In September, I started poking around for a new gym bag. I considered one from Nobull, an athletics company that seems to be gaining traction. Before deciding against buying the bag, I created an account using one of my actual e-mail addresses.

It didn’t take me long to realize I had made a grievous mistake.

Over the next few weeks, Nobull’s marketing department harassed me with dozens of automated and unsolicited messages—sometimes two per day. I immediately attempted to unsubscribe from its overzealous list to no avail. I then contacted customer service to see if I could change my account’s e-mail address, but the rep told me that no one could. That’s downright absurd. (I had planned on using a burner one to deflect Nobull’s deluge to a zombie account.)

It didn’t take me long to realize I had made a grievous mistake.

Game on.

I again contacted Nobull support, urging the company to remove me from its spammy list. Its response, “Sure thing, but it takes 24 hours.” Days later, the messages kept coming. In the interim, I wrote a Microsoft Outlook rule deleting all Nobull communications. It worked, but the fact that they now appeared in my Deleted Messages folder still annoyed me. #stubbornness

Eventually, the messages ceased, but the process should have taken ten seconds and a single interaction.

Reflections

Today, I want to thank Nobull for the inconvenience. Because of its incessant e-mails, I finally decided to explore different e-mail applications. I landed on Apple Mail. It sports an impressive array of features that play nice with other native Mac apps. I’m especially stoked about my ability to easily hide my real address from the future Nobulls of the world. I’m digging the tabs on the desktop app. (Check out some more of them here.)

I had been using Gmail and Outlook for years but hesitated to jump ship. After all, e-mail isn’t my killer app. It’s not like I send and receive all that many in any given day. As readers of my blog know, I eschew e-mail for better communication tools, such as Slack.

Can AI Write in My Voice?

The Necessary Kick in the Ass

Back in July, I argued for regularly auditing your software. In this case, I needed a kick in the ass. Ultimately, Nobull’s shocking lack of basic netiquette provided the impetus to make this much-needed change.

What You Need to Know

When it comes to your personal tech, try to find ways to turn chicken shit into chicken salad.