OT - Business Reply Mail
 

If there's one thing that people dislike, it's getting offers of all sorts from other companies at work. Now, seeing as i'm the graphic artist and web developer for my work, this implies that i have my name listed as primary on the registrar info. This also means everything freaking comes to the company in my name, as registrar info is public.

To combat this, I've decided on the following format for responses to business reply mail:

http://greatchinaintl.com/dumb_offer.jpg

Feel free to re-use this image for your own needs. May have to provide your own pennies :D

i just refi'd my house about 4 months ago and am not being flooded with offers and junk mail. anything from pottery barn (thats the catalog that sent kramer over the edge on him vs. the postal service in that episode), to 0% credit card applications. some days im getting 4 or 5 items. i know they are generated from the county paper work list because my home is the only thing in my given name, not the nick name ive always used.

any way i have taken to sending them back everything in the pre-paid envelope they provide. everything goes back, even the original envelope. hope they like opening junk mail too. bastards.

I hate to burst your bubble Brando, but if it is email that you are trying to combat, then your approach may backfire.

Most of these companies don't really want to sell you anything. HOWEVER, by responding, they know that your email is legit. At that point, then add your eddress to a list that they guarantee are real email accounts. Then they SELL that list to more spam folks. And the viscous cycle begins.

My $0.02: just delete junk mail - by responding you are now verifying that your email is legit, which opens up a pandora's box.

k911SC: I like your response to the 'snail-mail' version of junk mail. I may try that myself, except I'd remove my name/address from the mail I send back to them. Simple justice! :)

-Z-man.

It was for snail-mail :D I installed spam-killing software on the company mailserver to stop what was flooding our inboxes. Hence the "Business Reply Envelope" reference :)

Just send them back blank and let them pay the postage.

Something constructive:

To reduce "offers for credit" 1 888 567 8688

To reduce direct mail Write a letter including exact name and address requesting "activate the preference service" to

DMA Mail Preference Service
PO Box 9008
Farmingdale NY
11735-9008

Also:

Call or write your credit card company and tell them you do NOT want your personal data sold, shared or donated to any outside organization.

Addendum: With the big three "credit" companies like Experian, you can also send a letter requesting that they not give out any personal data to anyone unless you yourself initiate the request.

Hope this helps.

You know the business reply envelopes are "Postage Guaranteed"...

I had a stock of scrap metal laying around for a while. Each tinme I'd get one, a nice heavy bar of steel for expensive postage plus the other items would go into it...

Brando, IMHO your language is too stong. When the solicitation contains a SASE? Send the material back to them. Include a very polite note thanking them for that offer, but you choose to decline. Nevertheless, you know that printing such material must be expensive, so you're returning it to them, so they could pass it on to someone who could benefit. Or, should they REALLY p!ss you off? Glue the envelope to a brick, drop it in a mailbox. "First class return postage guaranteed", right????;)

pwd72s...

Originally i intended to send a very lewd, vulgar and pornography ridden letter back to them. Consider what i did send very modest and polite ;)