Weiss Research, a large publisher of financial newsletters, is spamming me
The man pictured below is Dr. Martin D. Weiss. He bills himself as ...this country's leading consumer advocate for financial safety. His company, Weiss Research, claims to be one of the largest publishers of (paid) print and electronic financial newsletters in the U.S. Some running as high as $5,000 a year.
Several years ago -- in what I now consider to be one of my weakest moments -- I subscribed to one of his pricey newsletters. In an even weaker moment, I followed his bearish advice -- which unfortunately has cost me literally thousands.
And to the point of this post, now that I no longer want to do business with him or his company, it appears that I can't get off his damn mailing list!
Could he be the poster boy for aggressive direct marketing tactics?
Weiss Research is one of the most aggressive direct marketers I have ever experienced. Once on their customer list, I began receiving tons of e-mail & snail-mail. All with big headlines; All peppered with exclamation points; All with prominent pictures of Dr. Martin D. Weiss; And all filled with -- in my opinion -- overly bearish advice.
Im a big boy and I chose to act on advice when I should have known better. So I have no one to blame but myself for money lost. And as far as I know, Dr. Weiss may be one of the best financial gurus in the world. I dropped the service, so I'll never know.
Opting out
Opting-out of Weiss's mailing list took three online attempts plus one phone call. But persistence pays and the messages finally came to a halt. Or so I thought...
Recently, e-mails from a sender I did not recognize -- Money and Markets -- had begun to arrive on almost a daily basis. I've been trashing these messages unopened.
Yesterday though, out of curiosity, I finally opened one. And wouldn't you know it -- Money and Markets is published by my old buddy Dr. Martin D. Weiss.
Based on my personal experience, I can only conclude that Dr. Weiss has made the choice to disregard AMA's best practices for permission-based marketing. To that I say shame on him.
Heres a link to one of their e-mails. Sign up for even the free e-mail updates at your own risk.
Have you had an experience (good or bad) with Weiss Research or a similar company?
If so, please feel free to add a comment.
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I have read your blog commentary and am dismayed that you have had this experience
As founders of the Financial Publishers Association (FinancialPublishers.org) and as members of the Direct Marketer's Association (DMA.org), we have always sought to abide by the best practices and standards in our industry.
However, thanks in part to your blog comments, our technology group has detected an issue with our opt-out control center, which they are now correcting. If you are aware of any other issues, we welcome your efforts to bring them to our attention.
Sincerely yours,
Martin Weiss
