I’ve received a few complaints from fans saying that my new calendar system has signed them up for unsolicited event updates that they have no interest in (and didn’t sign up for). Should I ditch Eventful and try something else?

First of all, please make sure when you sign up for any site that you hunt down any checkbox that says “I’d like to receive the [fill in site name] Newsletter” and other boxes of the sort. If you don’t have that option while signing up, that is a problem and I want to know about it!

I just sent this email to Eventful support to try and get to the bottom of this:

Dear Eventful Team-

I recently switched my entire tour calendar system to Eventful and tossed a “Demand It” widget up on my website. Almost immediately my fans started using the system, and almost immediately I started getting complaints that Eventful was sending them unsolicited junk mail!

My fans are predominantly computer geeks who know how to uncheck a “Send me newsletters” box when they sign up for something, so I find it hard to believe that the multitudes who are complaining simply didn’t sign up correctly. If you’re sending emails about other artists to my fans without them actually signing up for them, I’m going to have to ditch Eventful entirely.

It’s difficult enough convincing people to sign up for a website just to RSVP for events, if they’re going to get SPAMMED by the service they’re less likely to click on anything else I ask them to.

Pax,
Matthew

If you’ve been getting spammed by Eventful, I apologize. As soon as I hear a better option I’ll be happy to switch to a new system. Drop me a line via the comments here and let me know!

Update: After my second email to Eventful, I received this reply:

Hey, Matthew! I’m very sorry I wasn’t able to address your concerns until now.

To explain our system a little better, once one of your fans demands you for a performance, we do our best to keep them updated about their demand and your activities. The most efficient way is through e-mail.

However, Eventful has a strict policy about SPAM e-mails. We do not share our users’ e-mail addresses with anyone but out trusted partners. And even then, the user has to opt-in to receive those messages. Your fans should not be

The only messages that your fans should be receiving from Eventful.com are the following: Demand update, Performer update, our weekly e-newsletter containing local events in your demanders’ hometowns. And, if any of them decide they’d no longer like to receive these messages, they simply have to click the “Unsubscribe” link at the bottom of each message. They should also know that since each e-mail campaign is designed for a very different purpose, they have to unsubscribe from each of them individually.

If your fans are reporting that they’re receiving messages other than these, can you please ask that they forward them to me ASAP? As I mentioned above, Eventful is extremely conscientious about SPAM laws and works to ensure we’re only supplying people with information they will enjoy receiving.

If I did a poor job of explaining our e-mails to you, please let me know and I’ll go a little more in-depth.

Does this explain what’s happening to your satisfaction? I’m happy to stick with Eventful if it’s just a matter of a bunch of my fans not knowing how to unsubscribe from emails. It seems like a good service, when all is said and done.