I haven't done that yet, however, when a telemarketer calls,
I say in my sugary, polite, very southern accent. " could
you please hold on just a minute" I then go about my
business for awhile and when I get back to the phone, they're gone.
Others, I just asked that my name be removed from their
call list.

And you wonder why the cost of doing business and banking and credit card annual fees are ever increasing. Anything you do to increase the costs of a business of the type you may patronize will end up costing you money....or costing ME money and that's worse!
But....putting a telephone solicitor on hold?...well.
But I get almost no phone solicitations since I put my name on "The List".
Linda C

Janis, Why aren't you on the No Call list? I get zero calls after we put our numbers on it about three years ago.

As for going through all of that with junk mail, isn't it just easier to shred it all & recycle it? I doubt that any of these little retaliations is going to stop the solicitations coming. They'll just get the junk you're sending back & throw it into the trash & put it in another landfill.

I'm on the No Call list and now I'm getting automated calls...which are left on my voice mail! Anybody know how to stop that one?

Karen

Shred and compost. Use their paper to enrich your garden.

I sort my mail by the trash bin. The junk never makes it into the house.

Hey!

I shred and compost my junk mail too! All paper junk mail and misc family paper that can be shredded (no glues, plastic windows etc...) goes into the garden. What's really amazing is how it helps cut down on garbage output. We're a family of four and we average one can a week.

We're on the no call list too. Only get political, charity and survey phone calls now -much nicer.

And don't you wish thosw charities had to abide by the no call list too?

Andie, I am on the No Call list.
Every charity in the world, plus both political
parties, and survey folks must have me on their lists.

I got a survey call the other night and I wasn't busy
so I thought I might be amused by talking to the very
nice young woman who wanted to speak with the female
in the household. ( that would be me, I said, what do you need to know ?)
Do you eat out more than once a week? That's a big ole YES,
I said ( thinking to myself, oh! goodie, I get to talk about restaurants and food)
How many times each week do you eat at fast food places?
None, I said. I was waiting for the next question and was
taken aback when she said. Thank you for taking our survey,
bye. She hug up quickly, no doubt to move on to her next
call.
I felt like Andy Gifffith must have felt in the episode
where he "got 10 foured right in the middle of an idea"

I may be mistaken, but I think those prepaid postage envelopes are just that....already paid for. All you do is waste your time and that of the post office clerks that have to handle it. The trees are already cut down. Trash is trash. It will either go into the landfill where you live or the landfill where it's sent.

No...they are paid for as they are returned.....the PO counts them and charges the business accordingly.
Linda C

Linda is right. When one is returned, then postage is charged to an account that the company sets up with the post office. The postage for reply mail is higher than normal. I think it was around 60 cents or so per item. We recycled the junk sent back, but I live in metro Oregon where we're fanatics about recycling even at the corporate level. I'd imagine other areas do just throw it in the trash.

I used to be in charge of direct mail for our company. We used to get the most amazing things - sometimes through reply mail, sometimes as a response to our junk mail that people spent their own money on postage to send to us. They'd send us religious tracts and long letters telling us about Jesus. We were always sortof bummed we never got stuff about Buddha, Vishnu or Mohammed. We'd get unprintable, illegible or nonsensical rantings and sometimes political commentary. Mostly religious tracts and people saying they'd pray for us. I always wondered how they'd do that since they had no idea who we were. (Did they mean our marketing department, the printer, the mail house or the list company? All of us? How did they know?) The most entertaining stuff we kept on our Wall of Fame. Like the spidery-wavery handwritten note that we were going to H-E-double toothpicks and they even drew little flames at the bottom of the note. That was a classic.

OK, thanks for the info. I had been misinformed sometime in the past about this same thing about returning mail. Most of the junk stuff we get is from local business. I think they think that because we have a certain zip code, we have tons of money to invest/contribute/waste.
Frog

You can call them get off their lists, but you'll have to call each local business individually. They're either using the "resident" approach and blanketing the entire zip code in which case you're probably stuck, or purchasing all the names in a zip code in which case you can get removed.

Getting off smaller more localized lists is harder than it sounds. A small business can buy a list and use it for up to a year. Often they use it longer. Putting yourself on the National Do Not Mail list will not apply to lists that were already purchased. If Joe's Plumbing is using last year's list (or the year before's), well, you're still on his list and will be until Joe buys a new list.

If you call Joe's Plumbing and say 'take me off' you may be able to get off the list. It will probably take two calls. What really happens is that Joe's receptionist writes your name down and gives it to their mailhouse. If the receptionist writes it down correctly AND it matches what is in the purchased list, then your name will be pulled out when they mail next.

LOTS of things can go wrong. First, they probably have a mailing all printed up and addressed right now waiting to be put in the mail. You're in it and they're sending it out next week. No one is gonna sort through 5,000 envelopes to pull yours. They'll have to take you out for the one after. Second, if the name you gave doesn't exactly match what's in their database (i.e. John H Doe vs. J. Doe), or if the receptionist transposes a number or something in your address, then you're still in for the next mailing.

The way you can make it the most likely to get off the list is to mail them back their envelope (it has your exact info on it, probably with a mailhouse code) with a letter that says take me off your list. This is something they can easily forward to their mailhouse for processing. This is the very best way to get off local lists.

I know it seems stupid to have to do all this yourself when you didn't ask for the mail in the first place. I guess you'll have to decide how much it bothers you to receive it.

Whatever you do, just don't call them on the phone and tell their voice mail, "Take me off your mailing list!" and then hang up. You wouldn't believe how many people do that.

If you don't think that direct mail works, it does. The company I worked for would send 10,000 pieces to an area around their hearing aid clinic. We would be overjoyed if 70 people called the clinic, 35 appointments were set, and 17 sets of hearing aids were sold. That's 17 people out of 10,000. I'm sure we drove a lot of people crazy with our junk mail. It was gold for us though.

I recycle the envelopes by using them as store lists and I put the coupons in the envelope.

I LOVE this thread! I have been ripping up and returning junk mail for years. I know that they now pay for it, and that if EVERYONE does it, it will clog up their mail rooms. I read somewhere that credit card companies send out millions of applications a year, and only 5% are returned. That sounds like an incredible waste to me. I am also on every "DO NOT" list that there is, but they still seem to find me. I got the idea from some guy years ago that collected thousands of AOL discs, and returned them all at the same time. I think the rip and send back is a little easier, though! Christy

Some surveys are done from a list of phone numbers for an area in numeric order with no names. I found out they just go down the list so the no call list has no effect on these.
I have a non listed number and asked one company why they were calling as I was on the no call list and they said they got their info from the dept of motor vehicles. I called the DMV and they said it was not allowed in our state, no list was sold. Apparently some do.
Lynn

It is bad enough to be pestered with junk mail, and I am a tree-lover, but at least it helps support the USPS, which--judging by the way rates keep going up--never has enough money. But what do you all do about unwanted faxes with ads that use your expensive ink and your paper to try to sell you something?

I would like to do something really bad to those fax-an-ad companies! We frequently get faxes offering cruises, lower mortgage rates, etc., or touting the stock of certain companies. I always call to be removed from the list, if they give a number for it, but there are always more faxes. Often, the composition of the ad makes me think that it is coming from the same place, and maybe they just have a number of different phone Nos. for getting removed so that they can claim they DID remove your name, if you complain; you 'just haven't called THEIR removal phone number' yet.

I hate the ones about stocks most, because they never have a removal number at all. Once I sent an angry e-mail to a company whose stock was being touted, and they replied at length about how THEY had not originated those ads, oh no. But I notice that the faxes about that company did stop coming. Perhaps because I used the magic initials FCC.

I recently got my revenge with an insurance co that sent me an invitation to buy life insurance on my grandchildren. I was addressed to Mrs. Jane Doe (not my real name). I am a single woman...have 'never' been a Mrs. and have no children, thus no grandchildren.

I took the literature, and wrote boldly on it, "Please remove this name and address from ALL mailing lists. I then stuffed it and the envelope it came in, and several pages of a Walmart bill that was handy, and sent it back to them. I'm sure it was overweight, so I imagine they had to pay a little additional to even get it. I'm sure it got their attention though, and they'll not be wasting any more of their money sending Miss Jane Doe any advertisements.

Sue

Chemocurl....I will guar-an-tee that your little trick of putting junk in an envelope and mailing it back did absolutely no good at all. The little drudge in the mail room simply did what she ( or he) is being paid minimum wage to do...toss out the junk and keep the orders.
All you did was to increase that company's cost of doing business....and subsequently all companies that use the USPO for business.
I spent a few weeks working for my husband when there was a shortage of someone who would open the mail. I went in every morning and opened and sorted the postage paid mail. I tossed the junk, separated out the ones that were stanped "deceased" or "no longer at this address" and sorted the others as to paid or charge orders.
Your request to be removed is much more likely to be seen if it doesn't also include junk.
I also think that technically it is an abuse of the postal system, but I don't know of any charges being pressed on such a matter.
Post paid mail is sorted by the bundle and weighed by the bundle...there was no more notice taken of your mail than to toss it into the trash. Such actions are a childish waste of your time as well as the time and resources of the company who sent the mailing piece.
Linda C

Linda C

If we increase that company's cost of doing business, then isn't that the point? And how is it an abuse of the postal system, if it is being paid for? I thought that is what the postal system was for - TO DELIVER PAID FOR MAIL. So, if you pay for it, how can charges be pressed? Actually it gives me some satisfaction to mail their trash right back to them, if it is called childish, then so be it. I'm a child at heart anyways :) Christy

The point is, you are contributing to higher costs for businesses, and those costs are passed on to consumers. Let's say you get an invitation to subscribe to a magazine you don't want and send the paper back without subscribing. If enough people do that, that just increases the cost of subscribing for those who do want the magazine. Same with credit card invitations; you just help push up interest rates.

I don't think this is childish, but selfish. You're just contributing to inflation.

I don't get it. I bought a paper shredder years ago, just for junk mail. It broke down, and I had to buy another one. I have sent back my unwanted mail with satisfaction. If you want the magazine, buy it. If you want the credit card, subscribe to it. But, I reserve the right to send junk mail back. I didn't ask for it. I asked to NOT receive it. They just find loopholes around our requests!! Why should I be worried about interest rates being pushed up. I am way in the minority. If I'm not correct, 95% of their envelopes go unanswered. How am I chosen as the one who is selfish?

Well, it is very unfortunate that companies aren't training or expecting a mail room person to handle the mail any better than that. Please remove this name and address from all mailing lists should be handled as 'deceased or 'return to sender' I would think. It is costing the company money. They are not attempting to hold down costs, thus hold down the cost to the consumer. Sending mail selling insurance to woman for insurance on her grandchildren, who has no grandchildren, is just an out and out waste of their advertising dollars.

When I first retired, I was paying bills once a month, and chose at that time to start making a few small donations via mail each month. Well word must have gotten out, and my mailbox was soon stuffed with requests everyday. Knowing I could NEVER afford to send a donation in each and every donation envelope, I set out to get it stopped.

I counted how many requests I received in an average month, and multiplied by 12 months. It fiqured up to 700 requests per year!. That's a lot of their solitation money spent (wasted) if I'm not going to be able to put something in all those return envelopes.

I did not stuff envelopes with anything extra. I put the postage on it when they asked, because of it saving them. I methodically worked to get them stopped, explaining that I was no longer making donations via mail, but had chosen to make all donation locally. I asked that they remove my name and address from all mailing lists, and kept track of who I had mailed to and when. I finally got the madness stopped. Luckily the mail room folks were instructed to handle such mail as it should have been.

I had to do the same thing years earlier. My Mom passed away, and I was administrator of the estate. All the mail was forwarded to me. For what I remember to be the longest time, I received donation requests addressed to her, and it was very upsetting to say the least. I worked hard at that too, and now 17 years later, seldom get any mail for her.

Sue...who sees forests being cut down, just to stuff mailboxes with junk mail.

My very first "real" job when I dropped out of college the first time to get married was at the USPO. I carried the mail for a year and then bid an inside job. Part of that job was sorting the JUNK mail. Yeah, businesses pay for it all right but they don't pay nearly as much for their bulk rate as you or I pay to send mail, but it takes just as much time to process it. It hit me wrong then, and it still does. Why on earth should junk mail cost any less to send than first class?

I suspect if all mail carried the same rates, it would decrease substantially the amount of wasted effort and paper clogging up the system. At least it would perhaps make business be a little more particular about what they send and to whom.

Junk mail is now and has been for something like 25 or more years sorted by the sender as to zip code and pre-bundled and bagged accordingly.
I have done a lot of volunteer work for charities, political candidates etc and done my share of bundling and sorting mail. Bulk rate mail is a lot cheaper for the post office than 1st class.
Linda C

I'm sure it has more restrictions on sorting and addressing now Linda, automation was on its way in when I left the service. There are also more restrictions on first class and every other type of mail as well...... with less processing and higher rates. But, I still think the effort required to ship it, store it, sort it at the final zip to the carrier stations and then deliver endless pieces of largely unwanted material should not receive as much of a discount as it does. I guess there has always been a large corporate lobby who would scream bloody murder when anything chewing into their profits is concerned....including special postal rates. But, most people view junk mail in the same light as email spam. I guess I see commercial advertising through a different paradigm than you perhaps. To me it's overkill and I have never cared for it particulary. If I need a piece of newsprint to tell me I want something or need something, then I figure I must not want it or need it very badly. I'll also tell you when I carried mail, I used to have to carry a lot of that crap right back to the P.O. for disposal because people just wrote refused across it. It's their prerogative. That cost money.

Isn't this a lot of energy to be wasted on junk mail? We recycle white paper, so it only tkes about 1 second to throw it all into the recycling bag. Who cares?

Yeah I have a feeling if we all sent our junk mail back to the company sending it out, they would have to pay for it but at the lower rate, the post office has more expense and in the end our stamp prices are raised?

I agree junk/bulk mail should not get a lower rate. That would help. May just increase email spam instead though.

I used to get several credit card apps a week from the same couple companies, but they stopped sending to me, I guess because of no response. You can call them and tell them to save the trees and stop sending you stuff.

Anyone see the Andy Rooney thing years back on this? He took all his mail for a week, and sorted the 'important/necessary' papers and the stuff left to throw away, and the throw away pile was huge compared to the needed pile. It was amusing and so true.

It only takes a second to throw junk mail into recycling, who cares? I do. Here is for why. The disount given to junk mailers drives the cost up for private users. I didn't pull that one out of the air, it's true. The American Postal Workers Union stated "The discounts equal significantly more than the costs the Postal Service avoids when it receives presorted mail." The article I was reading went on to state:

The Postal Service is offering approximately $3.8 billion in discounts annually to giant first-class mailers for pre-sorting their mail. These discounts exceed by more than $700 million annually the costs the Postal Service avoids when it processes this mail, thereby subsidizing giant mailers at the expense of ordinary consumers." It also went on to state that when the volume of mail were broken down into its various components that in 1991, over 43% of the mix was business to consumer advertising.

So, we as taxpayers are actually underwriting our own junk mail.

When I think of all the other things my tax dollars are wasted on, this is just not important.

Blueheron, I do exactly what you do - write the grocery list on the envelope and put only the coupons that I will use on that shopping trip in it! (That way, I'm not tempted to use coupons on things I don't need.)

Great minds think alike!

I stuff those prepaid envelopes and send them back also. I find whatever I can fit in them and send it to them. I do not care if it increases their cost to do business. I am tired of filling up my trash can with their junk that I did not ask for. I get tons of credit card offers daily and I am having to buy trash bags and pay for garbage pickup. If these businesses do not want to pay extra, then stop sending unwanted offers to me. If I want a credit card, I'll find one that doesn't send me crap in the mail constantly. It's always the same ones.

Also as far as costing the postal service--I don't think so. They are getting more money since they get to collect on the return delivery. It probably helps keep the cost of stamps down.

To opt-out of credit card offers: call the Federal Trade Commission's approved number (24/7): 1-888-5-OPT-OUT.
You will have to punch in your SSN and DOB for identity purposes. This is the line for all 4 credit bureaus (don't worry---the credit bureaus already know your SSN and DOB). You will have to speak your name and address. You are given a choice to opt-out for 2 years, or 5 years, or "permanently". Regardless of which of the three options you choose, you can always change your mind and "opt-in". If you choose to opt-out "permanently" (I use quotations because you can always change your mind and later choose to opt-in again), you will be sent a form in the mail about a week later to fill out, sign, and return by mail. In about 3 months, this should stop most of your pre-approved offers of credit. Also, call the customer service number for each of your credit card companies and tell them that you do not wish to receive marketing offers and/or you do not wish to have your personal information given to non-affiliated third parties.

First and foremost, NEVER EVER give your social security number or date of birth out to anyone you're not looking at face to face and know fully. While, I know GardenParty people are savvy enough to know this, someone else reading it might fall prey.

Secondly, most of this stuff is urban legend. But more importantly, the link tells you the true way to get rid callers and mail, the right way.

Excerpt from the link:
"Returning junk mail to direct mailers on their dime (by stuffing it back into their postage-paid return envelopes) may cost them some money and provide you with a bit of personal satisfaction, but it won't cut down on the amount of junk mail you receive. In fact, it may actually increase your junk mail load, since the primary metric used to gauge the effectiveness of many direct mail campaigns is the number of responses received (even if those responses are negative). The best way to decrease the amount of unsolicited mail you receive is to register with the Direct Marketing Association's (DMA) Mail Preference Service (MPS). The DMA maintains a "do not mail" file of MPS registrants which they regularly update and send to their members, who are required to remove the listed entries from their rosters of prospective customers targeted for mailings. (The file is also made available to non-DMA members, but they are under no obligation to use it.)"

Here is a link that might be useful: Urban legend

Im glad to see the info on the do not mail list. I can screen my calls, but the credidt card apps drive me crazy. They have so much info on them that I dont want to throw them away with out shredding, very carefully. This becomes a bother because I use a PO box, as well as Public transportation. It means that I, and many others in the same position must lug around all those anoying envelopes of Junk Credidt offers, as we do our erands, till we can get home and distroy them. What a hassle. Even those silly "Insurance" offers have way too much personal info to put them in the trash. Some times when I stop for coffee, I triage them, and toss the envelopes and what ever is not printed with name, address, etc. but still, It would be nice if they weren't there in the first place. About Ten Years ago in my little community there was a check fraud/theft ring, that turned out to be some young adults who were life style "Transit Rats" I have been so paranoid ever since.

You can write REFUSED on any piece of mail you do not wish to receive. It is like return to sender but tells the mailer you do not want their stuff. Then the mail will be sent back to the sender. This might be a better way to do it.

My husband used to send stuff back but I convinced him that there were better ways to use his time. I just recycle the junk and don't worry about it.

About 2 years ago (or less) I was getting at least 10 - 20 credit card offers each week. I would get 6-12 from Capital One each week! I started writing on the order form in big black letters PLEASE REMOVE MY NAME FROM YOUR MAILING LIST. It costs them to mail and return, so after a while they stop sending them when they realize they are paying both ways.

After about 6 months I saw a noticeable difference. Now I don't get a half dozen a month! And that includes for my daughter, my husband, and myself! that is a BIG difference. Mostly I get the ones that are local with no return envelope.

You know, in the time it takes to open the envelope, write on the order form, replace in envelope and stick in mailbox, you could find their 1-800 number and ask them to remove you. They have to pay for your 1-800 call, if you're determined to make them pay, and at least you know they got the call.

SHRED the credit card offers - identity theft is huge (and we in this house know painfully). I'm moving our shredder to the basement so I remember to shred before throwing the things in the trash. They never make it into the house, because I sort the mail in the garage . . . .

and the shreddings make good compost browns . . . . .

This company will also send horrific prank postcards for you. www.revenagebymail.com