Unwanted post
Posted by: CPeter on 14 November 2005
This morning we had 8 letters/brochures etc in the post; only 1 of them I kept, the rest was stuff I didn’t want. This time of year, with the run up to Christmas, is particularly bad; we received five (5!) Christmas brochures in the first week of September, depressing on a multitude of levels.
The enormous waste of paper, resources and (my) time is shocking and irritating.
A while ago I registered with some organisation to stop unwanted phone calls from people trying to sell me things I don’t want. This has proven to be very effective. I vaguely remember there was something similar for post, but can’t find or remember name/website. Does anyone know what I’m talking about and/or has any experience whether this is effective?
Please, very please?
Peter
Posted on: 14 November 2005 by seagull
Posted on: 14 November 2005 by CPeter
Seagull, thanks.
Peter
Posted on: 14 November 2005 by arf005
We've registered and it does work!
Posted on: 14 November 2005 by Sir Crispin Cupcake
Thanks from me too Seagull!
Rich
Posted on: 15 November 2005 by JamieWednesday
I've taken to keeping it all, inserting it in the (also enclosed) pre-paid envelopes at random and sending it off to these companies. So this way Capital One gets mailshots from OneTel, IPC Media gets a Pizza menu and Jaguar got an offer of a test drive in a Toyota. Which was nice.
I figure if enough folks did the same then, with the increased costs in handling the incoming mail, disposal of the rubbish and the fact that they've now had to pay the cost of the 'pre-paid' envelope, then it might just reduce the insistance of firms on sending mailshots in the first place.
Of course it is also mildly satisfying.
Posted on: 15 November 2005 by Derek Wright
Apart from using Mailing Preference process we have printed a set of sticky labels saying
Unsolicited Mail
Return to Sender
we place the label over our address and place the offending remnants of a tree in the mail box.
Posted on: 15 November 2005 by Phil-1978
JamieWednesday - great idea.
If enough people start doing this then we'll be contributing to the economy, keeping Royal Mail staff in their jobs and possibly creating even more jobs!
Posted on: 16 November 2005 by blythe
I simply cross out my own address from the original mailing. I then stamp the front of the envelope "Return to sender", pop it back in the post box, and hope that they remove me from their mailing list.......
Posted on: 17 November 2005 by marvin the paranoid android
Blythe
Exactly what I do, and it does work.
My main issue is with previous owners. The amount of mail we get for the previous people is amazing. From the comapny names on the envelopes it would appear to be quite serious stuff too. Even 3 years on, we still get the odd envelope for the previous incumbents. Putting a little message on the envelope does appear to get through to the sender though
Having said that, we have started to get mail for another totally dis-similar addressin the same town. Not even the same number!
Cheer up!
Marvin
