Open Letter to Thinkhouse PR - As promised
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Hi everyone in Thinkhouse PR! As promised, here is my formal complaint to the Data Protection Commissioner for being repeatedly spammed by you on behalf of your clients. Just so you know I’ve also, as promised, contacted Three, Imagine and Ben and Jerry’s Ireland and asked them to investigate why I am getting spams about their products from you.
I’m writing to make a formal complaint against Thinkhouse PR for continually sending unsolicited emails to one of my email accounts despite being asked not to. The email account in question is info [at] irelandoffline.org a part-time non-commercial voluntary group.
Enclosed are 5 sets of documents. Thinkhouse contacted info@irelandoffline.org (which is shared with a colleague John Timmons) initially on behalf of their client Imagine who were releasing a new broadband product. We did not ask to be put on further email distributions for Imagine or for anyone else.
Despite this, on Fri August 4th Jane McDonald from Thinkhouse sent an email promoting an initiative from Ben and Jerry’s. (See document No. 2) Ben and Jerry’s are a client of Thinkhouse. My reply to this unsolicited email is at the end of the document.
Jane McDonald replied to this (see document No. 3) and gave the excuse that there was some kind of slip and my email address was put into a personal circular. I would not consider it was a personal mail. Jane seems to suggest that Thinkhouse are aware of spamming laws.
On August 18th Thinkhouse PR sent me another mail, a press release for the mobile phone operator “3�. (See document no. 4. This document is the back and forth communication between myself and Thinkhouse PR.) At the top of the document is a communication from Jane McDonald telling me once again I’m off everyone’s list after I again requested it. Jane also admits to using my email address without permission to add me to their mailing lists.
On August 22nd (see document No. 5) Andrea Horan from Thinkhouse PR again sent me a PR, this time for another of their clients. This one for Moviestar.ie.
I wish for the Data Protection Commissioner to investigate this and carry out a prosecution if needs be. I am willing to travel to Dublin, I am willing to make a written statement and I am willing to testify in Court if the need arises. Thinkhouse PR is contravening the Irish Spam Legislation and it is totally disregarding my repeated requests to stop being sent information. I have also asked for my contact details to be removed from their systems and this has been disregarded too.
Please contact me on receipt of this complaint. Contact details are above.
Regards,
Damien Mulley
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August 23rd, 2006 at 12:14 pm
August 23rd, 2006 at 12:41 pm
Certainly nice to see a stand like that being taken.
August 23rd, 2006 at 12:45 pm
Best of luck. Set your timers. The moguls at the DP comm are slow. Rabbit and hare. Data Subject Access request please??
August 24th, 2006 at 9:06 am
Best of Luck with it Damien! Keep us updated with it!!!
August 25th, 2006 at 7:37 am
Well done! I wish more people would make the effort to fight spam in this way. Unfortunately, in the United States the legal protections are so laughable that it is really impossible. Sigh.
August 25th, 2006 at 1:44 pm
you’re one sad git. You obviously have little else to be doing.
August 26th, 2006 at 1:03 am
what do you do all day mate? nothing obviously - you are just a jealous guy wit who has no idea about what spam really is (spam in when you get emails about dick enlargements!!!! they will laugh at your letter, in fact its brightened up my day, thanks!
August 26th, 2006 at 1:11 am
what an anorak!!
August 26th, 2006 at 4:17 pm
The difference between this and “dick enlargements” is, it’s an Irish company, the mail is not being sent from another country with no spamming laws. Read the origional post and letter to the Data Protection Commissioner, after asking several times to be removed he was not.
also:
“spam (spm) n.
Unsolicited e-mail, often of a commercial nature, sent indiscriminately to multiple mailing lists, individuals, or newsgroups; junk e-mail.” - Dictionary.com
August 28th, 2006 at 12:14 pm
[…] I see Damien is stirring it up again - sticking it to an Irish company (Thinkhouse PR) who spammed him repeatedly despite numerous requests not to. […]
August 28th, 2006 at 5:28 pm
Good man, stick it to them!
September 2nd, 2006 at 7:21 am
I think it is wonderful that Irish direct marketing experts have expanded their daily reading to include elements of the Irish blogging community. And it’s even more inspiring to see they’ve become interactive as well since they’re leaving occasional comments behind when they discover interesting material.
I hope their practise improves as a result.
September 4th, 2006 at 11:55 pm
God, Damien, but yer a powerful bawd humoured little fucker. the wee girl is only tryin to do her job. will ya give her a week break. she probably thought you’d be interested in info re broadband. not know, a course, the type a little shite that you really are. Now, where’s me balaclava and armalite? I need to make a, ahem, withdrawal from the bank … Slawn! Chucky, chucky !!!
September 10th, 2006 at 9:57 pm
[…] Michele did not ask me to write this, everyone knows I’m pissy if asked to pimp something. blacknight blogs hosting ireland irish irishblogs thanks […]
October 23rd, 2006 at 10:39 am
[…] My post about Thinkhouse PR seems to have been blacklisted or banned from Google. Previously I was 3rd in google for the phrase “Thinkhouse pr” and now nothing. Other bloggers who pointed to my post are still there. Kind of odd isn’t it? Is Google censoring me? MSN is not. Still 3rd there. Yahoo is not. Also 3rd there. Will these disappear in time though? […]
October 23rd, 2006 at 11:45 am
[…] Damien’s post on Thinkhouse PR appears to have been removed from the Google index. […]
October 23rd, 2006 at 11:53 am
[…] As Damien’s post is missing from Google I think it’s up to the rest of us to spread the word. […]
October 23rd, 2006 at 12:36 pm
From my vantage point, it appears Google has pulled this post from its index. There’s one way to correct that omission–keep talking about Thinkhouse PR’s business practises until they join the online conversation.
October 23rd, 2006 at 1:34 pm
[…] When an Irish PR Company started sending him Junk Email (Spam), Damien responded by filing a complaint with the Data Protection Commissioner. He then posted the text of his complaint on his website. […]
October 23rd, 2006 at 1:49 pm
[…] Still, it’s worth drawing attention to the lovely Damien Mulley’s complaint to the Data Protection Commissioner about spam from a PR company and events that have followed it. […]
October 23rd, 2006 at 2:32 pm
[…] It appears as if Damien’s post about Thinkhouse PR has been removed from Google’s index. Weird since it still appears in MSN and Yahoo! searches. Hopefully this isn’t a case of Google censoring its results. The following is the full text of his original post: Hi everyone in Thinkhouse PR! As promised, here is my formal complaint to the Data Protection Commissioner for being repeatedly spammed by you on behalf of your clients. Just so you know I’ve also, as promised, contacted Three, Imagine and Ben and Jerry’s Ireland and asked them to investigate why I am getting spams about their products from you. […]
October 23rd, 2006 at 2:50 pm
[…] It appears Damien’s recent post regarding spam from Thinkhouse PR has disappeared from Google. […]
October 23rd, 2006 at 2:57 pm
[…] A while back, Damien Mulley published a letter to the Data Protection Commissioner complaining about Thinkhouse PR (not a pagerank-passing link, in case you’re worried), an outfit which had been spamming him even after he asked it not to. […]
October 23rd, 2006 at 3:04 pm
Damien - You write a letter complaing about Thinkhouse PR on your blog. I didn’t even know who Thinkhouse PR were. Now I’ve googled it and browsed through their site and seen the work they’ve done.
You can call it “Spam”, they’ll call it “Viral Marketing”.
You know why they do it, because it works. You tell me why it does ?
October 23rd, 2006 at 4:56 pm
Of course, Moviestar have their own problems … http://archives.tcm.ie/businesspost/2006/09/10/story17108.asp
October 23rd, 2006 at 5:42 pm
This is amazing, who regulates the internet? Google? Does it too need a police force? This takes the biscuit!
October 23rd, 2006 at 5:43 pm
Brian - you’ve also seen HOW they do their work, though. Realistically, are you likely to hire them?
October 24th, 2006 at 9:56 am
[…] Damien Mulley finds that his excellent letter/coverage of spamming from Thinkhouse PR has mysteriously disappeared from Google. And suggests that reposting the original might not a bad idea. So here it is. They don’t deserve a link but it’s thinkhousepr dot com, if you’re interested. […]
October 24th, 2006 at 3:11 pm
I would not like to be your neighbour. DOG help them.
I think your sort need to be all rounded up and exported down to spike island so you can all live happily together and complain among your selves and send each other complaint mails about the smallest things,
Ever here of spam filters or the old DELETE button.
But I do agree if you request to be removed from a mailing list you should be removed, but your making some song and dance about it.
Back 10 years ago I would have visited you in the small hours of the night and but a bat up your night dress (Faulty Towers).
I do not mind getting the odd mail as I have clicked on many over the years
I have blocked all the penis enlargement etc.
October 25th, 2006 at 10:29 pm
[…] Damian Mulley’s blog Explore posts in the same categories: Blogging […]
October 28th, 2006 at 3:32 am
Are a few strings being pulled in Google?
In a recent blog post by Damien Mulley in regard to his previous post about a PR company named Thinkhouse, it seems the that for some reason googling the term ‘thinkhouse pr’ resulted in his post containing a letter of complaint returning a…
November 10th, 2006 at 3:48 pm
[…] Damien’s article on naughty PR outfit Thinkhouse PR is restored to its former postition, after having vanished out of Google’s index for a couple of weeks. Hmm…. I wonder what happened there? […]
December 3rd, 2006 at 1:44 pm
[…] Going back a couple of months now, but you may recall a small fuss over Damien Mulley’s Thinkhouse PR post disappearing from Google’s SERPS. […]
January 5th, 2007 at 1:10 pm
Nice one Damien! I don’t know where these idiots get off criticising you about your spam complaint. Maybe they’re not being serious. It looks as though most of them are unable to string a coherent sentence together anyway so they should be ignored. Does anyone else get pissed off when they are cold-called by marketing companies advertising cheap phone calls? What’s that? You do? Then you should react exactly the same way to unsolicited emails. Spam filters are unable to deal with marketing emails of the like sent out by ThinkHouse because they don’t have the same characteristics of the blind bulk emailing programs which guess email addresses. This is clearly a case where the recipient address has been acquired somehow (possibly legitimately) and misused although the DC will, at best, send a polite letter to ThinkHouse telling them how naughty they are.
March 21st, 2007 at 10:15 am
Sorry to resurrect an old one but can you tell me what has happened since. Also do thinkhouse pr do all the marketing for their clients? If so then we have something in common because just today I’ve emailed the Data Ombudsman to complain about being spammed by moviestar.ie despite demanding they remove my details several times.
April 9th, 2007 at 7:17 am
Brian - you’ve also seen HOW they do their work, though. Realistically, are you likely to hire them?
August 6th, 2007 at 11:17 pm
Well done Damien! These guys need to learn a lesson regarding listening to their mailing lists… intrusive is the simplest term to describe their carryon -
Shameless spamers!