Dear HCN,
The following is a note
I sent to Al and Betty Schneider upon reading of their efforts to
get control of junk mail in my first issue of a new subscription to
High Country News (a newspaper I’ve wanted to get for years but
have just now gotten as a gift subscription). Al replied with a
bunch of useful and well designed suggestions on the issue. I
thought I had a handle on the beast but found how easily it slipped
through my perimeters (to mangle a metaphor). This is a HUGE
problem and I’m grateful the Schneiders have given it so much
thought and are willing to share what they know.
Cate Campbell
Missoula,
Montana
Greetings fellow
mail purgers!
I was intrigued by the suggestion
in HCN that you can help people get their names off mailing lists.
Please pass along any advice you may have and indulge me for a
moment by reading my tale of woe. I had, through dint of great
effort (about four years’ worth), gotten my mailbox cleaned up. In
May of last year, I filled out a consumer information card for Gore
Tex that was included in a box of Vasque hiking boots I’d
bought.
For some reason, at the last minute, I
used a false name on the survey card. In August, the deluge of junk
mail began. Mail was being sent to the pseudonym I’d used on the
response card.
I had the feeling, like in the
sorcerer’s apprentice, that a monster had been created. Every
company that had bought my name would sell it to another, etc., and
it would take another four years to get back where I’d been.
Needless to say, I wrote to Gore Tex and complained. I got a
surprisingly intelligent letter back from the W. L. Gore &
Associates marketing guru, who said she was not satisfied with the
“outside firm” they’d hired to handle entry of data from the cards
into a huge database. She continued to tell me that after the
database is complete for periodic market research surveys (yeah,
right!) “the names are then available for purchase by list houses.”
” She claimed she was “concerned that the names are so widely
circulated and will address this issue with the new company.” She
never addressed what Gore Tex makes on providing information on
their market share.
Anyway, I have saved every
piece of mail sent to my pseudonym and plan to mail it all to her
on the one-year anniversary of my completing the survey. I’ve got
about four pounds of mail so far from Gov. George Bush, Jimmy and
Rosyln Carter, FingerHut, PETA, etc., etc. Thought you could add
this tidbit into your files if you weren’t already aware. I now use
a false name or address or both on all “Value Cards’ in grocery
stores, etc. This is the first time I’ve been “bitten” by filling
out a consumer/market research questionnaire. I’ll never complete
another.
Thanks for spreading the word and
empowering people to take back their
mailboxes!
This article appeared in the print edition of the magazine with the headline More on mail pollution.
Republish our articles for free, online or in print, under a Creative Commons license.
