Letter to the Editor
Junk mail
Published Thursday, April 3, 2008
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To the editor:
Yesterday I received a large wad of trash in my mailbox. Again. Large pages of advertising, none of them addressed to me.
If I was receiving all this in my e-mail, I could instruct my service provider to block the sender.
If I was receiving it as phone calls, I could ask to be taken off the direct marketing list.
If it was mailed to me as an individual, I could call the companies and ask to be taken off their mailing lists. But because it is being bulk-mailed to my mailbox and not to me by name, apparently I have no say in whether I should receive it or not.
The problem is not just that it clogs my mailbox (which I pay a large amount of money to use).
It contributes to our pollution problems by cutting trees, adding pollutants such as lead to our environment and filling our landfills. It also takes fuel to bring it here from wherever it’s printed.
Is this really necessary? I know what I want to buy and I know how to get it. I am offended by businesses that beat me over the head with their advertising.
And I’m not likely to patronize them.
Community Discussion
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you do have a right..there is a return email on them or they could not send it e mail them back..
speedbump. It is not a good idea to e-mail them back. If you do this then they know for sure they have a valid e-mail address and the computer generated e-mail will continue to be sent. Just delete the junk e-mail. If you open it, it could be a virus.
I feel your pain! I have been hating all the junk mail from the postal service for years, and I do not like the way it fills up the trash can either. If someone knows how to stop it ...please let us know what to do....
Using the return envelopes, mail some of the other junk mails back to them. It might not stop it, but it's cheap entertainment.
The Postal Service doesn't mail the junk to you, a paying customer mails it to you. The USPS is just the middle man.
Speedbump, as the owner of an internet domain I can tell you the return e-mail on spam is almost never the actual source of the spam. I used to get more spam said to be "from" my domain than anywhere else -- from addresses that I knew for a fact didn't exist.
Spoofing e-mail addresses in the "from" field of an e-mail is appallingly easy to do, and to get away with. Tracing the actual source of an e-mail is far more complicated, and even then you can't be sure a spammer hasn't just set up some poor shmoe's always-on computer as a "zombie" to send spam without the shmoe's knowledge.
I wish I could be 100% sure my own computer hasn't been used that way. I try to protect it but...?
speedbump needs to work on reading comprehension. She's talking about mail in her mailbox, not email. Since you brought up email, as already pointed out, your suggestion of emailing them back is a terrible one.
I have had good success unsubscribing from junk email senders.
Regarding snail mail, sending their mail back to them (including the original envelope) in their postage paid envelopes, along with a dirty note does actually work. Doing it this way makes the senders pay to receive their own junk mail back.
Along with that, here are a couple other things you can do:
Call 888-567-8688 or go to www.optoutprescreen.com
You have to give your name, address, SSN, and date of birth, but it takes care of junk mail from all major credit bureaus. You can opt out for 5 years or forever. This has stopped most of my junk mail from credit card companies, insurance companies, and any others who use credit services to get your mailing address.
In addition, you can contact the Direct Marketing Association to get your name removed from other types of mail lists. The email address is www.dmaconsumers.org/cgi/offmailinglist. You can print off a form and mail it to DMA to have your name removed for 5 years.
akhusky is right about being removed from the lists of Direct Marketing Asssoc. There are laws to protect us so I recommend that if you recieve this mail you not only send it back in there prepaid envelopes if provided but that you contact the watchdog agency that oversees compliance with this, a phone call is usually all you need, but you have to ACT not just grumble about it.
somebody must have a job making sure all this useless junk gets to you. if we cut it all off, wouldn't that person lose his job? how many unemployed people do we want?
AKhusky - Thank You for the info!!
Except that your "dirty note" will be opened by someone probably making $7/hour to open mail. There's not much of a chance it'll move much further beyond that stage--probably not even to the credit investigator (if it's a credit card) making around $11/hour to run credit reports.....
I worked at a large (now absorbed by a larger) bank when I graduated college in the '80s. I worked in credit investigations, and the muckity-mucks decided to go with direct marketing for credit cards. It was a pretty new idea in the '80s, and they bought lists and lists for their "campaigns." Some came back filled out, some came back with shredded up applications. The WORST I saw came back at the height of the mailing. We'd employed temps to run the envelopes through an automatic opener (please don't think there's someone sitting at a desk opening these by hand). I think we were paying about $5.50/hour for this job. Anyway, one of the temps was running the "slicer" in another room, and we all suddenly heard SCREAMING. She'd put in a bundle and it was running, and someone had put flat, window pane glass in the envelope. When that envelope hit the slicer, for whatever reason, it just exploded open, and she got a face full of glass. It was horrible.
I go with the opt out option and try not to vent my frustration on some poor soul who didn't have anything to do with the decision-making process anyway.
With regards to snail mail, I did what AKhusky did and rarely receive junk mail now.
AKSoul,
Thanks for the insight. I'll be a little nicer on my next round of junk mail :)
that junk mail advertising we get up here in Alaska is nothing. Giant packs of valuable coupons that come with similar advertising are being sent to people in the 48. I welcomed these coupons. Up here, all we get is a useless ad for a cheap handbag or a figurine, maybe some cheap perfume. Why dont we get the coupons too?
Thanks, AKhusky, I really appreciate that. Hope you're having a wonderful day. :-)
At least you get your mail! We have had numerous envelopes that people have had returned to them because the USPS said we didn't live at the address. After checking, 100% of those cards & letters were addressed perfectly. It is very annoying to not know how much real mail you are missing!
akprincess72, do you have a PO box or a mailbox? :-) Ours is (was) about 1/4 mile from our house, and I went to get the mail one day and it was gone -- not just the mail, but someone had ripped the entire BOX off the post (and it was the only box gone in a row of boxes). Yikes! I got a PO box the same day. :-) (and I get mail for the last 3 people/businesses that owned the PO box, too!)
akprincess72 - I have the same problem. The only thing worse is getting mail from the Post Office that's been opened.
I've gotten mail delivered to that took over 7 months to get to me. There was a hand scribbled note on the envelope "Lost In Snowbank". I chuckle everytime I think about it.
As I always say, there is no service in the Postal Service.
Reason for me to always use a PO box or RR box:
I was a construction flagger three summers ago and a motorhome was at the front of my line and I was stopping them at a corner with a large row of mailboxes. They handed me a bag full of (opened) mail and said they'd found it at a pullout a few miles down the Parks Highway and that it looked like a lot of it was from the mailboxes at the corner. I did pretty much all I thought I could do and took it to the Post Office, since I didn't want to deal with putting it in people's mailboxes (is that considered mail tampering too?) so I hope those people eventually got their mail... opened bank statements and all :s
Thanks AKhusky for the info.
The real problem are those who respond to junk mail as they encourage the mailers to keep sending it.
Think she was talking about snail mail not email. I also checked to see about this kind of junk mail. I was told that that the senders pay for the bulk permits and addresses and that the post office couldn't stop it. I agree it's a waste of advertisement. Advertisers could probably lower their prices if they didn't spend so much on this type of advertising. We should beable to set up a NO-MAIL list like we do the NO-Call.
AkSoul & Photodude, We now have a PO Box that we are trying to get everything sent to, but our domicile has a little lock box mailbox. We moved less than a year ago & they don't forward almost anything. I understand that there are some items that can't be forwarded, but I wouldn't think birthday cards & doctor bills fall in that category. Besides the items that are returned & not forwarded, they have started returning mail that has the current, correct address.
At least I haven't gotten the 'snowbank' letter though, that is classic!
I know this article is about snail mail, but I have a little trick to know if someone is selling my email address. When I sign up for a service or order anything online at say companyxyz.com, I will put my name as "janecompanyxyz doe" then when I get all these emails that say CONGRATULATIONS Janecompanyxyz you can enlarge your member in 2 days, I will know not to be a cutomer of that company anymore.
I like Andy Rooneys idea. Fill up the return evelopes from the credit card co's with the other junk mail.
The worst junk mail is from Bible Baptist Church. Covered in the American Flag like loving God has anything to do with the red, white, and blue. Even worse (as you are reading the "allegiance to God and country are the same" spiel) are the children of the corn that knock on your door and demand proof of your faith. I live in a big apartment complex that receives bi-monthly bus-loads of kids selling patriot-god. Where are their parents?
...printing mass mail for the sake of redundancy.
Question, does the Fairbanks area have a recycling center, a place where you could take the junk mail, cardboard, and newspapers to be recycled ?
FYI im not a female to the snyde comment that said "she"
We sure do have a tough life here in the USA. What, with all the people trying to engage in capitalism, and sell us the latest in corrupt capitalist merchandise. The nerve!
And you Goat. I cannot imagine the pain of receiving mail that advocates God and country. How disgusting can it get?
Why me? I eat that junk mail. Makes it disappear, I'm getting 3 meals a day, not killing any animals, I'm giving people employment, and it's good fiber.
I call this the Al Gore Jr Diet. Which is friendlier than the Ted Turner diet.
echo317,
http://co.fairbanks.ak.us/
FNSB has some options, however the choices are slim in fbks. Look in their Solid Waste Division for details.
God and Country? Excusively, they are wonderful (except only one is infallible and righteous, the latter invokes Him out of convenience). Only Israel is written to stake a claim on His behalf. Otherwise, it is an individual affair.
Speedbump wrote:
"FYI im not a female to the snyde comment that said "she""
The "she" I was talking about was the original poster, not you. Really, you need to slow down and work on your reading comprehension.
Ellen, thanks for your letter sharing your concerns about unwanted, wasteful junk mail. Again, the subsequent dialog/responses seem to get personal and off track.
Unfortunately, junk mail is the 'bread and butter' of the USPS, which has no plans to restrict, reduce or curtail it. Companies make money selling names (all derivations of names, such as Jane Doe, J. Doe, J. Margaret Doe, Jane Margaret Doe, etc. etc.)
I've returned junk mail in postage paid envelopes and written messages on postage paid postcards requesting my name be removed from their lists, with mixed results. I've contacted the direct marketing association and other similar groups to remove our names from lists, also with mixed results. I've written the USPS on a number of occasions and gotten nowhere. I've contacted legislators, most who could care less about such a 'trivial' matter. I have called toll free numbers o