Argos marketing preferences

MrA2012

Recently I reserved an item on the Argos website for pick up at the store. As part of the online order process there is a marketing preferences section:

By submitting your details, you consent to their use as set out in our Privacy Policy. You'll also be signing up to receive marketing information (such as email, telephone, text) as detailed in our Privacy Policy, unless you tick the boxes below.

• No - I don't want to receive the email newsletter or other marketing with the latest offers and competitions from the Home Retail Group.
• No - don't share my details with carefully selected companies outside Home Retail Group for marketing programmes.

I'm the sort of person that hates marketing and survey phone calls, texts and emails and always opts out of these things, so I made sure I ticked both boxes.

However, the next day I received a "welcome" email from Argos, saying:

Thanks for signing up to receive emails from Argos. We'll now keep you updated on:

• Latest deals
• Exclusive discount codes
• Great competitions
• New products

So, my preference to not receive such emails has been ignored. I unsubscribed using the link in the email, but I'm now concerned that my request for them to not share my details (email address and mobile phone number) with "carefully selected companies" has also been ignored.

But how do I find out? No account was created so there is nowhere online to check or change my marketing preferences. I emailed their customer services, but received no reply beyond the automated "thank you for your enquiry" email.

Their privacy policy includes a number to call "if you have any comments or queries in connection with our privacy policy" so I called that. After being on hold for 25 minutes, it was finally answered by someone who told me they didn't really know about things like that and couldn't help me! When I asked to be put through to somebody who could, I was put on hold for another 5 minutes before the original person came back and told me that someone would call me back later to answer my query. Of course nobody ever did. I stupidly made that half hour call on my mobile and have now realised it cost me over £10 for what was a complete waste of time.

This complete lack of customer service has made me even more concerned about how they are now treating my contact details. All I want is an assurance from them that they will not pass my details on to anyone else as I originally requested. If they do incorrectly have me down as having "consented" I want that changed ASAP.

Any recommendations on how I can get them to do this?

Coopdivi

Email them and tell them that if you receive any spam by email or phone that you will report them to the Information Commissioner's Office. Argos won't try and fob them off.

http://ico.org.uk/for_the_public/topic_specific_guides/online/spam_emails

Contact Argos using the form on the link below. You might want to mention the cost of that ultimately fruitless phone call as well. With a bit of luck they might offer you a voucher.

https://argos.custhelp.com/app/ask

MrA2012

Thanks.

Funnily enough, today I finally received a reply to my original email. It was less than satisfactory, though. It talked exclusively about removing my email address from their mailing list (even though I already unsubscribed) and made no mention of my phone number or whether any details would be shared with other companies, which was my main concern.

They have assured me that my email address will be removed from their list, but that it may take a few weeks (yes, weeks) for this to be done and suggest I simply ignore emails from them in the meantime!

I've replied to ask again about my other concerns that they seem to have ignored. I'm certainly not going to phone them again.

As you suggest, if they or any associated company start calling me, I will be reporting it to the ICO.