To those of you saying Axminster advertising emails are not spam the following definition was found on Google:-
noun: Spam
1. irrelevant or unsolicited messages sent over the internet, typically to a large number of users, for the purposes of advertising, phishing, spreading malware, etc.
I select one OR condition and one list item from above:- Spam is unsolicited messages sent over the internet, typically to a large number of users, for the purposes of advertising.
The output from Axminster is thus spam. QED
To those of you saying you like emails from Axminster, well, OK. And I am happy for you.
But at the dawn of the Internet age when we were starting to use computers, in the days of Amstrads and Ataris and Commodore PETs and Acorn Atoms and BBC Micros a number of people, far more intelligent than I, lobbied the European Parliament to have companies' use of our personal data controlled. So around 1986 the first Data Laws were enacted. Over the years the personal protections were enhanced and an over-arching Law calle the General Data Protection Regulations came into force around the middle of the last decade. 2016 to be precise.
It gave us prols choice.
You may choose how your data is used. You may choose to have all the data a company hold about you deleted forever.
If you choose to allow marketing emails to be sent to you, that is your prerogative. I think it silly, but accept you have a choice and a differing point of view from my own.
I always choose to opt out of any email contact after purchase. I do this at the instant I buy something; without fail; because I jealously guard my data. Please accept that I too am free to choose.
The problem with Axminster is that at the time purchase you are not presented with the ability to opt out, either from data sharing or from marketing emails. And that is simply against the law.
So if you want to play their game, feel free. I suppose you also like having adverts pushed through your mailbox with your post and then play the game picking up the dross and walking it to your waste bin. I asked the Post Office to stop posting adverting and they do. By all means waste your time glancing at email pings on your phone. Play their game and be a good little consumer. But allow me to opt-out, for the law allows it.
You may think this is a bit pointless and I am making a fuss. But let me recount an experience with Three, the telecom company. Three held my data; I had been a customer for some time pre-GDPR.
I hadn't realized I had allowed them permission to contact me. So one night at 1.30 am I was awoken by a phone call from a number I didn't recognize. This went on for four more nights; phone ringing; me being woken up; me declining the call. The problem is annoying for anyone at home but I was asleep in New Zealand. Now if any of you have been that far you'll know the jet-lag is horrible and when asleep the last thing you need to to be woken because it will take forever to get to sleep again. Finally I looked up the number via Google and saw it belonged to Three and they were ringing because I was costing them money with free roaming charges and they wanted to 'upgrade' my plan! That came from me being a nice, trusting, acquiescent type of guy; no longer.
Finally, I ask the rhetorical question, if Axminster cannot get the GDPR right what else are they getting wrong?