I just moved into a new place, and get excessive amounts of junk mail. It was painfully obvious that the former tenants got foreclosed on -- 15-20 pieces of mail come in a day, including credit card offers, debt consolidation and foreclosure assistance. Worst thing about this mail, is that 50% of it is directed to "Current Resident"
I don't know how everyone else feels, but I absolutely hate getting junk mail. Yes, it's very easy to just toss it in the recycling bin, but it's a headache to me to have to sort through the mail to find the actual mail that I want to read. I've had instances where I thought my garbage/water bill was missing (which comes from the city, and they don't support online transactions), but it was actually stuck within my junk mail, right next to the ADVO advertisement. Not to mention our culture is turning "green," so I'd like to save resources where possible.
The USPS unfortunately doesn't offer any real services to "stop" junk mail, because it impacts their bottom line. Most of their revenue comes from bulk mail, which mostly consists of advertisements. It's gotten pretty out of hand, so I spent this past weekend doing some research, and found the following resources. I hope this can help some of you in similar situations. One of the things on my to-do list this week is to get a rubber stamp saying "Refused: Return to Sender"
One that I'm going to have some trouble with is "BetUS" -- they send catalogs every two weeks of betting lines (no idea how they got my address) and I've called them multiple times to get off their lists. Apparently they don't care, but I'm going to fill out a form with the USPS (PS 1500) which prohibits mail that I deem sexually arousing. They leave it up to you to decide what falls into that category, so I'm going to list these guys. Hopefully that takes care of it.
I'd love to hear any other tips FWF has on getting rid of junk mail. This reminds me why I don't have a land line anymore though, as that's just one more advertising channel I'll have to administrate.
Postal Employee: "May I help you?" Kramer: "Yeah, I'd like to cancel my mail." Postal Employee: "Certainly. How long would you like us to hold it?" Kramer: "Oh, no, no. I don't think you get me. I want out, permanently." Newman: "I'll handle this, Violet. Why don't you take your three hour break? Oh, calm down, everyone. No one's cancelling any mail." Kramer: "Oh, yes, I am." Newman: "What about your bills?" Kramer: "The bank can pay 'em." Newman: "The bank. What about your cards and letters?" Kramer: "E-mail, telephones, fax machines. Fedex, telex, telegrams, holograms." Newman: "All right, it's true! Of course nobody needs mail. What do you think, you're so clever for figuring that out? But you don't know the half of what goes on here. So just walk away, Kramer. I beg of you." Supervisor: "Is everything all right here, Postal Employee Newman?" Newman: "Yes, sir, I believe everything is all squared away. Isn't it, Mr. Kramer?" Kramer: "Oh, yeah. As long as I stop getting mail!"
You could do what I do. Get a Mailboxes ETC rental box and have ALL mail go there. NOTHING goes to my apartment and I NEVER open my apartment mailbox. As an experiment sometimes I clear out my apartment mailbox and in 3 days its completely fill with local advertisements.
I do it mainly for privacy reasons but also because when I order things from Amazon to save sales tax, I have someone who signs for my package rather than having to go to the UPS shipping center to pick it up.
I got a kick out of returning credit card offers in college. I would put mastercard applications (unfilled) in the pre-paid visa envelopes. Sometimes I would send an empty envelope back. That didn't stop them, but at least I was hurting their bottom line a little bit (very very very little).
tante said:I got a kick out of returning credit card offers in college. I would put mastercard applications (unfilled) in the pre-paid visa envelopes. Sometimes I would send an empty envelope back. That didn't stop them, but at least I was hurting their bottom line a little bit (very very very little).
There was a guy on the interweb who took that to the next level and taped the prepaid return labels onto boxes filled with rocks. If you google it you may find it. Im too lazy.
How about profiting from junk mail? Sign up for every piece of junk mail possible and use it to heat your house or save it and build a house with papercrete.
tripleB said:tante said:I got a kick out of returning credit card offers in college. I would put mastercard applications (unfilled) in the pre-paid visa envelopes. Sometimes I would send an empty envelope back. That didn't stop them, but at least I was hurting their bottom line a little bit (very very very little).
There was a guy on the interweb who took that to the next level and taped the prepaid return labels onto boxes filled with rocks. If you google it you may find it. Im too lazy.http://officeofstrategicinfluence.com/bulkmailer/
tripleB said:You could do what I do. Get a Mailboxes ETC rental box and have ALL mail go there. NOTHING goes to my apartment and I NEVER open my apartment mailbox. As an experiment sometimes I clear out my apartment mailbox and in 3 days its completely fill with local advertisements.
I do it mainly for privacy reasons but also because when I order things from Amazon to save sales tax, I have someone who signs for my package rather than having to go to the UPS shipping center to pick it up.
I never get ANY junk mail!
Never thought I'd ever agreed with B3. You've been GREENED. LOL
t60 said: One that I'm going to have some trouble with is "BetUS" -- they send catalogs every two weeks of betting lines (no idea how they got my address) and I've called them multiple times to get off their lists. Apparently they don't care, but I'm going to fill out a form with the USPS (PS 1500) which prohibits mail that I deem sexually arousing. They leave it up to you to decide what falls into that category, so I'm going to list these guys. Hopefully that takes care of it.
PS1500 will only get you so far. In my experience I found the following:
For mail addressed to "Resident" WITHOUT your specific address, you are essentially screwed. The USPS reserves the right to distribute junk mail addressed to non-specific addresses within any zip code they have sold. These are the bulk mail fliers/letters distributed without your specific address. They will not issue the prohibitory order unless your specific address is listed.
Also, AT&T seems to ignore anything you do. Even after the prohibitory order, they continued to send me crap on a weekly basis.
I use the prepaid envelopes from credit card offers to recycle old electronics. I sent Capital One 3 of my old CRT monitors and a huge stack of old newspapers I had lying around. You could effectively eliminate your trash service if you pulled it off right.
tante said:I got a kick out of returning credit card offers in college. I would put mastercard applications (unfilled) in the pre-paid visa envelopes. Sometimes I would send an empty envelope back. That didn't stop them, but at least I was hurting their bottom line a little bit (very very very little).I got an invitation (really a solicitation for money) from the Republican party when I was in college. They decided that, since I read the economist, I would be super-conservative. This junkmail pissed me off so I sent the application back checking the box for the donation amount as 'other' and sent them 'one dirty penny'.
The really amusing part was that they sent me back an official card showing that I was a card-carrying member of the republican party.
Apparently, they thought I fit right in!
(note: I would have done the same thing if the application was for the democratic party so don't take this post as political)
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