How to get removed from a mailing list?
 

We have been getting mailers from places that - we are about 99.99% sure that we never signed up to get mailers - and we would like to be removed from the mailing lists.

I think it's just as easy to throw the stuff in the wastebasket, but DH is "on a mission" to get our names removed from the lists.

I go to the sites - and I can easily find places to sign up for mailers, but I am having "a time" trying to find a "please take our name off your mailing list" spot.

Is there something I/we are missing when I go to a site?

Men are like that. I just throw them away. I still get lots of mail for the people who lived here before me. They didn't leave a forwarding address for some reason. At first I returned it to the box with "no longer at this address" written on it, but now, after 2 1/2 years, I just toss it.

By chance do the mailers come with a postage paid return envelope? I got so tired of getting a mailer from one company for my deceased brother and myself that I put on the info page they sent to return to them (if interested) that my brother was dead stop sending and on mine I put "not interested" stop sending. They quit sending my brother's right away and mine it took about 2 months before it quit coming. So anytime I get mailers I don't want and there is a postage paid envelope I send it back stating to stop, the company has to pay the postage. I have known some people just send the empty postage paid envelope back.

Nope - no envelopes with these things.

This website allows you to remove yourself from mailing lists, but it is a pain to use. (I tried it for my brother and quit because it was just too much work.)
http://www.directmail.com/mail_preference/

I do the same as jazzmyn...send back the literature in their pre-paid envelope with a big note across the area that has my address stating to be taken off their mailing list. If they don't have the envelope, I often will call them & request being taken off. I think it is working as I don't get near as much junk mail as I did in the past. Now, getting junk/spam from the phone is a whole different ball game. Ugh!

After sending money to a charity, I started getting appeals for more money, every three weeks. After four months of writing back to them to say it was just a one time thing, I finally just wrote deceased on the envelope and sent it back. Have not heard from them since.

This is what I have done, and usually the junk stops coming!

I packed everything in their prepaid envelope and wrote Void Take me off your list. It really cut down on our junk mail.

Good luck with that. We were getting junk mail from my husband's ex after being married 25 years and moving twice. I finally wrote "deceased" on them and sent them back. They stopped. Maybe that would work for you? lol

I get offers for hearing tests, insurance companies, massage therapists, realtors, etc. i call the number and tell them to remove me from their mailing list - now. It helps, but it seems another one soon takes its place so what did I gain ?

When I asked at the post office how to stop getting all the junk mail I was told...if you use a charge card, it is impossible because that is how the companies track people.

I donated money and they sold my name hence I get appeals every single day. I would love to have that junk removed from my mailbox but I recycle all of it.

I have no idea how to get off of mailing lists. I try to unsubscribe from junk emails. My DD had her father in laws mail forwarded to their house when he passed away. They are still getting mail for his mom who passed away 12 years ago.

On my walk back from my mailbox I pass my garbage cans. Every day I throw a whole lot of unopened junk mail in there... sometimes it's all the mail!

I open my mail standing next to the trash compactor. Most of the mail goes in the trash compactor. There are a couple bills and sometimes some other random piece of mail that I actually keep like coupons deals for stores I shop in. The rest goes directly into the trash.

You are right in calling it a mission - it is very much work! The web site front page should have a spot at the very bottom - In The Tiniest Of Lettering - for you to unsubscribe. The problem is that a lot of these 'mailings' do not come from the actual site. When you go to block them, you will see very odd addresses. So an unsubscribe often doesn't work. I start each day in my junk mail folder (you can relegate them to junk mail) blocking all that I do not want. Certain companies that I know are real but have multiple weird addresses, after I have blocked them repeatedly, I send them an email or call them and I am not very pleasant. No foul language, no raised voices, but a lot of phrases about harassing me, how I will use all my time to give them bad PR and make it my mission to cost them customers. I usually stop getting their emails. But, it is work. Good luck to him.

(I assumed you meant online) For paper mailing lists, there really isn't anything you can do. I had an independent UPS-style store for 29 years. I had 500 mail boxes and their mail never stopped. Even when returned marked 'deceased'. What you can do, if they have a paid return envelope, is to send back all their stuff in that envelope. It won't get you off their list, but it sort of feels good to know they are paying for your time.

I recently found out about a website: catalogchoice.org. It is free although they do ask for donations. Once you set it up it is very easy to enter a catalog. Catalog choice notifies them to stop mailing. I started in mid-September and have been adding catalogs steadily. I think I'm aware of a couple that have stopped but not really sure. With the holidays approaching I'm getting more catalogs than ever it seems.
The website has a place where you can indicate if the mailing has stopped but don't know if they take action if you say no. They ask that you wait 6-8 weeks for mail to stop.
So at this point, I'm waiting to see if I notice a big drop after the holidays. In recent months I've picked up my mail and had a good 3-6 inches of nothing but catalogs which I have to turn around and carry to our dump. I would rather shop online but also wonder if the mailings stop and I then order will I go back to getting catalogs? Very frustrating.

You should be careful of just trashing junk mail---we had 3rd class mail but it had our name, address and property records on letter in the inside--always open just to be sure none of our info is in there. The return envelope is good idea.

A long time ago, after my father died, we got some junk mail for him monthly. The last one that came, I did exactly what you did, except I wrote:

"Deceased. Left no forwarding address."

That ended the mail from that vendor!

Twenty five years ago my husband and I were on a mission to reduce our junk mail. We opened each one, took out the postage paid envelope, stuffed all their paper in there and mailed it back. Some days we had five letters going back. Our mail was greatly reduced. I still do that if need be. But don't forget, sometimes there is money in there, like $1 for a survey.

One year a book club was sending me a lot of stuff and I asked them to stop. I sent several of their letters back but they still kept coming. Finally I wrote in one of them that I would send them a box of rocks if they didn't stop sending me stuff. That was the end of that one.

Someone actually did that once. They sent a box of rocks to Alaska with the postage paid envelope pasted on the box. The recipients had to pay for that and took that name off their list

One of my friends got a free 1-year subscription to a quilt magazine. She had already subscribed to that particular magazine, so she offered it to me as a gift. She spelled my name wrong, and now I get all kinds of junk mail with my misspelled name on it. Very telling, they sold my name and address! So I no longer subscribe to ANY magazines.

My sister and I got our cat on a mailing list when we were kids. Back then we could save the UPC codes from cat food bags and send them in for free cat toys. We sent it in on the cats name Irma @#$^ and sure enough, she started getting preapproved for credit cards and magazine adds. It was funny to see what they would send to the cat.

Now this is funny! haha

My sister died in June and she was the queen of catalogs and solicitations for donations. I individually returned mailing labels, got her name on a do-not-mail list (as deceased) and I am finally seeing a marked decrease in the mail five months later. After this date, I am just going to throw the rest away. Now another sister passed two weeks ago, so will have to go through the same exercise again. I have now started returning mail addressed to me asking for removal as I don't want anyone have to go through this for me.