My Neighbor Pissed Me Off. What To Do.

[Frankly Rich]

We have a gay neighbor, and over a few years have exchanged various pleasantries. The other day we mentioned getting together, so he asked for my email. I sent him the one I give to friends and family. Short story: He abused it. I have now received several videos advertising products he sells, and I noticed at least five cookies from them on my computer. I am not happy. He took an opportunistic approach to us under the guise of being social. I did protest that I did not think that getting acquainted should center around a sales pitch, and he said okay. Then today another video inviting us to look again at his products.

 

Okay, I can "unsubscribe" to something I didn't subscribe to, and maybe that will be enough. But I still will be living next to him. I didn't expect this situation to develop as it did and wonder what you would do.

[bigvalboy]

You already told him how you feel, and he is disregarding your feelings. I can't imagine wanting to become sociable with someone like that. I would unsubscribe and let it go. Then going forward, be cordial, but keep your distance. The next time he suggests getting together, kindly decline and leave it at that. He'll get the message. Fighting with neighbors rarely goes well.

[Griffondog]

Fighting with neighbors rarely goes well.

 

And it takes less than a second to hit that "delete" button.

[Steven_Draker]

I didn't expect this situation to develop as it did

 

http://media-cache-ec0.pinimg.com/736x/ee/59/c2/ee59c2314a0afde8be67153b5238fc65.jpg

 

Take him to Court and sue him.

[+ FreshFluff]

You already told him how you feel, and he is disregarding your feelings. I can't imagine wanting to become sociable with someone like that. I would unsubscribe and let it go. Then going forward, be cordial, but keep your distance. The next time he suggests getting together, kindly decline and leave it at that. He'll get the message. Fighting with neighbors rarely goes well.

 

Yes, I've found that while it's tempting to address these things head on, the passive route is usually the best way to go, especially with someone you'll see on a regular basis. Unsubscribe to his emails or, if you want to avoid hassle from him, hit the spam button. As BVB said, if he asks you to get together, you are busy.

[Frankly Rich]

Yes, the counsel given is wise. Why stir things up further than needed? I just now clicked the "unsubscribe" button. That will get the message across without making it personal. I truly am not interested in the products, so that is just being honest with him.

Thanks for the advice.

[+ poolboy48220]

I can't get my father to stop sending me stuff. It's usually right-wing anti-Obama stuff, heavily laced with things easily disprovable by Snopes. Easy enough to delete, but half the stuff has links to probably virus-ridden sites, and his computer's always crashing, and he's befuddled as to why.

[bigvalboy]

That's actually funny PB. At my families gatherings, talk of politics is strictly prohibited. That policy is good for about an hour, so I come armed with a bottle of Bombay.

[+ azdr0710]

cookies are easily detected and erased, too....and aren't really a threat to anything

[Frequentflier]

I can't get my father to stop sending me stuff. It's usually right-wing anti-Obama stuff, heavily laced with things easily disprovable by Snopes. Easy enough to delete, but half the stuff has links to probably virus-ridden sites, and his computer's always crashing, and he's befuddled as to why.

 

Wow...this is weird...we have the same father

[Frankly Rich]

cookies are easily detected and erased, too....and aren't really a threat to anything

 

My waistline!

[+ azdr0710]

My waistline!

 

well....THAT, sure!

 

 

http://www.tecs-onsite.com/wp-content/uploads/2012/06/cookies.jpg

[tanman4u]

Watch out when "unsubscribing" as it validates that it's a working and monitored email address. You might actually see the volume of junk mails increase. I, on a daily basis, sort thru my "junk" emails and while 99% are truly junk, I can't overlook the 1% that just happened to get caught up in my spam filter. But I never, never, unsubscribe as it just lets the sender know that it's a true address.

[+ FreshFluff]

Watch out when "unsubscribing" as it validates that it's a working and monitored email address. You might actually see the volume of junk mails increase. I, on a daily basis, sort thru my "junk" emails and while 99% are truly junk, I can't overlook the 1% that just happened to get caught up in my spam filter. But I never, never, unsubscribe as it just lets the sender know that it's a true address.

 

If you see the SafeUnsubscribe button, you're fine. (You'd think that scammers would use the same image for their unsubscribe button, but I haven't seen that happening. You'll usually see the SafeUnsubscribe button on emails from major companies.)

 

Here's more detail on when you can/should unsubscribe. The article is several years old so things might have changed since then:

http://pogue.blogs.nytimes.com/2011/09/01/rethinking-the-never-unsubscribe-rule-for-spam/?_php=true&_type=blogs&_r=0

[Griffondog]

Wow...this is weird...we have the same father

 

That makes at least three of us.

[+ poolboy48220]

That's actually funny PB. At my families gatherings, talk of politics is strictly prohibited. That policy is good for about an hour, so I come armed with a bottle of Bombay.

I'd love to institute such a policy, but to propose it I'd have to be able to complete a sentence without being interrupted, and with my dad and my brother-in-law around, that ain't gonna happen.

[Frankly Rich]

Remember that I gave him the email address. He already knows it's a valid one! So, no worry from unsubscribing, and today brought no new ads from him.

[Frequentflier]

I don't know what email system you use but marking an email "junk" usually means the very next one from that sender and thereafter is never seen by you (unless you look in the Junk or Spam folder). Another thing I've done is set up filters so emails from certain people go into folders that I look at only when I want to - perhaps once or day or less often. I've found this approach less stressful, particularly during the day when I'm nearly completely focused on work and business, because I don't see emails from sources that send "silly" stuff that annoys me (mainly my father) but can't be marked "junk" or "spam".