I swear, you just can’t make this stuff up.
From VistaPrint’s privacy policy:
Deactivation of Your Account. You may also request deactivation of your VistaPrint account by contacting Customer Care at customercare@vistaprint.com or by writing to the address below and requesting account deactivation. Please note that some information may remain in our archived records after your account has been deactivated.
VistaPrint Address for Written Requests. If you choose to indicate your preferences by mail, please be sure to include your exact name, mailing address, telephone number and specific preferences and send your written requests to the following address
VistaPrint Limited
c/o VistaPrint USA Incorporated
Customer Care
95 Hayden Avenue
Lexington MA 02421
USA
So last night (Tuesday the 7th at 6:51pm) I sent this email message to the email address customercare@vistaprint.com (one of the two ways to deactivate my account):
Greetings,
Please deactivate my Vistaprint account. I do not want to get email message from Vistaprint. Or you Partners. Or your Affiliates. I do not want you to continue sharing any of my personal information with Anyone, any other entity. This includes my name, telephone number, email address, and postal mailing address. Thank you for your prompt attention to this matter. Michael
This morning I received a spam sent to my Vistaprint email address. See Vistaprint Still Sucks (pt 2) for details.
I have just received an email from Vistaprint with a time stamp of Wed August 8th at 7:31pm. This message was sent more than 24 hours after I sent my note to them. So they either have a horrible email infrastructure, or this was not an auto-response message, it was sent by a person. Here the message (I added line breaks for legibility):
Dear Valued VistaPrint Customer:
In order to respond to you as quickly as possible, we are sending this automated response to your recent e-mail. At this time VistaPrint only offers customer service by toll-free telephone. We apologize for any inconvenience this may cause.
We invite you to call us toll-free at 1-800-721-6216. Knowledgeable representatives are available to assist you Monday – Friday, from 8 AM to 12 Midnight PM EST.
You can also find answers to many commonly asked questions by visiting our online Help Section at http://www.vistaprint.com/vp/ns/customer_care/help/default.aspx
Thank you for your interest in VistaPrint. We appreciate your business and your patience. We look forward to being of service to you.
Sincerely,
Customer Care
VistaPrint
So, Vistaprint has now put in writing that they do not follow their privacy policy. A privacy policy is a part of the contract that a customer is expected to read and follow when they make a purchase with the company. Is it too much to expect that the customer should expect the company to actually follow their own privacy policy?
A report has been filed with the Federal Trade Commission and the Virginia Dept. of Consumer Affairs only accepts telephone reports, so I’ll call them Thursday morning. The VA DCA web site suggests I also contact the state of the company as well, so I’ll call Massachusetts tomorrow.