Post Office's Rescue Plan: Junk Mail

Wall Street Journal ^ | 10/6/11 | Jennifer Levitz

[ruralvoter]

Many consumers are irked by the catalogs, credit-card pitches and other "junk mail" they receive. But the U.S. Postal Service loves it—and wants to deliver more.

The agency, beset by historic losses and a plummet in first-class mail, is running promotions, easing rules and planning television and radio ads to encourage more businesses to send pitches by standard mail, the official term for bulk mailings used by marketers to prospect for customers.

"What we want to do is to make standard mail more interesting for customers so we can grow the total volume," Postmaster General Patrick Donahoe said in an interview. "We don't call it junk mail—it's a lucrative avenue for anyone who wants to reach customers."

[AngelesCrestHighway]

“We don’t call it junk mail”......

Call it a painted turd if you want....just don’t put the damn stuff in my letter box!!!

[ruralvoter]

Here are ways to REDUCE your JUNK MAIL NOW.

• To REDUCE the amount of letters from credit card and insurance companies saying you are “pre-approved” for their offers?
Get off those mailing lists!
Go to: http://www.optoutprescreen.com, or call the service at 888-567-8688. You can opt out for five years. If you fill out an additional form you can opt out permanently.

• TO REDUCE the number of catalogs, magazine offers, donation requests!
Register with the Direct Marketing Assn.’s Choice program at http://www.dmachoice.org. Registering online is free. You can also use their mail-in form, for a fee of $1.

[End Times Sentinel]

A few months ago, I read an article on how the USPS was partnering with Hallmark to sell cards that already had postage on them.

I thought “Hmmm... that's a pretty good idea, convinient...” when immediately it hit me “Do we REALLY need a federal agency charged with delivering birthday cards?”

When I discover I have to use USPS to deliver a letter to communicate with an entity, it turns my stomach.

[Leo Carpathian]

WTF???
Stoooopid is wwhaaaat stooopid does!
Oblablah will stimulate the junk mail now????

[PetroniusMaximus]

Saved by Spam.

[ruralvoter]

REDUCE more junk mail now!

Gather all of the catalogs you receive now and pull out the ones you never use. Call the toll free number on each one to have your name removed from future mailings. I do this all the time and it works. It may take a few months, but it does work. It definitely helps to be polite when you call.

[Don Corleone]

Looks like they are reverting to the Solyandra business model. Costs them 6 and we’ll sell for 3. God save the Republic.

[WOBBLY BOB]

Ed McMahon died for their sins.

[bicyclerepair]

I appreciate the compost and landfill they bring to me. It gets shredded.

[TheOldLady]

Click the Pic               Thank you, JoeProBono

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[bfree]

looks like the reaction to another FUBO speech.

[bboop]

But ... but ... but ... Junk Mail will KILL the planet! But save the Unions.

[Atlas Sneezed]

It would be simple to reduce junk mail if they would require each mailer to put a unique code on each mailing (like the customer number in the blue box) that could be entered into a central USPS website to remove from future mailing. I’m tired of spending 5 minutes on hold, or calling to remove and finding out that I need to call back during weekday business hours.

Another simple option is one of those scan codes that you shoot with your cell phone, and transmits your request.

Every bulk rate mailer should also be required to offer phone and internet customers an “opt out” of future mailings, because we opt out, then they put us back on every time we buy.

[gibsosa]

Thank you!

[ASA Vet]

Take down your letter box. There is no requirement that you have one.

[Mariner]

I don't even WANT postal service at my house anymore.

Certainly I don't need it...for anything.

I wish the USPS would just stop dumping their junk at my house.

[Rybashka]

According to the article, the USPS is promoting a feature where it will deliver junk mail to everyone in a specific geographic area without the need for the sender to have individual addresses on each piece. In other words, it will become impossible to opt out from a company’s junk mail.

The only way to stop the post office from sending junk mail is to make it unprofitable. One way to do that is to mark each one “return to sender” and throw it into the blue collection mailbox. If everyone did this, it will clog up the system and eventually stop this madness.

[scan59]

I find it ironic that my credit cards and bank keeps wanting me to “go green” and eliminate receiving a paper statement each month. Then they send me five to ten pieces of mail wanting me to upgrade my card or apply for a new one. Makes me suspect that they don’t care about “being green.” They only want to save themselves some postage and handling by not mailing me a bill.