In March I started trying to cut down on the junk mail I receive. Since moving into this apartment I had been quite lazy about it. I hadn't even signed up on the Direct Marketing Association (DMA) no-mail list, which I used to do automatically when I moved into a new place. But this new effort is coming along nicely.
The ValPak coupons stopped showing up exactly when they said they would. The Austin-American Statesman and Cingular have kept their end of the bargain - I have not received any solicitations or junk mail from them since I called. The people answering the customer service email at Lacks.com and Linens N Things (I had to dig through the help menus and finally used the Online Store contact form) were very polite and friendly, knew exactly what I was talking about and I'm confident those mailers will stop in due time. Working Assets Long Distance seems to have respected my request to the DMA - finally I've stopped receiving offers under my old name to join their long distance plan.
The first call I made to Time Warner did not keep junk mail from arriving, but when I used the email form online it only took two exchanges to get that fixed and the woman was very polite.
I haven't been tracking the "pre-approved" credit card offers that should have been eliminated by calling the credit bureaus' opt-out number (or you can opt out online from those credit card offers), but I don't remember the last time I got one. That's a good sign.
The one annoying spot has been the ShopWise flyers, which have some grocery flyers and offers from other random stores. I opted out online, and I think my request went through like I asked. But now I get the flyers without the address card that's supposed to accompany it.
There are now days when I get absolutely no mail in my mailbox. I like that. The recycling bin doesn't fill up as fast, and my real mail doesn't get crushed and wadded up as the delivery folks try to fit everything into my tiny mailbox.
I've now gone to a zero tolerance policy. Whereas before I was focusing on the stuff addressed to "resident," now I'm working on businesses that I actually have a relationship with. St. Edward's University Alumni Association, stop marketing to me. Vistaprint, no more "special offers" in the mail. I'll get new business cards and address labels when I'm good and ready. I also need to work through my airline frequent flyer memberships and stop all mail and junk email. I got frequent flyer numbers with all the major airlines so I could get their alerts for cheap weekend fares, but boy do they love to send me mail. Gack.
I'm not bothering with the junk that comes from my domain name registrations, though. I don't imagine I could stop those if I tried.
