Several years ago, I printed two books for myself via Lulu.com. They were mementos of my early writing, intended for me alone, and I made sure they were private. Today, as part of a personal data sweep and planning session, I checked in with Lulu.com and found they had both been made public and were both for sale on the web site. Not only that, an 'author' page had been created for me (I need a Lulu.com 'author' page like I need to be shot in the foot), and the books were listed on it.
Naturally, I made the documents private again and even tried to delete them. But Lulu.com won't let me delete the completed projects or the files they were created from. I can't find a customer support phone number anywhere on the site, and I've read through various web searches that the company doesn't answer e-mail inquiries (though I do intend to try e-mailing customer support this evening).
Now, there's nothing personally incriminating about any of my old stories and poems. They're sometimes emotional, often personal and reflect a very unpolished and youthful writing style. That's not the point. The point is that I used Lulu.com's service to make a couple of one-time, reasonably-priced keepsakes for myself, and now those keepsakes have not only been made public without my consent, they've been taken out of my hands altogether.
I'm really very put out by this, and I worry there's nothing I can do about it.
Update
7:20 pm: I've sent Lulu.com a note via the web site interface and will post again when I receive a reply.