For those DIYers who buy from Screwfix:

You might like to be aware of their spam policy, which I have found out to
my cost. I am intending to issue legal action for recovery of my invoice
amount.


After the first spam incident, I wrote to them pointing out that I had not
authorised their sending of junkmail and that although no charge would be
made this time, any future use (by them) of my storage would be charged out
at £50 plus VAT per incident. Then they spammed me again which is why I
issued an invoice. Subsequently I have been chasing payment.......


I received the following letter:

3 December 2003

I write following your telephone calls chasing the payment of your
speculative invoice. Although we are not obliged at all to your invoice,
statement of account or telephone calls, given your persistence with this
matter, I am writing to finally confirm that we will not be making any
payment to you.

There has been no breach by us of any legislation in force at the time that
the marketing emails were sent and you are now suppressed on our database so
no further marketing emails will be sent to you.

Although we are under a duty to to process "opt-out" requests reasonably
promptly, we are not required to immediately suppress a customer's email
details, and indeed it would be unreasonable to be so required.. As we use
a third party mailing house to deal with our email marketing campaigns,
there naturally will be some emails which are sent during the period between
the opt-out request being received by us and it being processed.

I gather that you have mentioned the new legislation which comes into force
on 11 December 2003 although I am puzzled how this will bolster your case
given that it is not retrospective. Even once the new legislation is in
force, we will continue to send email marketing to our customers without
their explicit prior consent ('opt-in'). The new regime allows us to send
marketing emails which relate to the same or similar products to those
purchased (i.e. in the case of Screfix Direct, our entire range) so long as
we offer a no-cost opportunity to 'opt-out' from receiving future
e-mailings. In any event the new legislation relates only to personal (not
business) email addresses, and your business' email address would therefore not be afforded the new protection.

I trust that this now puts an end to this matter, and would request that you
cease from any further chasing for payment of your invoice. However, you
are, of course free to seek legal advice regarding your complaint and if you
feel minded to issue legal proceedings, as you have threatened, please
ensure they are served on us at our registered office address below, marked
for my attention.

Yours sincerely

Richard MacNamara
Company Secretary

HO reception +44 1935 414100




I am committed to the Boulder Pledge, which states that I will not buy
anything from a spammer. Sad really, because they have a good
range.

--
AJL Electronics (G6FGO) Ltd : Satellite and TV aerial systems
http://www.classicmicrocars.co.uk : http://www.ajlelectronics.co.uk