The Spam Doctors meet their match

I posted an article on Authors Den a while ago about the problems I was experiencing with Spam, both in my Outlook Express mailbox and my personal mailbox at my home.

With the paid help of BigPond I was able to eradicate most of the spam emails out of my Outlook Express and have them sent to Webmail, where I don't see ithem until I go in there to clear the mailbox out.  The problem at home though continued, and seemingly endless piles of the stuff ended up in my mailbox or on the ground nearby.  Some of the catalogues must cost a fortune to produce in the quantities they would be producing and I wonder why the stores concerned don't just reduce the costs of the goods instore instead of throwing money away in paper and print. 

I used to work for one of the giant shopping centre owners in Australia and I remember well the catalogues, especially the fashion ones.  The Marketing Manager and a few helpers would take off overseas to some exotic location, with a troupe of models, along with photographers and, of course, all the clothing that the various stores wanted to appear in the catalogue.  This happened usually for the 4 seasons, although some of the shoots were done in Australia.  Imagine the costs involved in flying all those people overseas, setting them up in top grade hotels, and feeding them, plus the costs for the shipping of the clothing . Then there were the agency costs to produce the catalogues the costs for printing and distribution.  I don't recall the end justifying the means however I could be wrong some of the time.

Personally I rarely look at the junk mail I receive.  I take it out of my letterbox, where it's usually stuffed and blocking the mailbox, or pick it up off the ground, walk to the recycle bin and drop it all in there.  My recycle bin is only collected every second week, and by that time it's got a lot of junk mail piled up in it.  I don't have a clue how many people do what I do, but I'm sure there must be quite a lot as I read an article about an organisation that can show you how to stop the junk mail at home.

I was interested enough after I read the article, to phone the number included in the story.  About two weeks later I received in the mail a sticker to put on my letterbox requesting no advertising material.  Whilst they don't guarantee it won't stop the mail altogether as it may still be tossed on the garden or the front lawn, they do promise a greatly reduced amount of junk mail.  If junk mail is still being placed in the letterbox you contact the organisation and they will then take steps to contact the responsible people.  The sticker is recognised as a person's right to request, and expect, no junk mail.

I'm happy to report that I don't have any junk mail anymore in my letterbox.  Some is still thrown on the lawn but very occasionally only.  I am very impressed by the results achieved and feel pleased that I am contributing to society by refusing to have humungus amounts of paper dumped on my property when I haven't asked for it. 

I'm sorry I can't tell you who I contacted but I'm sure if you do a search on the Internet you will find organisations in your State/Country that supply these stickers.  If you hate junk mail like I do, then it's worth the price of a local phone call and a walk to the letterbox to affix the sticker.

In Sydney we seem to be constantly annoyed by phone calls canvassing sales of all kinds, and at all hours of the day/night, even on public holidays.  This is another form of home invasion that I detest and my few words to all callers are "I'm not interested" and I hang up.  On one occasion, a holiday, I received a call canvassing a sale and when I pointed out to the caller that it was a holiday, her reply was, "some of us have to work on holidays".  She was of the opinion that she had a perfect right to invade my privacy with her call and was most abusive.  Only that I couldn't be bothered that day, I would have asked her for details of the manager of the company she was calling from, and he would have heard from me.  My friend Bryan asks them for their home phone numbers so he can call them back at his leisure to discuss whatever it is they are calling about.  These people are aghast that he would have the nerve to ask for their numbers, and hang up. 

I regard junkmail and junk calls as harassment, and I'm especially up in arms about the phone calls because I have a silent number, and have to pay extra monthly to have a silent number.  You can't win.  There's no way I can get an answer how these people have my home number and I guess the only answer is that Telstra sell lists of numbers, even silent ones.  I rarely tell anyone my home number, always using my mobile number for callbacks.  It appears that we have no rights at all. 

So, if you feel inclined, join me in the battle of the letterbox and the phone.  Don't accept the leaflets and brochures and catalogues as being someone's right to dump on your property.  Don't listen to the phone invaders;  tell them before they even start to talk that you are not interested and hang up.  If you think of it ask that they remove your number from their lists and probably add that if they call again you will report them to the ombudsman. 

Oh and don't forget the junk mail that comes in envelopes that you unwittingly open.  If you receive any mail like this and there's a return envelope hanging around (postage paid) pile all the junk mail in that envelope and next time you are near a post office box, post it. Doesn't matter if it's full to busting open.  They have to pay the postage, not you.  It gives me a real buzz to do this and I can feel that vindictive smirk on my face.  A way of getting back at those that are wasting a precious resource and of course, unless it's recycled paper, causing a lot of trees to be cut down.

Okay, now I've relieved my mind of that junk by passing it on to you, I feel cleansed.  Pass it on to someone you know and keep the ball rolling.

Happy New Year with less wastage.

Vena