SBL email frustration

[BassGary1964]

I’m posting here out of genuine frustration and hoping someone from SBL will finally take this seriously.

I signed up to SBL for a free trial (which turned out not to be free) about 6 years ago. I must admit I am not great at computers and apps, so SBL may be great, but it just wasn't for me due to how difficult I found the site to navigate. I maybe spent a week trying and then forgot about it. I was then notified I had been charged by my bank. This again may have been a me issue not reading terms and conditions on site if there were any. I emailed and they did refund me pretty instantly and cancelled my account, but I was disappointed that I did not receive an email to remind me of the charge.

Since then, I have received plenty of emails!

After cancelling I continued to receive member emails for a time, even though my account I had been told had been cancelled. I kept feeling the need to check my bank account to see if I was still being charged.

I reached out to support again and their technology team apologised and put me on the correct 'list'. This list must be called the begging list as then for 3 months every other email (and there seemed to be daily emails) asked for money in some way for some new thing that would level up my playing. :/

Back to support asking for my details to be removed from the system, as no attempt at hitting that unsubscribe button seemed to work or even reduce emails.

Peace for about 6 months. Until...yes the emails started again.

I have submitted multiple requests over a long period to stop receiving emails and to have my data removed under my right to be forgotten. I get respite for a time, and then they resume.

To be clear:

• I have unsubscribed using the links provided
• I have made direct requests for my data to be removed
• I have not engaged with the service for years
• Yet emails continue to arrive

At this point, it feels like my preferences are simply not being respected, and I am now concerned that if they still have my email address, do they still have my bank details?

Has anyone else experienced this? Is there something else I should be doing?

I will repeat, this is not a complaint of the product. I don't know if it is any good, as I found it difficult to use. I do not watch Scott on youtube anymore as it seemed to go from education to a more fun video with no substance for learning but did find his lessons videos to be helpful when they were posted.


Gary Frustrated - Wigan

 

[djmay]

Tell them that if they don't stop you will report it to Ofcom. That should work.

 

[bwildt]

What the heck is SBL?

 

[ceetee]

What the heck is SBL?

Online bass classes.

 

[Camaro69]

What the heck is SBL?

Scott’s Bass


I had the same issue. Ended up logging their email as spam and problem solved
Definitely have no respect for what SBL has become
There was a thread about their video content on here a few months ago

 

[skycruiser]

Just block them in your email app. Send all incoming SBL messages to trash.

 

[nonohmic]

Just put a filter on their domain name to delete them straight to trash.

It's the modern world, unfortunately. Container Store and Crocs are almost driving my wife to the point of insanity.

 

[dbsfgyd1]

I’m posting here out of genuine frustration and hoping someone from SBL will finally take this seriously.

I signed up to SBL for a free trial (which turned out not to be free) about 6 years ago. I must admit I am not great at computers and apps, so SBL may be great, but it just wasn't for me due to how difficult I found the site to navigate. I maybe spent a week trying and then forgot about it. I was then notified I had been charged by my bank. This again may have been a me issue not reading terms and conditions on site if there were any. I emailed and they did refund me pretty instantly and cancelled my account, but I was disappointed that I did not receive an email to remind me of the charge.

Since then, I have received plenty of emails!

After cancelling I continued to receive member emails for a time, even though my account I had been told had been cancelled. I kept feeling the need to check my bank account to see if I was still being charged.

I reached out to support again and their technology team apologised and put me on the correct 'list'. This list must be called the begging list as then for 3 months every other email (and there seemed to be daily emails) asked for money in some way for some new thing that would level up my playing. :/

Back to support asking for my details to be removed from the system, as no attempt at hitting that unsubscribe button seemed to work or even reduce emails.

Peace for about 6 months. Until...yes the emails started again.

I have submitted multiple requests over a long period to stop receiving emails and to have my data removed under my right to be forgotten. I get respite for a time, and then they resume.

To be clear:

• I have unsubscribed using the links provided
• I have made direct requests for my data to be removed
• I have not engaged with the service for years
• Yet emails continue to arrive

At this point, it feels like my preferences are simply not being respected, and I am now concerned that if they still have my email address, do they still have my bank details?

Has anyone else experienced this? Is there something else I should be doing?

I will repeat, this is not a complaint of the product. I don't know if it is any good, as I found it difficult to use. I do not watch Scott on youtube anymore as it seemed to go from education to a more fun video with no substance for learning but did find his lessons videos to be helpful when they were posted.


Gary Frustrated - Wigan

Makes sure yu keep an eye on your bank account. As for the emails, try blocking them Sound like scammers may have got your email address and what you are seeing are fishing techniques. If you look at the origination email address, if it has a long address that has nothing to do with SBL,it’s a scam. Also, read the text and look for bad grammar,

 

[Root 5]

What the heck is SBL?

Scott’s Bass Lessons. A very prominent bass channel on YouTube

 

[Thumpin6string]

If you are concerned about them maybe charging your bank account, call your bank. You should be able to have SBL blocked on your account. As for the emails, flag them as spam or junk. Problem solved.

 

[Casual Bassist]

I’m posting here out of genuine frustration and hoping someone from SBL will finally take this seriously.

I signed up to SBL for a free trial (which turned out not to be free) about 6 years ago. I must admit I am not great at computers and apps, so SBL may be great, but it just wasn't for me due to how difficult I found the site to navigate. I maybe spent a week trying and then forgot about it. I was then notified I had been charged by my bank. This again may have been a me issue not reading terms and conditions on site if there were any. I emailed and they did refund me pretty instantly and cancelled my account, but I was disappointed that I did not receive an email to remind me of the charge.

Since then, I have received plenty of emails!

After cancelling I continued to receive member emails for a time, even though my account I had been told had been cancelled. I kept feeling the need to check my bank account to see if I was still being charged.

I reached out to support again and their technology team apologised and put me on the correct 'list'. This list must be called the begging list as then for 3 months every other email (and there seemed to be daily emails) asked for money in some way for some new thing that would level up my playing. :/

Back to support asking for my details to be removed from the system, as no attempt at hitting that unsubscribe button seemed to work or even reduce emails.

Peace for about 6 months. Until...yes the emails started again.

I have submitted multiple requests over a long period to stop receiving emails and to have my data removed under my right to be forgotten. I get respite for a time, and then they resume.

To be clear:

• I have unsubscribed using the links provided
• I have made direct requests for my data to be removed
• I have not engaged with the service for years
• Yet emails continue to arrive

At this point, it feels like my preferences are simply not being respected, and I am now concerned that if they still have my email address, do they still have my bank details?

Has anyone else experienced this? Is there something else I should be doing?

I will repeat, this is not a complaint of the product. I don't know if it is any good, as I found it difficult to use. I do not watch Scott on youtube anymore as it seemed to go from education to a more fun video with no substance for learning but did find his lessons videos to be helpful when they were posted.


Gary Frustrated - Wigan

I have heard this story before. I do not know of a way to resolve it. Maybe Scott would better follow the rules if he were told to do so by a judge in a court. It always a shame when you need lawyers to solve something.

 

[FullumMusic]

I signed up to SBL for a free trial (which turned out not to be free)

Most "Free Trials" for anything online these days are free for X number of days, and it's on you to cancel before the trial ends. By signing up for the free trial you're agreeing to automatically start getting charged for the actual subscription if you don't cancel it within the free trial period. It's usually one of the more prominent things listed in the trial agreement, but some companies will bury it.

do they still have my bank details?

Probably would have to log into your account, go to your account settings page (or whatever they call it) and see if you have your payment information saved or not. Usually payment software websites use will store billing info for one's account and they just turn on or off billing. But you have to delete it from your account yourself. A lot of times i'll add my payment info for a thing i'm buying or a trial, sign up for it, and then immediately delete the payment info from my account so i don't accidentally forget it's there and get auto-billed next cycle.

Regardless, you might still be able to sign into your account even though you cancelled your subscription. You just won't be able to access anything but your personal settings and whatever free stuff is available. Try to log in and go through your account settings, deleting any of your payment info and turning off any email subscriptions that might be in the settings.

This page has some more info on the company. It has their physical address too, so maybe you could write them a physical letter with your concerns and bullet-points of things you need confirmation of. And you can some sort of Proof of Delivery confirmation so you know they got your letter.

And since you've already tried unsubscribing and it doesn't work, every time you get an email from SBL, report it as junk and block in your email service. iPhones and Gmail make this relatively easy, minus the fact that you just gotta keep doing it for a while until you catch all the different emails that'll come in from them. Most companies will send out promotional emails from different email addresses for each promotion. But after you do it enough, you'll probably catch most of them.

And like @djmay said, you could always just file a complaint with Invalid Link Removed and it'll probably only be a matter of time before they are forced to back off. Honestly, this could be your very first step, while you do all the other things too.

 

[MultiScaleMale]

I've unsubscribed from SBL before and It was just a click for me.

 

[Timmah]

I was a member for a couple years and was also subscribed to their automated emails. They, like a lot of companies, use a baker's dozen email addresses for their various newsletters, promotions, and email blasts, so it took about a month for to get rid of all of them. They're persistent and annoying, but for me it isn't more so than most other persistent and annoying companies.

 

[Smallmouth_Bass]

I gave them my (secondary) email so I could enter in one of the giveaways and was immediately pelted with a harassing quantity of emails. I quickly unsubscribed and it hasn't been a problem since.

I don't get why any company thinks email soliciting on a daily basis is good business.

 

[AngelCrusher]

There are a lot of studies that these online guys follow. They preach relentless email engagement, stupid yt thumbnails clickbait titles. The writing style of the course description where they want you to buy, limited time to buy so you build urgency. Then they do the giveaway to sign you back up and then constantly nag you to download pdfs in their videos, so now you have opted in again… tons of business do this annoying stuff but sbl is extremely templated. Its targeted towards beginners who are searching for online bass lessons, so its just a huge clickbait model.

 

[BowserGriff]

I went as far as not just unsubscribing from their YouTube channel but completely blocking it.

Unfortunately, because of the never ending line of young screen addicted beginner bass players, their spam will continue. Its bascially playing the number game with bass players.

 

[maxmerx]

I don't know what happened with your email, but as soon as I felt I had too many emails from them, I unsubscribed and it worked just fine.

I would like to add that even if they they send too many emails, SBL is not a scam.
A few years ago I paid for the "technique accelerator program" and never had problem with my bank account debited multiple times.

The courses they sell are very well done and have nothing to do with the stuff they put on YouTube.

 

[Slade N]

Haven't had any issue with SBL but have had similar issues with other sites. As suggested, blocking as spam seems to be the best practice if they wont correct it on their end

 

[Herrick]

I had a similar problem with the e-mails after canceling my trial membership. This happens with a lot of businesses because they have different categories for e-mails that you have to unsubscribe from. Once I unsubscribed from all of those categories (or maybe I marked them all as spam, can't remember) the problem stopped. Not sure why you'd get another e-mail 6 months later. That's annoying.