for quite some time I'm trying now to contact mlb.com. they send me so called "newsletters" and unsolicited commercial email. why? well, some years back i ordered tickets for a met's game in nyc via the internet. never heard anything from them, until they startet to send me email i don't want.

well, nice guy as i am, i tried to contact them. via email, of course. quite nicely, i asked them multiple times to stop sending me emails. but they neither answer nor respect my whish.

you might ask: why's this guy not simply clicking on the "unsubscribe" link in such emails? my answer is as simple: because i did not ask them to send me email i do not have to tell them "i do not want it". think about it! the logic of this -and lots of other companies- is to just break your door and push in instead of knocking and asking politely if they might come in to present some services. another reason is, that i would have to click on some third party website i do not even know (and, to be honest, i do not want to know them - nor do i want them to have my data for whatever purpose; for me this means that my data is not save at mlb.com, because they share it without asking me for permission)

so. eventually, i tried to contact the following email-addresses of mlb.com:
feedback@webmail.mlb.com, privacy@web.mlb.com, legal@website.mlb.com. All of these email addresses are publicly available, either on their website or as sender of said unwanted email.
and all my sent emails went through and were accepted by their servers; one example:

Apr 19 23:48:24 ghost postfix/smtp[4314]: 9E20539C007: to=,
relay=website.mlb.com.inbound15.mxlogic.net[208.65.144.11], delay=4, status=sent 
(250 Backend Replied [7a3e7264.2512280496.89123.00-022.p02c11m061.mxlogic.net]: 
ok 1177019304 qp 15835 (Mode: normal))

looks perfect to me. as stated above, none of my emails was answered. hence, i'm trying something new now. i'm putting some of my emails online here on my blog and will post the link to my blog on their contact form. reason for this is: their contact form does not allow such lengthy messages (as e.g. their own newsletter...). for me this is another example of measures designed to prevent customer contact.

ok, mlb.com, whoever you are, here are some of my emails to yo:

Dear Sirs:
I kindly ask you to close my "account" with mlb.com and delete all data
you have on file about me. I also do not wish to receive your newsletter
anymore.
Please also ensure that my data is also deleted at any third parties you
provided my data to (e.g. on32.com).
Kindly confirm this to me via mail.
Thank you very much.
Yours sincerely
 Jens Gecius

"MLB.com" 
Date:    Thu, March 29, 2007 07:46
To:      jens@gecius.de
--------------------------------------------------------------------------
MLB.com INSIDER || March 29, 2007
==========================================================
IN THIS EDITION:
 - TOP NEWS
 - XM Radio Sweepstakes
 - NEWS & FEATURES
 - TRIVIA
 - PHOTO GALLERIES
 - Mobile Dashboard - NEW!
----------------------------------------
FORWARD THIS MESSAGE TO A FRIEND!
http://clicks.on32.com/cts/click?q=2;8406;P6EfKY5XC3Gj7y2dxgUyHQ%3D%3D
---------------------------------------------------------
-                          NEWS
----------------------------------------------------------
<<>lots of stuff delete for readability reasons<>>
===========================================================
Please review our privacy policy:
http://clicks.on32.com/cts/click?q=2;8406;r3SuXjfZwGxgbwsfNUYuqGNPrR23qfd6
All Major League Baseball trademarks and service marks used
herein are the property of the applicable MLB entity. All
other marks used herein are trademarks or registered
trademarks of their respective owners.
You received this message because you registered to receive
commercial e-mail messages from MLB.com. If you no longer
wish to receive commercial e-mail messages from MLB.com,
please unsubscribe:
http://clicks.on32.com/cts/click?q=2;8406;qYhFbRlJvavW8p0MGyUEu8D2F118zLI6
(c) 2007 MLB Advanced Media, L.P. All rights reserved.
Postal Address:
MLB.com c/o MLB Advanced Media, L.P.
75 Ninth Avenue, 5th Floor, New York, NY 10011 USA
!DSPAM:1,460b52c221461030411871!

want some more? here we go:

Dear Ladies and Gentlemen:
I would kindly like to ask you to obey my request NOT to sent me any mails.
Further, please delete ALL data you collected about myself and ensure that 
any third party you provided my data to (e.g. on32.com, 
see below) deletes such data as well.
For you information, I ONCE bought tickets for a Mets game online, but 
actually never agreed to get any commercial mails. 
Further, this mail is to be read as an OPT-OUT 
of any of your newsletter programmes.
For your reference of my first request I attached my email dated
March 29, 2007.
I would have expected a major operation, such as MLB.com, to respect 
its customers rights and requests right away. Non-answering and 
-respecting normal customers requests as mine could lead 
to reputational risk by having such behaviour publizied.
I kindly ask you to get a short email confirming deletion of all my data 
(incl. third parties).
Thank you very much.
yours sincerely
 Jens Gecius


From: jens@gecius.de
To: privacy@website.mlb.com
Subject: [Fwd: Are you ready for Opening Day?]
Date: Thu, 29 Mar 2007 20:12:15 +0200 (CEST)

<<>email content see above<>>

oh, not even money - as in "makes the world go round" - makes them move. now i think it's time to get some money for my effort to dispose their so called newsletters, because i do not want them, never agreed to receiving them and having spent great effort to contact them to clear out the situation.

Von: 	Jens Gecius 
An: 	mets.com Shop , privacy@web.mlb.com
Betreff: 	Re: A fitting tribute to #42
Datum: 	Tue, 17 Apr 2007 18:25:48 +0200
Dear Sirs:
please be advised that due to your continous disrespect of my multiple
requests to stop such commercial mailings by mlb.com I will charge a
HANDLING FEE
of 
USD 50,00
for each further occurance of any such commercial mailing by mlb.com as
defined below.
Payment has to be made to my paypal account "jens@gecius.de" within 8
days of my notification of due payments.
If you have any further questions, please do not hesitate to contact me
via mail at jens@gecius.de
Yours sincerely
 Jens Gecius

DEFINITION:
"commercial mailing by mlb.com" means any automatically sent email from
within the domain of mlb.com or any other domain showing any mlb.com
domain as sender (e.g. on32.com). This especially encloses commercial
offerings (MLB shop or MLB team's shops) and so called newsletters
(commercial or non-commercial, MLB newsletter as well as MLB team's
newsletters).
Am Dienstag, den 17.04.2007, 06:07 -0400 schrieb mets.com Shop:
> || mets.com Shop || The Official Online Shop of the New York Mets
> ...........................................................
> 
> Commemorate the 60th anniversary of a true legend.
>
<<>rest of mail deleted for readability reasons<>> 

now. mlb.com, if you're still with me down here, could you just kindly close my account and delete my data?

meanwhile, i got another three so called newsletters from mlb.com. that would then mean that they owe me USD 150, right? well, i would even waive this handling fee, if it just stops...

of course, i will post an update to this story on what will happen.