Junk Mail

Day 293: Junk Mail

Here we have only two short weeks worth of junk mail, accumulated at the Post Office while we were in Florida. Rather than simply tossing it directly into the recycling, I decided to ask to be removed from the mailing lists of these organizations.

My first attempt was easy: a quick email to a Realtor who helped us purchase our house, to ask him to remove us from his regular mailing list.

Next, a call to QuickenLoans, where I spent seven minutes on hold listening to a prerecorded voice telling me how wonderfully responsive QuickenLoans are for mortgages, before a perky customer service representative told me that they have no record of our address in their system but that she would enter it into their database with a "Do Not Mail" notice. Now I'm afraid I'm going to get two sets of junk mail from Quicken.

I decided to winnow the pile. Instead of calling them all, I'll resign myself to the postcards and call only the most egregious catalog producers, starting with Holland America, 1-877-SAIL-HAL, which has been sending us huge catalogs ever since my parents took us on a cruise to Alaska in 2007. Had to listen phone router. After reaching a live person, had to be transferred to the Mariner Department. Phone time to complete request for removal: 3:22. Time to stop receiving mail: 4-6 weeks.

OMG, I don't have time for this. I went to the Federal Trade Commission web site and got routed to OptOutPrescreen.com, where I opted out of ever receiving any prescreened credit solicitations. This was a little nerve wracking because I had to enter my social security number, but I decided to trust it since it was linked through ftc.gov. I also opted into the National Do Not Mail List on directmail.com, and filled out the catalogchoice.org stop junk mail request form. I filled out the forms twice, once for myself and once for Rich.

I'll keep you posted on whether our junk mail declines.