Royal Caribbean's E-marketing Slip-Up

I got a stupid marketing e-mail from Royal Caribbean Cruise Lines, so I thought I'd share what I wrote to them:

I received the e-mail below, addressed to "my e-mail address", from your company recently. Ironically, it ended up in my spam filter folder, where all of your e-mail correspondence will go, from now on.
Last year, I enjoyed a cruise on the Monarch of the Seas, and because of this e-mail, which itself is a result of your idiotic marketing team, I will not purchase
another cruise from Royal Caribbean. This message uses the same tactics as some of the sleaziest spammers around, and for that reason, I will do my best to
advise people to not do business with your company.

Why was I so offended? Because the message uses some dirty spammer tricks:

1. if you do nothing, you are automatically signed up.
2. If I do not want to receive your useless advertising, I have to click on a link.
   
3. How do I know the e-mail itself came from RCCL? The removal link is certainly not on RCCL servers. How do I know this is not a phishing e-mail?

Once I checked the headers, and ascertained that this e-mail did come from the RCCL morons in charge of marketing, and I did click the link, the server on the other end was broken (a 500-server-error page came up).
So let's see - if I didn't see the message (it was, after all, caught in my spam filter), I would get signed up automatically. The removal link is not on the sending company's servers - a sign of phishing. And the link to remove myself - does not work. So let me ask you - if you can't handle something as simple as e-mail marketing, and are using such sleazy tactics, why would I trust you with my life on one of your much-more-complex-to-operate ships?

Sorry, Royal Caribbean - you've lost a customer.

me

EMAIL:

***************************************************************
You are receiving this email as a customer of Royal Caribbean
International. If you no longer wish to receive email
communications from Royal Caribbean International, please
remove yourself as instructed below.
***************************************************************

As a valued Royal Caribbean International customer, you are
invited to be the first to know about the latest cruise vacation
news and promotions from Royal Caribbean International. All we
need is your permission to send you email updates about the
latest news from Royal Caribbean International.

Because we value our customers' privacy, we are presently
seeking your approval to communicate with you through email. If
you do not want us to contact you via email, please click on the
link at the bottom of this email, and your email address will
immediately be removed from our list.

If you'd like to receive email updates from us, do nothing.
Soon, we'll begin delivering messages to your email inbox with
the latest cruise vacation news and promotions to help with your
cruise vacation planning.

If you'd like to visit our website today, you may click here.
www.royalcaribbean.com

Thank you for your time and we look forward to serving you
online.

Sincerely,

Royal Caribbean International


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