Unsolicited and unaddressed junk mail
A concerned consumer asks
The benefits afforded by registration with the Mailing Preference Service are clear; I now receive no personally addressed junk mail and rejoice in this fact every other day. I have however, become increasing frustrated by the volume of advertising mail addressed to “The Occupier”, “The Car Owner”, “The Householder”, or other some other generic recipient. I have dug deep into the bowels of the Royal Mail and found an email address opt_out@royalmail.com that upon enquiry sent me a form allowing me to register to prevent such mail from being delivered to my home. However, by specifying this preference I will also not receive any unaddressed communications from the Government, Council or other public bodies; The Royal Mail rather disappointingly cannot separate advertising from public service mail. Does the public service ever send anything of great import that you can recall? Am I safe to register to remove this last section of junk mail from my life?
April 25th, 2006 at 8:58 am
There are a variety of potentially useful things that local authorities send out some of which include; bin collection dates, planning notices and changes to services. All of these things are available on the web but how you hear about them is the challenge.
I do know that in large parts of Europe you can put a specific sticker over your letter box and it is then an offence to deliver junk mail to them.
The problem is the definition of what is junk mail? For most it is clear but there is a middle ground that is unclear
April 25th, 2006 at 10:05 am
This morning my postal delivery consisted of:
1. Everest double glazing addressed ‘To the home owner’ emblazoned ‘Hand delivered by the Royal Mail’
2. A Hillarys Blinds spring sale A2 spread
3. Skills Train Fast track to a new career bumff.
Nothing addressed to me. Are you sure I need this?
April 25th, 2006 at 1:53 pm
I got
- a pizza menu
- a visa offer
- a bathroom offer
Nothing addressed to me or wanted
April 26th, 2006 at 8:29 am
You can alweays return the mail in the free post envelope often provided, but make sure the returned content is heavier than the post allows. If we all diod this, the junk would stop.
Perhaps we should start a web site where folk can name and shame the companies wasting paper and energy by sending rubbish that cannot even alowys be recycled.
April 26th, 2006 at 8:33 am
Can we start such a service for e-mails too ? It would have to filter out all those that you do not need, and those that you do not want. My life would be simpler than.
April 27th, 2006 at 10:01 pm
Living in a halls of residence has its advantages and disadvantages in this case - I can ignore the rubbish mail that Royal Mail kindly put through the letter box (including very useful ones for conservatories and double glazing) and leave it for others to deal with as they see fit. However as a student lodgings we also get far more junk ‘mail’ in the form of flyers advertising exciting evenings out such as Ibiza foam parties - what fun, count me in….