Who are "World of Railways"?

[PLD]

I have received an e-mail from the address <news@email.world-of-railways.co.uk> titled "Who wants a free £40 Gaugemaster Voucher? + £1 off BRM’s April issue" starting "Dear PLD"

 

This is a marketing e-mail pushing various Warners Group Mags and the Ally Pally show. I regard this as unsolicited SPAM. Given it is addressed to my forum user name I can only assume that "World of Railways" have obtained my e-mail from the forum database. When I signed up for RMWeb I specifically selected the option (as I always do) to NOT receive any form of marketing information.

 

Furthermore, after a previous spate of e-mails pushing "Buy & Sell" and after getting no reply from forum staff when I reported it to them, I wrote to Warners Head office and got a very nice apology from someone (I can't remember the name) high up in the Warners organisation, with an assurance that my details would be removed from their marketing database and the messages did indeed stop.

 

It is therefore disappointing that it appears that details have again been shared from the forum database.

 

Has anyone else had similar messages? Any thoughts on how to stop them PERMANENTLY other than the drastic action of writing to the Information Commissioners Office?

 

Paul

[Ben Alder]

I have received one as well at 18.00, on an email account that doesn't have my real name on it, but the message is addressed to my actual forename, information that is not included in my profile, but which I often use in topic replying and PMs. It would be interesting to know the provenance of this message.

[Andy Y]

World of Railways (a Warners brand) superseded the Model Railways Live website and the MRL/RMweb email newsletters so some database amalgamation may have been done (this does not relate to RMweb forum information so your comment is erroneous).

 

I will flag this up to the office tomorrow morning but as we're setting up for Ally Pally tomorrow you may not receive a reply immediately.

[Colin_McLeod]

You're going to the office on St Patrick's day????

[Andy Y]

We've not got so far as having a national holiday for drinking.

 

Splendid idea though.

[PLD]

Thanks Andy,

 

I haven't knowingly signed up for any MRL/RMweb newsletter as far as I can recall, and it seems odd it is addressed to my Forum username, hence the assumption that information was lifted from the forum, however if 'Ben's was addressed to another name (his real name), it does point to a combining of databases as you say, but missing some opt-out flags and the like...

 

Paul

[F-UnitMad]

I had that email - haven't looked at it yet. I used to get the Model Rail Live emails too but I think I did sign up for them, so it's no biggie.

First thought on seeing the email title,though, was that if I wanted to save £40 at Gaugemaster I'd do it easily enough by shopping elsewhere...

[Kenton]

I'm a tiny bit jealous. Where is my free £40 Gaugemaster Voucher?

[Talltim]

I'm a tiny bit jealous. Where is my free £40 Gaugemaster Voucher?

Yeah, I've got a pre-order in with them...

[Allegheny1600]

I'm a tiny bit jealous. Where is my free £40 Gaugemaster Voucher?

You have to subscribe to BRM at Ally Pally, that's the condition!

No objection to BRM but as Fnut (Whoops, sorry! F-UnitMad!) says, there are cheaper places anyway.

 

Edit: Stupidity!

[Andy Y]

I will flag this up to the office tomorrow morning but as we're setting up for Ally Pally tomorrow you may not receive a reply immediately.

 

A response from our Head of Online Development.

 

 

 

I can 100% tell you that we never send unsolicited email, all email communication sent by WGP is 100% opted in to by the user themselves.  Every single piece of email marketing contains an unsubscribe link and the user can click that at any time to stop receiving email from us.  All emails we send also include an email link to webhelp (my team) and subs so if in doubt a user can email us straight away

 

 

 

 

As can be proven by the registration form I've forwarded to the OP he registered in May 2012 and opted in to to receive emails/newsletters relating to RMweb content, 37 have been sent and 9 opened. The recipient details used on the email are those as entered by the OP and are not linked to his RMweb registration in any way.

[davefrk]

'World of Railways'.... Sounds like one of those books one gets from great aunt Matilda for Christmas cause she heard you were into trains....

 

Dave Franks.

[black and decker boy]

'World of Railways'.... Sounds like one of those books one gets from great aunt Matilda for Christmas cause she heard you were into trains....

 

Dave Franks.

Or at the moment "world of flying scotsman", an interest in trains can only include one engine it appears. bewilderment when you explain blue sulzers are the apple of your eye not some apple green kettle on wheels.

[sp1]

Or at the moment "world of flying scotsman", an interest in trains can only include one engine it appears. bewilderment when you explain blue sulzers are the apple of your eye not some apple green kettle on wheels.

But it's not apple green is it......

[Colin_McLeod]

The apple green is a good undercoat for the proper green

 

Ducks for cover

[DIW]

I also received the email, which I assumed to be another BRM message for which I had previously subscribed. Since neither travelling to a crowded venue, nor subscribing monetarily at that venue to a magazine which doesn't cater to my personal model railway tastes, nor a voucher for Gaugemaster tempt me I deleted the message.

 

When I read the statement which Andy Y was kind enough to offer;

 

A response from our Head of Online Development.

 

 

As can be proven by the registration form I've forwarded to the OP he registered in May 2012 and opted in to to receive emails/newsletters relating to RMweb content, 37 have been sent and 9 opened. The recipient details used on the email are those as entered by the OP and are not linked to his RMweb registration in any way.

 

I determined that an organisation which would dig back to a nearly 4 year old missed tick/untick box, and was able to see how many messages had been read of those sent is not one whose messages I wish to receive any more. I dug the message out of the delete file and unsubscribed from further BRM messages. It is clear that the OP is upset, or concerned, or simply annoyed at receiving the message, and the "we're telling you so" attitude of the Head of Online Development is not something which is going to help the situation.

 

Dave

[Andy Y]

 

I determined that an organisation which would dig back to a nearly 4 year old missed tick/untick box, and was able to see how many messages had been read of those sent is not one whose messages I wish to receive any more.

 

Welcome to the 21st century, any large commercial organisation you subscribe to emails from will use software which will be able to deliver such reports. In this case it was handy that such records were accessible when we were being painted as generating unsolicited spam and the forum database was being used inappropriately.

[Ian J.]

I think one problem is that in this modern age we live in it's very easy to forget exactly which forms you've filled in, and whether you opted in or out of any communication. I know I have on very infrequent occasion opted in to (or not opted out of) stuff, but could I tell you for what organisation I had done that? No. So if I do receive a communique, I'll check it carefully, make sure it's from an organisation I have at least had dealings with in some manner, then after giving benefit of doubt, unsubscribe myself.

 

[rant]

The exception is Linked In, who I occasionally get invites for, but that's coming from other Linked In users, not Linked In themselves. I always reject them and unsubscribe because I d*amn well know that if someone else has my email address to give to Linked In, they can d*mn well use it to contact me directly and not keep trying to get me to join sh*tty social networks that I want nothing to do with.

[/rant]

[Kenton]

All joking asside, I'm not sure what the OP's problem really is here. I have a bigger issue with any company tracking me across the web, am pretty confident that emails sent to me (spam or official) can be identified as read. Remembering that received by server does not mean received by client, and certainly does not mean read by intended target.

 

Sure I can place javascript, html, and images in an email to help me identify that but no email gets to me without removal of these at the server level.

 

As is the case here it seems there should have been a link in the email to unsubscribe. So why not simply do that. If the emails then continue (or as in some cases, unsubscribe goes to some unworking page) then take up the complaint directly with the company.

 

There are other options - indicate to your email client that emails from the offending source are junk mail, or blacklist them. Then only then is the time to lamblast on a public forum.

 

I have had hundreds of email accounts (it helps having control of your own mailservers) and because I sign up for all sorts of forums/services over the years, I have emails taylored to each forum/contact type. Often a good way to "sign up" is to use an anonymous email and then to change it.