SDL QuickStart fail December 18, 2012
Posted by Jill (@bonnjill) in Random musings.trackback
I woke up this morning to find I had been added to a group called SDL QuickStart “[a]s a valued new user of SDL Trados Studio 2011.” It is a new online community. Super uncool, SDL! First of all, I don’t use my work e-mail for listservs like this. I have a dedicated listserv. I use an out of office notification for my work e-mail. Members of a listserv like this (685 according to SDL) don’t need to get an out of office message from me every time someone writes the list when I am on vacation. A dedicated e-mail address for groups avoids this problem. Secondly, I would like to make the decision whether or not to join the group – not be automatically added. I received seven e-mails before changing my e-mail notifications to none. SDL, you have a good product, but you can’t just add people to online listservs all willy nilly. You didn’t give me a choice. A better solution would have been to send out one e-mail inviting me to join the group. Huge fail, SDL.
Musings from an overworked translator 
I’ve not commented on your blog before, just merely enjoyed reading it but I really felt the need to leave a comment on this! So, so annoying getting automatically added to the SDL mailing list without being asked and getting a slew of emails before I could even unsubscribe. Like you, I have a separate email for listservs and I’d like to keep my work email free of clutter, thank you very much SDL. Great work on the blog by the way – I love reading it and as a reasonably newbie translator your posts have been very useful at times 🙂
You’re right, Jill, it’s a definite fail for SDL.
However, in a ProZ thread on the subject, Paul Filkin has been quick to apologise on behalf of SDL and has explained what has been done to solve the problem:
http://www.proz.com/forum/sdl_trados_support/239635-unsolicited_emails_by_sdl_ethics_what_ethics.html
HTH,
Emma