Lawd have mercy.

I normally just throw my junkmail in the paper recycling bin.
But then I got to thinking. Why am I receiving this shit to begin with?


So last month, I wrote down the customer service numbers on every piece of junk mail from every company I received offers from (37 in total).

Today, I've been calling these companies to stop the mailing of their advertisements.

It's painful!!
Often, the numbers they provide or automated voice messages that point you through an application process, and it takes me forever to figure out how to get their customer service reps on the line.

Or their customer service reps are painfully slow at taking me out of their system or putting a "stop" order on my 'services'.


What the fuck, over?

Imago said:

simple solution...

take those paid-return envelopes, fill them with all the paper THEY sent you, add something heavy and inert (don't want to get busted!) like sand and mail those heavy ass envelopes back to them. They pay the postage and if we ALL would do those companies the favor eventually they'd spend themselves out of business.

problem solved!

RenHoek said:

For about a yr I did exactly that

http://www.greendimes.com...1231513511

http://www.wikihow.com/Ge...-Junk-Mail

http://www.privacyrights....4-junk.htm

Mach said:

so... how'd that work for you? did you see a decrease at all?

RenHoek said:

NO

But I have with attempts at offical methods

Junk Mail
There are several types of Unwanted Ad Mail (UAM), more commonly known as Junk Mail:
First, there are catalogs and material sent specifically to you because you are on a specific firm's database. In this case, contact the individual company to be removed. See the section on general guidelines, and follow up with additional action.


There is material sent specifically to you because you are on someone else's database, and another company purchased that database for one or more mailings. See hot tips, DMA List Suppression, and contacts and details.


If you ever receive a chain letter, the USPS makes it quite clear that they are illegal, whether distributed via snail mail or the internet. For more information, see the US Postal Service page on chain letters. USPS customer service can be reached at 800.238.3150.


Then there is saturation mailing, where the Post Office helps bulk mailers send mail to every address in an area (with addresses only - no names - on the mailings). The bulk mailer has to build up a list containing at least 90% of the addresses in a carrier-route. The Post Office will then supply the remaining 10% for a small fee so that the bulk mailer will reach everyone on the route. (See Domestic Mail Manual A920.4.4).

(Here's how the master database of addresses for each carrier route is prepared: Each carrier prepares an "edit sheet" of all addresses on their route, and sends it to Atlanta for inclusion into the master list or addresses by carrier route. This database is updated every 90 days. So even if you were to be removed from this list, you would end up back on it three months later.)

As reported by a mail house, the post office hates saturation mailings. Ever since they invested billions into automated sorting equipment, they have realized that automated mailings are much easier for them to process. The idea behind a saturation mailing is that the post office doesn't have to sort the mailers at all. The mailing service actually prints the mailers out in the same order that the carrier walks (referrred to as "walk sequence"), and the mail house trays or sacks them by carrier route. So, the carrier gets their first class and automated mail all neatly banded together by address, but has to lug around a big tray of mail and "add one" as they get to each address. With the July, 2002 postal rate change, the post office is now requiring mailers to prepare saturation mailings as automation compatible - meaning that they will be sorted on machines, just like the higher priced automation mail! The only reason this rate class even exists is because of companies like Advo and Val-pak exercising their lobbying power. The discounted postage rate certainly has no operational justificiation!


There is no way the Post Office will allow you to be removed from this list!


Saturation mailing works as follows. Each list by carrier route is provided by the USPS as a single block of addresses. In order for a bulk mailer to get the lowest bulk mail rate, the USPS says they have to mail to 100% of the addresses on the list. Thus, junk mailers are stuck - they can't delete your address from the carrier route list because their item counts would change and postal charges would go up.

I no longer receive junk mail. No one can find me.

As a postman I hate delivering it but we get around 1.2p for every item we deliver.
In the UK there is a way to opt out of receiving "junk mail" just phone your local depot and tell them you wish to recieve it no more.
Until a customer contacts Royal Mail we are law bound to deliver it.

i write "return to sender - JUNK MAIL" in red magic marker on the front of unwanted catalogs, and drop them in the post box. then i follow that up with a letter asking them to remove me from their mailing list. it takes time, but it works.

i thought you could just tell you post person and they put a halt to it all.

Imago said:

Those companies have too much freedom to use marketing tactics to entice people to buy their shit.
Most of the time I just throw it all to the recycle bin. Eight years ago, I decided to call the customer line to see if they would take me off their mailing list. The representative assured me that I had been taken off the list. A few weeks later, the darn catalog was there again on my mail box!

RenHoek said:

That's a great idea. Even if it didn't work, it would feel satisfying.

NDRU said:

try powder sugar

um why don't u just get the NO JUNK MAIL sign for your letter box?

BlueZebra said:

looks like Anthrax... can't have orgers going to prison now can we...

Ocean said:

for me, that would mean I'd miss out on all the sexy lingerie catalogues

BlueZebra said:

fuck that, I'll use Anthrax! [CIA, Prince, whoever is monitoring me, this was only a joke;-)]

NDRU said:

BlueZebra said:

So those envelopes become like the Trojan horse carrying a throng of ants.

gyro34 said:

the fun part is nobody knows where they come from since you're not supposed to put a sender's address on it

BlueZebra said:

I hate junk mail too. I get solicitations from seemingly every organization under the sun, asking me to send money. I've NEVER sent ANYBODY any kind of donation, but I think they get my name from the cat magazine that I receive in the mail every month. I know that companies can "sell" your name and address to other organizations, and once you're on their list, that's when they start sending you stuff.

What I do is, I either call or email the company to tell them that I wish to be taken off their list, and that I have NO MONEY to send them. It usually takes about 6-8 weeks, but so far, it seems to work. Or, if there is no phone number or email address listed, I take the donation form that they sent me, write on it, "Please take my name off your mailing list. I am NOT INTERESTED!", then mail it back to the company. Either method seems to work pretty well.