stop all commercial messages from you. Make sure your spam filter doesn’t block these opt-out requests.
Honor opt-out requests promptly. Any opt-out mechanism you offer must be able to process opt-out requests for at least 30 days after you send your message. You must honor a recipient’s opt-out request within 10 business days.
Third-party apps
There is an entire cottage industry of services that will unsubscribe you from unwanted (or all) newsletters. It’s crazy - it’s like counter-measures and counter-counter-measures and it never ends.
I listed two of them in references but I have not tried either of them. So beware before using.
References
Federal Trade Commission (FTC) - CAN-SPAM ACT: A COMPLIANCE GUIDE FOR BUSINESS