Re: What to do if you find that you did business with a spammer?

Omer Zak wrote:
> Recently I got spam E-mail advertising service provided by a company
> (which I'll leave nameless for now), with whom I almost subcontracted
> few months ago to do a project for them.

Happened to me many times, with many companies I worked with, almost
worked with, or was a customer or them.  Unfortunately, many companies
in Israel are involved in spamming - usually via third parties who send
spam on their behalf (and charge money for it).  These third parties
often claim that their mailing lists are legitimate (not spam).

Nadav Har'El wrote:
> Indeed. This is why I immediately wrote to the CEO about this incident.
> His "excuse" was that some sort of distributer or whatever sent out this
> spam, and that it didn't come from within the company, and he can't do
> anything about it.

Very common response.  Look above.

> I don't think this is at all specific to spamming - the company might be
> involved in other issues you consider immoral and you'll also find it out
> later. For example, imagine your company sells stuff to "bad" regimes
> somewhere, your company involved in racist or sexual discrimination,
> your company making use of child-labor or sweat shops in its china branch,
> your company making it a habit to lie to customers and give them shoddy
> products, your company doing experiments on monkeys, and so on, and so on.
> All of these can also disgrace you personally (image, for example, how
> employees of Remedia must feel!), and any of these can cause you to decide
> that that's not a company you want to work for - and you obviously can't
> include a list in your contract of everything that you find immoral...

Very true.  There are many immoral things a company can do, which can
make you decide not to work with them anymore.  Spam is only one of
them.  Some of these things are legal, some are not (and many are in the
grey area).  I think spam is also in the grey area - it's illegal in
many countries.  I think it's enough for you to decide you don't want to
work with them anymore.

guy keren wrote:
> since spamming is not yet illegal in israel (it isn't, right?) - i don't
> think you have a good legal case here.

It's illegal in many countries, and I think that's enough.  It's also
considered unethical.  You have the right not to work with a company
which is doing something illegal, unethical or immoral.

I think the general rule is that you never know in advance what a
company would do, so you should be prepared for the worst.  You should
always be prepared to resign or stop doing business with a company that
is doing immoral things.  It's up to you to decide what is moral and
what is not - not up to the law.  Even if something is legal
(experiments on monkeys), you might decide you don't want to work for a
company that is involved in it.

By the way, I try not to work for companies that lets people smoke in
their office, for these reasons:
- Smoking in work is illegal.
- I hate smoke.
- If they do something illegal, they might do other illegal things in
the future.

I also think that companies who don't respect their employees (for
example, by letting people smoke in the office) are not worth working
for.  And also companies who don't respect their customers (for example,
by sending them spam).

On the other hand, sometimes I don't have enough energy to fight and I
give up.  For example, I got spam from Pelephone, and I'm their customer
(I got their phone from a company I work with).  I was too lazy to
change so I'm still their customer (I don't pay the bill; this company
does).  Do you think I should change?  And what would I do if tomorrow I
get spam from the next phone company?

By the way, I read that Coca-Cola stopped working with Pelephone because
of their CEO role in Club Market.  It's another example of people who
don't want to do business with immoral people.

Best Regards,

Uri Even-Chen
Speedy Net
Raanana, Israel.

E-mail: uri-PUsz0/4jNWoDDBjDh4tngg@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx
Phone: +972-9-7715013
Website: www.uri.co.il
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