Is This How to Build an Email List?

Is this how one grows an email list?

At the beginning of the pandemic, I received a curt reply to one of my emails. To be fair my email sucked and I could understand someone not wanting to hear from me. No big deal, I took them off my list, and I learned I should probably stop using the email that I sent.

It’s well over a year later now, and I kept up my end of the bargain. Today I received that company’s newsletter, which I had never received before.

Really?

Call me crazy, but list building should involve reaching out to people that want to hear from you, correct? And if you’ve sent me nasty note, maybe, just maybe I’d rather not hear from you anymore unless you want to discuss a project.

Now here’s the crazy part: this is the third time this has happened in the past year, where I’ve been added to a newsletter list by someone who has said they’re not interested in hearing from me.

Which leads me to ask: are they even adding potential customers to their list or just throwing emails against the wall to see what sticks?