Monday Greetings For Thinkhouse PR

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.

Open Letter to Thinkhouse PR - As promised

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

Update 1: Blurred Keys has a good list of the blogs that copied Damien’s post.
Update 2: The poor soul from Thinkhouse sent out to defend the company (complete with SLoppy TYpng and spElling, hardly inspiring confidence in PR skills?) said the following in comments (at Eirepreneur regarding the DPC (which is rechristened as the yet-unknown Data Protection Agency) :
22.10.2006 - “They also apologied for having to follow the complaint up.”
23.10.2006 - “I would like to clarify a point. The Data Protection Commissioner’s Office, in response to a complaint made to it about Thinkhouse, did not apologise for having to follow the complaint up.”
Update 3: Damien gets a response from the DPC. Not a great result, but useful nonetheless.