How I Deal with Junk Mail
It is bad enough when you receive e-mail you didn’t ask for, it is even worse when companies are willing to pay the postage in order for you to get their solicitations. I was sick of getting the same junk day after day, so I came up with this simple 4 step plan…
- Make sure it is junk mail. You will have to open the envelope in order to continue. Besides you would really feel like an ass if you overlooked the obvious.
- Layout all of the mail and cross-out any personal information. Hopefully you would do this anyway if you were just going to toss it. If the company really wanted to get back to you I’m sure they could find your address in their huge database.
- Look for the pre-paid envelope and stuff as much of their junk back into it. Bonus points for getting the envelope they sent all this crap in stuffed in their. Let them deal with their trash on their dime.
- Put it back in the mail and send it to back to them!
If you have a bunch of junk mail on your hands then mix ‘n match! I’m sure they would love to see the materials their competitors are sending around. Hopefully these companies will realize it is too costly to keep sending junk mail to you and will drop you from their list.
For a quicker route to reduce your junk mail load you might consider visiting these sites:
- Register your name with the Mail Preference Service of the Direct Marketing Association.
- Opt out of those pre-approved credit card offers at OptOutPreScreen.com
- Further advice is available at JunkBusters.com.
You know there is a way to Opt-Out of all those Credit Card mailings! You can either call, or visit the website and then sign a printed form to mail it in. Supposed to opt-out all the “Pre-Approved” crap. Of course your way is fun too.. I usually just rip things in half and garbagify it.
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I am so excited to start doing this!
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I’ve been doing that for a while. I usually write something like GO F*** YOURSELF or REMOVE ME FROM YOUR F***ING LIST on the stuff I send back to them.
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Oh! I laughed…but I still won’t do that…only b/c I know it’s some poor, working class person who’s opening up all the junk mail we send back, and they have no power over anything anyway…you know the higher up executives don’t care if their underlings have to deal with “reverse junk mail.”
by the way, i’m cute.
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Your method is completely ineffective. While it might give you that cathartic feeling of revenge, your’s is a juvenile response.
For the Amex solicitation you received, all you need to do is call the toll-free number in the materials they sent and wait for a call center person to answer (the VRU will ask you for an account number, simply enter nothing to be transferred to a person). When the Amex employee answers, provide them with the reference number on the solicitation, and tell them to stop sending them. It takes about six weeks before all solicitations cease (they queue these up for months in advance) but they will stop.
PS: You need to grammar-check your blog, e.g. you used “their” where you should have used “there.”
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LOL! I would love to do this just for kicks
But seriously, as Valerie and Some Guy said, I don’t think this will be very effective. And what’s worse, it will use up resources all the way back too, and you never know if the recipient will get rid of it responsibly (ie, recycle it). So, I think the best thing to do is try to opt out of pre-screened offers and marketing lists and avoid receiving the junk mail in the first place!
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