For months, MrConsumer’s email box has been flooded with emails from Groupon.
Groupon sells discount certificates to various restaurants and local service establishments. I usually buy my twice-a-year oil changes through Groupon for my car repair shop. The price unfortunately has crept up, so I did not buy it from them in November for my December servicing.
That did not stop Groupon, or perhaps even encouraged it, to literally deluge me with emails — often multiple emails an hour for oil changes and more.
*MOUSE PRINT:
Here is a list of the emails that Groupon sent to me this past November alone — 209 of them, if you can believe it.
Scroll down the list.
Sometimes they are minutes apart, and up to a dozen a day. And emails from Groupon in December was even worse — 313 in total!
Congress passed the CAN-SPAM law in 2003. Contrary to popular belief, it does not ban unsolicited commercial email (spam) or limit how much an advertiser can send you. What it does is set up various requirements including having to have a simple way for the recipient to opt-out of getting more such emails from that advertiser.
*MOUSE PRINT:
Groupon goes a step further and says they allow you to adjust how often you hear from them.
Great… but there is no such option when you click their link.
*MOUSE PRINT:
I don’t want to opt-out altogether because I want to know of a great deal on oil changes at my repair shop or membership discounts at Costco, but I don’t want minute-to-minute updates.
So, we asked the PR folks at Groupon why they send so many emails a day to customers, and whether they honestly believe that up to a dozen emails a day is appropriate. We also wanted to know what happened to their promised option to reduce the frequency of emails.
The company’s customer service department responded, and in a moment of candor said:
We sincerely apologize for the volume of emails you have been receiving and for the frustration this has caused.
You are absolutely right that receiving numerous emails in a single day is not a positive customer experience. While we intend to share relevant offers, it is clear that in this case, our frequency did not align with your preferences, and we take responsibility for that.
We would like to inform you that you have the option to limit the number of emails you receive from us on a daily basis.
In fact, the option to limit the number of emails is an all or nothing option rather than providing the ability to select a number.
So to end Groupon’s seeming inability to sensibly limit the number of emails it sends to customers, I opted out on January 1.
This whole experience suggests that the federal law needs to be amended to ban excessive emailing to consumers. What do you think?
And I thought the number of text messages and emails I got after using an Internet search for home/auto insurance was bad. I was wrong!! But I’ll never use an insurance search engine again.
Heh. Looking at the dates, I’ll bet none of them wished you a Happy Thanksgiving except to proffer an offer to spend money on their “product.”.
This recently happened to me too. I used the app, did not make a purchase, and then proceeded to receive multiple emails each day telling me about other similar deals. I looked for the email limit option, but did not find it either. Ultimately, I unsubscribed from all emails because that was the only option. I’m not sure why they think email spam is a successful marketing practice.
I stopped using Groupon awhile ago after some horrible customer service experiences, but let’s also talk about companies that continue to spam you even after you opt out. I’m not talking about spammers, but legitimate companies do this all the time, or ones you’ve opted out from, and they stop, only to regularly feel it’s ok for them to just start up again some time down the road, like around the holiday season, or after a year or so. Then there’s ones, like Chase, that try and claim the emails they send you are “account messages” not solicitations, despite being clearly so, and leave out tha OPT OUT link, or the endless “Privacy Policy Update” notices from companies you no longer do business with. It’s gotten ridiculous
After unsubscribing from a legitimate company’s emails, I’ll drop their email in a folder called “Stuff I’ve Unsubscribed”. Then, if I get another email down the road, I’ll contact them with my receipts and and let them know that if they don’t cease and desist I’ll report them to the FTC. So far I’ve had pretty good success.
I experienced a similar challenge with Groupon. I wanted the option to find a local restaurant deal – infrequently – but available when I wanted to search. But once I opted to search, it opened a Pandora’s box – a flood of pop-ups from them. I couldn’t sustain the barrage, so I simply deleted their App. I don’t need their discounts that much. It was an easy trade-off.
The same thing happened to me with NAPA after buying a car battery. Not only was I getting 1-2 emails a day, no matter how many times I unsubscribed, the emails kept coming. I even contacted their webhost and IPP (a pretty nasty thing to do), and received numerous apologies, but the emails kept coming. Finally, when I switched email providers (to fastmail), I was able to block them without having the emails clutter up my spam filter.
Sadly I get this all the time from companies I do want to hear from, just not multiple times per day, or even per week.
I’ve used TurboTax in the past, so of course they’ve been emailing me steadily since last fall. Even if I was going to dive back in, why would I do that before I received my W-2 sometime this year? It’s all just noise.
a law? Nah. Just stop using companies that do it and opt out. That’s more effective.
I would also reply to the customer service person asking *HOW* you can reduce the number, since they removed the option.
I also use a Google Voice # specifically for potential spam sources. Works well…. I don’t see notifications on my phone, but see them when I check email and can easily ignore (or filter).
At some point this spills over into harassment.
I also love that the left hand doesn’t know what the right hand is doing. PR thinks there are options to reduce the quantity of emails, the email says there is an option to reduce the quantity of emails, but of course, no option actually exists.
Now if you actually do respond and buy an oil change you’re encouraging the activity. Realistically, unsubscribing was your best option. Like with most things the best thing you can do to tell a business you don’t like the way they’re operating is to stop being a customer.
Merry Christmas Edgar, welcome back!
It’s infuriating how many organizations act as if they’re the most important factor in our lives, sending a continual barrage of emails. The most annoying aspect is that a good number of them just ignore my request to unsubscribe.
Some of them are charities, but I won’t keep giving to any charity that harasses me like this.
I work for a volunteer organization and vet most of our emails, and I’m continually pushing back on the number we send out. I don’t want people to resent us the way I resent the many groups that demand my attention on a daily basis (or multiple times per day).
Not a heck of a lot better once Temu.com gets hold of your e-mail address. You’ll get 5 or 6 e-mails per day with very misleading information in the subject box.
I created an email account using my dogs name. Whenever I search for something or sign up for something, I use my dogs email address. I know when that account has email, it’s spam. Not that I’m expecting spam, but I used that account to submit this comment.
I just counted, and for November 2025, I got 235 emails from Groupon and LivingSocial (whose emails come from Groupon also). Luckily I have marked the sender groupon.com as spam and my email sends them into the spam folder until I delete them. The last time I used a Groupon offer was probably 15 years ago.