I rest my case

I've been reorganizing my life of late. This includes both banishing the clutter, or finding new spots for treasures to call home, but organizing the flow of my electronic mail. I have far too many email addresses, but with a little structure, I can make that work in my favor instead of becoming a slave to forwarding or to checking each box daily.

Early last month, I contacted one of the sites that sends a regular newsletter, asking their help in changing my email address for the newsletter. I could edit my profile, change my real name, even, but not my email.  Eventually, I reached someone who let me know that someone from their support team would have to do that.  Apparently, it was not something customers could be trusted to do. Go figure. But, I supplied the address I wished used instead of the one listed, and waited.

I'm sure no one is surprised here to learn that I began receiving the newsletter at both emails. I now had two accounts. After much back and forthing the following emerged:

1. Even support could not change emails 
2. A new account had to be created (without informing me, which they didn't thing necessary, and were surprised when I was miffed it had been done.
3. The new account couldn't pull the user info already stored in my old account, so I would have to re-enter everything in the new account, and have two identical accounts, except for the email, and for the fact that the second account would need a new user name
4. They'd make the original (with the original user name) dormant so the new account was the only one I received mail from.
5. This all seemed perfectly reasonable to them. After all, they didn't have to do the work of filling in the profile and creating a new user identity. It wasn't their old identity that was put out to pasture.

Bottom line: I was annoyed enough at their customer service, that now, instead of wanting my email name changed, I wanted all my personal info removed, and both accounts not only made dormant, but deleted.

Apparently that was hard for them to do, too. Nearly two months into the process, I finally got someone who understood why I was upset and what I wanted. She assured me that the accounts would both be deleted, though it may take "a little time" as they did not have a procedure for this. But my personal information was no longer stored on site.

As of today, one account has been eliminated, though the original account still exists, with some of my original info still visible. And yesterday, I received via the US mail, a book from the company -- signed by the founder of the site. Good thing they didn't have my address or personal information any more, huh? Not epic, but still a fail.