Junk mail (the paper kind, not the digital variety) is like the weather: everybody complains but nobody ever does anything about it. At the risk of sounding like a nut case, I am going to pass on how I’m getting revenge on the companies (mostly credit card providers) that pay Canada Post to put junk mail in my mailbox.
Some of it is addressed to me but a growing pile of it is what Canada Post calls “Unaddressed Admail.” The Crown corporation tells advertisers it can target customers who won’t consider it junk mail but its space-age GeoPost™ Plus technology doesn’t seem to work on my house. From a Canada Post FAQ:
Do people respond to flyers delivered to them or do they consider them to be junk?
While it is true that some people are less responsive to advertising than others, this lack of response is often the result of receiving advertising material of no interest. This is why it is critical to the success of your campaign that you target your audience properly. Reduce cost and increase response by sending your message to those neighbourhoods most likely to be interested in your product or service. Our GeoPost™ Plus targeting tool can help you do this.
Anyway, here’s what I do: I send all of it (the outer envelope, the pamphlets, the forms, etc.) right back to the sender, stuffed in the postage-paid envelope, with a note asking them to stop sending me junk mail. My understanding is the heavier the envelope, the more the company has to pay. Use your imagination.
11 Comments
April 13, 2007 at 3:15 pm
You are 20 years behind me. Search those Gazette archives and you’ll find a letter in which I describe doing the same thing. It ran under a very goofy photo of me pretending to tear my hair out in frustration.
I used to use the post-paid envelopes from companies, but after a while I also started packing the stuff into big envelopes and sending it to then-environment minister Lucien Bouchard. Free postage to mail to an MP. I would always write a polite letter, and never got a response. I believe my key request was that we get regulations allowing us to opt out of unadressed mail. We have those now, but I guess they don’t work so well.
April 13, 2007 at 4:47 pm
Maybe this is why we get along so well – we’re both nut cases.
Here is that letter:
Blame Canada Post for junk mail
The Gazette (Montreal)
Sunday, August 5, 1990
Page: B3
Section: Editorial/Op-Ed
Who can blame Patrick Gouthreau (Gazette, July 18) for his frustration with the amount of junk mail delivered to his door?
While Mr. Gouthreau took out his frustration on the individual letter carrier delivering to his home, the blame for this situation rests largely with Canada Post.
The crown corporation claims that it is simply doing its job by delivering advertising mail. However, Canada Post actively solicits such mail through advertising, seminars and publications like the Vancouver Guide to Direct Mail. Currently, more than 100,000 acres of forest are cleared annually to provide junk mail for the Canadian market.
Canadians produce more waste per capita than the people of any other nation. In this time of growing environmental awareness, slowing the flow of junk mail can help save our forests and reduce our output of waste.
PHIL MOSCOVITCH
Verdun
Illustration:
• GAZETTE, THERESE HEBERT/ Phil Moscovitch: Verdun man says we should cut
down on junk mail and save our forests.
April 16, 2007 at 12:42 pm
You’re right, Andy. You do sound like a nut. But don’t stop, your cause is righteous.
May 6, 2007 at 1:12 pm
if canada post not delivering the flyers, u may need to pay $1.00 stamp instead of 51 cent for each piece of mail.
May 30, 2007 at 2:51 am
As a postal Supervisor, I know the real effect of junk mail (both positive and negative).
Canada Post offers a service called “consumer’s Choice” whereby no unaddressed admail will be delivered to your house if you enroll for this service.
The positive repercussion is that, when mailers ask Canada post about the specific points of call in an area, we can give them a more accurate count on who doesn’t want admail. This results in less waste and flyers thrown in the trash.
Don’t spend your time slamming Canada Post when we offer a service that helps the environment, alleviates harassment and workload on our lettercarriers, pleases our customers and helps advertisers lower costs.
Do you complain to Ma Bell when you get a telemarketer call? With an attitude like that you should be a politician; absolute lack of logic. Smarten up!
May 31, 2007 at 11:55 am
[...] this comment, Jodster took me to task for complaining about “Unaddressed Admail” (what [...]
September 21, 2007 at 5:11 pm
This is in reply to Jodster, who claims that there is a “service” to avoid getting junk mail. Below is a paragraph copied verbatim from the Canada Post website, informing residents what they must do to not receive junk mail – simply put, post a notice on your mailbox saying “no junk mail”. I cannot find any online service at Canada Post that will take your household off the “junk grid”. Not only that, but the so-called “consumer’s choice” page is targeted at companies wishing to solicite people, not at consumers at all!
“Consumers’ Choice
Canada Post allows you to target your customers more effectively by respecting the wishes of consumers who indicate, through a self-produced note on their mailbox or mail receptacle, that they do not wish to receive unaddressed materials. The only exemptions are materials from Elections Canada and provincial Chief Electoral Officers, House of Commons mailings, municipal electoral mailings and community newspapers.Therefore your mail piece is received by customers who want to receive it. The breakdown of delivery points with these notices are referred to as Consumers’ Choice points of call and the breakdown of delivery notices are known as Total Points of Call within our householder data.”
Also, the parallel of calling Bell Canada to complain about telemarketers does not hold unless Bell signs agreements with them to give them people’s phone numbers. This info I do not know.
I think that Canada Post, as a large corporation, has a responsibility to effect changes that individuals support. It is obvious that many people throw out or recycle junk mail and that many of these people would prefer not to have it in the first place. Canada Post claiming that it is the responsibility of the sender (who pays for delivery) rather than the postal service itself to decide when to reduce paper consumption is not meaningful. Canada Post should be proactive in lessening junk mail instead of passing the buck to do something about it to someone else.
And to Peter, who wrote about the inflated price of mail if large companies were not patronising Canada Post, I say that I would be willing to send letters for a higher cost. Another issue is, however, that things are turning cyber – email, skype, all these ways of communicating that do not involve physical mail. Perhaps it is time for Canada Post to think of alternate ways to make a living besides condoning dumping tons of junk paper.
I drop all junk mail “return to sender” back into the post box.
November 19, 2007 at 9:55 pm
Excellent post, Clare.
Trying to find any advice on reducing junk mail on Canada Post’s website is a frustrating experience, and signs requesting “no junk mail” are ignored. It’s clear that they don’t conceive of themselves as an institution existing primarily to serve Canadian citizens, since they are eager to inflate their budget by using us as garbage dumps, and aggressively marketing that fact while offering us feeble lip service in response.
I would love a postal fee of $1 for ALL items. If it isn’t worth $1 for someone to send it to me, it’s probably trash anyway.
December 14, 2007 at 12:58 pm
Jodster;
Just answer this simple question.
Where do I enroll for the Canada Post Consumer’s Choice Program (service)?
Just show me a link on the Canada Post website that describes the service.
You started off sounding fairly intelligent but went down hill when you used the Ma Bell analogy.
If an employee of the telephone company called me and said, “I am delivering a message from the ABC company that is of no interest to you. The ABC company has payed us to do this for them.”, then yes I would complain to Ma Bell.
I also do not complain to the bank that mortgaged my house when a Girl Guide comes to my door selling cookies.
Smarten up!
January 27, 2008 at 12:49 pm
I think this might be what you’re looking for: http://www.dearbulkmailer.com
February 11, 2008 at 12:13 pm
[...] ago, someone left a comment (scroll down to the 10th one) on a previous Don’t Mind Me posting, suggesting people take the [...]