MainSleaze

Godiva, legendary U.S. maker of fine chocolates, is leaving a very bad taste in my mouth because they do not respect customer opt-out from marketing emails. :/ I occasionally order from Godiva, usually to send a birthday or thank-you present to somebody. I have an account, with a tagged email address. When created, that account was opted out of all marketing emails whatsoever, as I almost always do. This time, because of previous issues with being re-added to Godiva’s marketing email list after placing an order, I phoned in the order. When giving it, I *explicitly* told the sales rep to ensure that my email address did not get added to any lists. Although Godiva sends transactional emails from their own IPs, marketing emails are sent via Acxiom Digital.

This time, after Godiva re-added me for the third time to their list, I phoned them instead of opting out via the opt-out link. I explained the issue to the sales rep and insisted that she remove my email address from all lists manually. The sales rep was blandly apologetic, in the tone of voice that tells you that they assume you are being unreasonable and just want to get you off the phone. However, she did say that she had opted my email address out of all marketing emails.

This is beyond frustrating. How a luxury goods company can be so clueless about good customer relations that they would do this is beyond me. 🙁 I’m at the point of declining to give them any more business despite having friends who love their chocolates.

Ironically, this morning I received yet another email from Godiva noting that I had called customer service and asking me to fill out a survey about my experience. <wry grin> Well, here’s my answer.

Sending IP: 209.11.164.74

Spam Sample:

Actual Headers:

Received: from mh.godiva.m0.net (mh.godiva.m0.net [209.11.164.74])
        by <xxx> (Postfix) with ESMTP id <xxx>
        for <xxx>; Thu, 14 Jun 2012 19:xx:xx -0000 (UT)
DKIM-Signature: <xxx>
DomainKey-Signature: <xxx>
Received: from [192.168.xx.xx] ([192.168.xx.xx:xx] helo=<xxx>)
        by <xxx> (envelope-from <godiva@rewards.godiva.com>)
        (ecelerity 3.3.2.44647 r(44647)) with ESMTP
        id <xxx>; Thu, 14 Jun 2012 12:xx:xx -0700
Date: Thu, 14 Jun 2012 12:xx:xx -0700 (PDT)
From: Godiva Rewards <godiva@rewards.godiva.com>
Reply-to: godiva@rewards.godiva.com
To: <xxx>
Message-ID: <xxx>
Subject: Welcome to the Godiva Chocolate Rewards Club!
Errors-to: godiva@rewards.godiva.com
MIME-Version: 1.0
Content-Type: multipart/alternative; boundary="<xxx>"
X-eid: <xxx>
X-pid: <xxx>
List-Unsubscribe: <mailto:godiva@rewards.godiva.com?subject=unsubscribe%20<xxx>>

Readable Email:

From: Godiva Rewards <godiva@rewards.godiva.com>
To: <spamtrap>
Subject: Welcome to the Godiva Chocolate Rewards Club!
Reply-To: godiva@rewards.godiva.com

*****************************************************************

Welcome to the Rewards Club. Complete your enrollment! Details Below.
http://godiva.r.delivery.net/<xxx>

*****************************************************************

Welcome to the
GODIVA Chocolate Rewards Club

Your registration profile is complete.

Sign in now and view all of your available rewards:

<removed>

Godiva Chocolatier is contacting you because you have requested to receive updates about new products, events, special offers and promotions.

To ensure delivery of Godiva emails to your inbox, please add godiva@email.godiva.com to your Address Book or Safe Senders list.

View our privacy policy
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Forward to a Friend
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(C) 2012 Godiva Chocolatier, Inc. Customer Care, 139 Mill Rock Road East, Suite 2, Old Saybrook, CT 06475. All rights reserved.

godiva.com | 1-800-9GODIVA | letters@godiva.com
http://godiva.r.delivery.net/<xxx>