Unwanted, Unsolicited Mail

[Nubs]

Why does it exist nowadays?

Over 99% of the mail I receive is junk. They're totally worthless sheets of paper which go straight to the shred bin without even opening them. Quite frankly it has soured me from regular mail altogether and I don't open it anymore.

Does anyone actually reply to junk mail?

If we're talking about going green and saving the planet, eliminating unwanted unsolicited mail is a huge step forward. Not to mention all of the time, money, and aggravation which could also be saved by removing worthless mail.

I never heard anyone, anywhere say "Can't wait to see what junk mail I got today!"

Get rid of it!!

 

[uriah1]

Basic marketing. Folks sell emails addresses.
If they get a 1% hit they are doing good.

i have filters setup in my AOL email
I have some in my phone too since I get many.
Also, on my old analog phone I still have

 

[Jackroadkill]

Tape it to a big cardboard box, fill the box with rocks, write return to sender on the box.

 

[schmee]

Buy a rubber stamp, "return to sender" put it back in a mail box!
haha
I always wanted to do th is, but never did. Well... maybe once or twice.

 

[Toto'sDad]

I have a buddy who is a sucker for junk mail, and those sleezy advertisements on tv promising you will be able to jump over the moon if you buy their old folks formulated carrot juice. If he exists, there are surely others.

 

[P Thought]

Direct-mail marketing is about the only thing keeping the Postal Service alive. I remember 4-cent stamps, but even at $2 a stamp, personal letters can't carry it today. I'm as excited about the day's mail as the OP, most of the time, but now and then something important is in the mailbox, and I'd hate to lose our mail service.

I would like to see slick paper outlawed. You can't recycle it, can't burn it. It makes for bulky wet slime in the landfills, which is where it all ends up.

 

[Toto'sDad]

I've been getting advertising mail for fourteen years for a woman who never lived in this house, maybe never even lived in Bakersfield. Returning the mail, even with an explanation in no way deters them sending it.

 

[Toto'sDad]

I find that anyone you do business with not only floods you with both unwanted snail and email but sells your address and or phone number to whoever will buy it.

 

[guitar_paul1]

There was an enterprising fellow (probably mythological) who let his address out there and heated his house for an entire winter on all the junk mail he received.
This was one of the folk tales that circulated at my former place of employment, a large airplane manufacturer.

 

[THX1123]

I get lots of mail for former tenants of the house I am renting. I open it all.

One guy is months behind on his Tennessee child support. He gets about 6 letters a month. One lady's real estate license has just expired. Another guy's utility bill has gone to collections. Another person got a nice Xmas postcard of a family wearing identical sweaters. Another still different lady owes vehicle tax on her car. Someone's Aunt sent a birthday card.

I don't feel bad about "chunking it all in the gerbage" as they say down in SC.

 

[Spox]

For the last four or five years I have been sometimes receiving mail for a house in a street which is at a right angle to the one I live in. It has the same building number, same flat number and there are only two different letters in the postcode. My mail, including medical and financial, sometimes goes to them and I have had my credit frozen twice because of this including at a point last year when I was completely housebound due to spinal/muscular/nerve problems. I have complained on numerous occasions and when I phoned the national head office I was told that I should be more sympathetic to the postperson as they may have literacy problems.

Last year I sent a pile of offical mail, tax authorities etc, back to people in the other flat using registered mail with a note asking them to get in touch with me as together we had a better chance of getting it sorted than individually. They signed for it but did not reply, perhaps I should not have said thngs like "together we shall teach these popinjays the cost of meddling in the affairs of people of our calibre." They probably read it then applied for another loan in my name. I have some of their mail sitting next to me as I type, one looks like a birthday card which arrived here in March, I returned it to the sorting office in April and it was delivered to me again in May.

All of my junk mail appears to be delivered to me without any hitch, thankfully.

 

[telemaster03]

I seem to get a lot of credit card solicitations that come with postage paid return envelopes. I write "no thanks" on the offer, stuff it in the prepaid envelope and mail it back to them.

 

[THX1123]

For the last four or five years I have been sometimes receiving mail for a house in a street which is at a right angle to the one I live in. It has the same building number, same flat number and there are only two different letters in the postcode. My mail, including medical and financial, sometimes goes to them and I have had my credit frozen twice because of this including at a point last year when I was completely housebound due to spinal/muscular/nerve problems. I have complained on numerous occasions and when I phoned the national head office I was told that I should be more sympathetic to the postperson as they may have literacy problems.

Last year I sent a pile of offical mail, tax authorities etc, back to people in the other flat using registered mail with a note asking them to get in touch with me as together we had a better chance of getting it sorted than individually. They signed for it but did not reply, perhaps I should not have said thngs like "together we shall teach these popinjays the cost of meddling in the affairs of people of our calibre." They probably read it then applied for another loan in my name. I have some of their mail sitting next to me as I type, one looks like a birthday card which arrived here in March, I returned it to the sorting office in April and it was delivered to me again in May.

All of my junk mail appears to be delivered to me without any hitch, thankfully.

popinjays

 

[ale.istotle]

I have a buddy who is a sucker for junk mail, and those sleezy advertisements on tv promising you will be able to jump over the moon if you buy their old folks formulated carrot juice. If he exists, there are surely others.

Please...tell me more about this carrot juice. My ups are sorely lacking at this point.

 

[Toto'sDad]

Please...tell me more about this carrot juice. My ups are sorely lacking at this point.

Just jot down you email address in a post, you'll find out all about it!

 

[Fendereedo]

Not known at this address - works perfectly fine.

 

[Toto'sDad]

The insurance company I buy insurance from sends me offers on vacations, car rentals, places to eat, where to have my oil changed, where to buy tires, I can't believe the number of items they are hawking. I have requested they not do this, I have called their customer service and been assured I would be removed from their list, but they haven't stopped.

 

[Toto'sDad]

I believe the business model for all modern-day businesses is:

Hey people we sold this stooge something, here's his name home and email address plus his phone number. Please inundate him with offers you might stumble onto something he wants.

 

[P Thought]

The insurance company I buy insurance from sends me offers on vacations, car rentals, places to eat, where to have my oil changed, where to buy tires, I can't believe the number of items they are hawking. I have requested they not do this, I have called their customer service and been assured I would be removed from their list, but they haven't stopped.

Are you insinuating that a noble, civic minded insurance company might have a self-serving, money-grubbing, barely ethical set of practices?

 

[toomuchfun]

I do believe there is a contact, not sure if it's online or going to your local post office, where you may be able to reduce the amount of junk mail. I tried it years ago and it worked.