On March 4 we wrote about FanBox being the new Plaxo in that the site regularly spammed users. Further the opt-out process for emails was unduly complicated to the point of being unusable.
I was approached by FanBox’s PR firm last week who told me they wanted to line up a meeting with the CEO so they could put their story forward. I naturally presumed that I would be spun but to be fair I’d listen to what they had to say.
So this morning I get on a conference call with them, complete with WebEx presentation. It lasted 5 minutes. They immediately said that they were in the wrong and that having read the comments from TechCrunch readers they are changing their email process. Receive an email from FanBox, click on the opt out option, and you get a screen similar to the one pictured. Selecting Never and Save means no more emails from FanBox. They did explain that as they are building a social platform that users can contact other users, however you can opt out of that as well. Third party applications; not a problem either, simple opt-out process. They even thanked TechCrunch’s commenters for giving them the feedback prior to their official launch so that they could act on it.
A big thumbs up for FanBox for listening.
TechCrunch took the attention bait. Lame.
This advice is wrong! Do not open the fanbox email at all! If you open it and you press the unsubscribe button and then answer “Never”for how many times you want fanbox emails, this will only verify to Fanbox that you are getting the mail they sent. I was stupid enough to do it. After I foolishly pressed unsubscribe and “never” they ask you for your mobile phone number! Do not do that either! You will be in deeper with them! Someone should inform the Better Business Bureau or “The Today’s Show” about these Fanbox scammers!
So that’s another way to say, at least one, please.
Fair enough, I guess.
What attention bait? We wrote about a company doing the wrong thing, they changed what they were doing. Or is a good news story that hard to take?
Nope. They still bait ya. You have to enter your telephone number in order to complete the process. This obviously doesn’t take care of the issue. I don’t want these freaks to have my phone number. No way.
Wow, was I right or was I right?!?
Once a spammer, always a sms.ac-er
This is a huge improvement over replying with “unsubscribe” or by clicking on a link.
@1/@3 – i guess that’s that sovereignty means, or subjectivity, or another way put — this is my media, i write what i like. Well, fair enough isn’t it?!
EH
you didn’t see the 30 x 3 different tick boxes they had before
TheSocialBox
Still, I thought it was a good news story and a nice followup. Guess everyone isn’t as charitable as me
maybe
@8 – guess the thing was, that’s another way for people to complain, or be jealous, of you giving one service multiple mentions, while a lot other services never got one stingy TC mention, from you or from others.
(PS: no i’m not jealous)
The old path to growth: spam, get big, apologize (oh, we don’t do that anymore)
The new path to growth: spam , get big, apologize, get TC to write 2 stories
But, I’m happy they are listening. Good job, Duncan.
There should an option to control your email… Nice to read that fanbox reacted to techcrunch Commenters
Way to listen to the community.
the cool thing, a company not afraid to adjust has a hope..
thanks for the post
The company is crap just like smsac
No matter what, I will never ever go to fanbox site again.
1 – The site takes an eternity to load
2 – My browser freezed because of it
3 – They spam too much.
Thanks for the post anyway
your welcome
Too late. I got too many messages from people I don’t even know and I don’t have an account with Fanbox. I’ve welcomes them to my permanent iggy file.
yeah the site takes a lot to load…i wonder where their CDN or DNS servers are
they are up to their old tricks, Fanbox is also known as SMS.ac. SMS.ac is a text messaging spam service! they make money by spamming text messages. now they switched to spamming on the web. A few disgruntled employees have written about SMS.ac at http://jobgrade.../show/52/sms_ac
Looks like they take advantage of their employees too!
Kudos to Fanbox for listening. Wish more companies did.
Dear Techcrunch,
SMS.ac spammed their way into existence. Then…out of insanity, they went to congress – yes the UNITED STATES CONGRESS, and presented their ‘mobile consumer bill of rights’. Which explicitly promised that they would never ever spam again.
All the while, mobile operators in droves around the world were shutting them down and they were being sued by their aggregators for non payment of all that text spam!
Technically this is the same company – not a new company. It’s the same management team and same team that built it. I GUARANTEE they will not stop spamming. We all know that hte unsubscribe on sms.ac never worked. It won’t work here either.
Just opened an e-mail from these folks and got the multiple browser pages open, unwanted crap on my computer. These are the usual lying bastards and as far as thier conference call, well if you want to drink thier Kool-aid so be it but I don’t expect the rest of us to line up at this dispenser.
JV
interesting how even after the apology i still got 2 emails. one from a person who has never even heard about this company and swore he just logged into yahoo messenger (did sms.ac get into the spyware business now??) and the other from an unknown person, i assume the one with the infected computer the first one used.
once a shitty company, always a shitty company. they can pretend to “apologize” as much as they want, we still won’t believe them. it’s their method to constantly lie.
They are still spammers. I got an email from fanbox saying I still hadn’t answered this person’s question. It was someone I didn’t know and I supposedly had an account with them. Stupid me, I clicked on the box to open it and it gives me all this crap and when I go to close out the account I got all these tabs opening on my internet explorer, yet I couldn’t close any of them or maybe I was but they were opening faster than I could close them. I had to use task master to close any other programs I had open and then tell it to turn off my computer. It was the only way to get it to stop. Luckily nothing came up on any of my spyware and anti-virus programs, but it was still a terrible experience and FanBox leaves a lot to be desired.
Same as last poster in that I just today received a “follow up” email from a Fanbox “user” indicating I still haven’t answered a question said user sent to me…oh….about 4 or 5 months ago. Out of curiosity, I opened the email, clicked on the link provided, and was presented with the option of answering the “user’s” question or not via a “yes” or “no” dialogue. What one might not notice, however, is the following notice at the bottom of the Fanbox page:
“By using FanBox you agree to the Terms of Service. If you do not have a FanBox Web-desktop, one will be created for you. Learn how FanBox protects and improves your communications via email credentials.”
What I assumed, correctly or not, is Fanbox would somehow force me to create an account by answering the Yes/No question. In any event, it sounded like they were attempting to solicit my business, and would assume I wanted their service if I actually answered the question. Questionable business practice at best, possibly worse. I closed the tab and move on without any apparent intrusion.
AUG 29 – They are at it again. I personally didn’t sign up for an account and I was greeted by a Welcome email as well as some idiot wanting to be my fan today. Yeah right!
I treat this as I do all other emails I do not know who they are from and they go directly to TRASH without any response. Why should I have to go to an opt-out page that just verifies my existence? I never ever click on a link sent inside an email. I always open a new browser tab and do a search to find if it is legit. That is how I was lead to this TC thread.
Fanbox is nothing but a Virus-Worm…. I received a mail from a friend and without knowing it I opened it… and everyone on my address list was sent a mail as if I sent them… I have asked to remove me from their mailing list but still almost everyday its sending new messages…
What do you think now Duncan??
Fanbox is just giving you lip service….
I DO NOT WANT NO MORE EMAIL FROM YOU
THANK YOU
They should change their name to SpamBox. The first rule of PC health is never reply to a spammer. Even to unsubscribe! They lie and cheat and steal. This just confirms they don’t just do it on cell phones and online. Sorry you were duped by them face to face Duncan. We’ve all been duped before.
I want to be part of techcruch.com
I will aways like to share as many informations about my country, and people.
I wasn’t given a choice on SAVE OR CANCEL.
It was greyed out. ONLY OPTION was to continue
being spammed.
Only a five-minute “presentation” (blowing smoke up your nostrils) and you believed it was rectified?
NOT.
how do i make my fanbox acount im hear in pakistan but it says its aloued in pakistan but my friend is using it it