Posted on 02/27/2007 10:12:45 AM PST by SmoothTalker
"Feb. 19, 2007 issue - When his 18th birthday arrived, my son, Jacob, became awfully popular. The U.S. Navy wanted him. "Before you find your place in the world, maybe you should see it first," it urged. A local menswear shop offered him 50 percent off a tuxedo package for high-school graduation. And a razor company sent him a free razor, hoping, I suppose, to make a lifelong customer out of him. Their only miscalculation was that Jacob didn't shave. Nor was it likely that any of the armed forces would gain Jacob's services. And he certainly wouldn't graduate from high school. Jacob, you see, died in 1993. He was only 7 years old when a cancerous brain tumor stole him from us."
"I thought I had learned not to take these mailings personally, but in the months surrounding Jake's 18th birthday I had to throw out dozens of letters soliciting my dead son. How galling it was to receive envelopes with bright colors and bold lettering urging him to have professional high-school graduation pictures taken, to consider a particular limousine service for prom night or to make sure not to drink and drive."
(Excerpt) Read more at msnbc.msn.com ...
I got a sample diaper in the mail. The package had all this baby info that made it clear we were expecting.
I can assure you, this was not the case. My teenagers got a kick out of this, but in the small town we live in, rumors can start quickly.
Once again, I know that. I know about mailing list. I've purchased a few myself.
But how old are those lists? Surely the school board knows the child is dead.
That's all I'm sayin'.
One of the best ones I ever got was in 2002 when my fathers old insurance company sent a letter saying that since he has had a prestine driving record for the last 7 years he could get a very special insurance rate if he came back to them.
Now the reason his driving record was so good was because he had not driven since 1995...because he died.
If they really did their research they maybe would have raised a red flag at the fact that he must also have been driving on an expired license for 6 years.
I tried begging my mail carrier not to stuff my mailbox with junk. He said he couldn't do that. I offered to pay him to not deliver it and he said he couldn't. When I didn't check my mail hoping the overstuffed box would discourage him from stuffing the box full of junk he stopped delivering my REAL mail, still stuffed my box full of junk mail and I had to go to the post office to pick up the real mail.
The best way to get off a junk mailers list is to attach their own pre-paid envelope to a box of rocks.
A certain investment company wouldn't leave me alone until they paid over $1200.00 in return postage for one box of rocks. Needless to say, they took me off their list really fast after that.
Why can't we put our engineering geniuses to work designing a car that runs on junk mail? Then we could look forward to getting the stuff!
Mailing of building construction materials is a violation of Postal Regs.
The bricks will simply go into postal trash and with no message delivered to your intended target.
My mother passed away in 1992, my father in 1993 - both of them in Michigan. Now, 14-15 years - and 3 moves, including one to Arizona - later we still get mail for both of them. It used to pain us, but now we laugh, and shout "Mail for the Dead!". I admit to being tempted at times to either get the credit card they're offering or - my favorite - sign up for the life insurance: seems like a sure thing to me!
But, no, she insisted. She didn't mind the junk mail for a period of time. Then, the forwarding order expired, and some enterprising souls were re-entering my mom's (new) address, a place he had never seen, as his new address when the mail was being returned.
Eleven years later, she gets mail addressed to him at her "new" place.
They have different last names, so it's easy for her to tell the mail carrier that he doesn't live there. But when it's a new carrier, they go through this all over again.
I tried getting his mail forwarded to me a couple years ago. All that happened was that the post office sent me some of my mom's mail as well. In the meantime, she still got mail for him sometimes.
That snafu prevented me from enacting Plan B, which was to have his mail forwarded to a fictitious address in a place like Timbuktu or maybe Alaska.
I canceled the order for my grandfather's mail to go to me. But once again, someone updated their records when it got returned to them. Even though I myself have moved three times, I still get a credit card solicitation for him every month or so.
Postal regs specify that a BRM permit mailing must be for the purpose intended by the permit holder.
Your rock box wasn't the intended purpose so the permit holder didn't have to pay.
The postal inspectors may come after you for collection/prison time or both.
Unless of course yours is another "I'm so cool" BS story.
My dad died in 1990 and my mother gets tons of mail for him. Some of it is from people who know he died. At first my mother tried to change it. She finally decided it was too difficult. It is still spooky to get mail from the church with his name on it, especially since the church secretary comes over for drinks every week.
"Hey Dot, do you notice anything missing around here?"
My husband was his mother's power of attorney for several years before she died. She didn't live with us but lived in an assisted living facility in another city. Her mail was sent to us. The city in which we live sent her a notice that she owed city income tax! It took a while, but we finally convinced the powers-that-be that she did not live in our city and DID NOT owe them any tax. Mom passed away in 1999. She still gets mail!
They'll never pass an opt-out law for junk mail because you don't directly pay to receive mail (obviously some of your taxes go to the USPS so you indirectly pay). You pay to be able to receive phonecalls, thus unwanted phonecalls are using a service you paid for. That's also the logic for attempts to eliminate spam but spammers are too elusive.
Really I never worry about junk mail. The way I look at it I'm going out to the mailbox everyday anyway, whether there's good mail, junk mail or no mail I'm still making the walk. Also I keep a trashcan between the door and the mailbox so only well disguised junk mail even gets in the house. And plenty of that junk mail is for dead relatives.
Woah. Those must be tough losses to bear, especially in less than three years. May The Lord comfort and keep you in such times.
I have had a couple of mail clerks who know the regs refuse to accept the boxes. But once the ones who haven't had proper training accept it, it's in the postal system and goes through as posted.
I always start out by giving the offending company the chance to take me off first by sending the envelope back with their stuff stuffed back in it and TAKE ME OFF YOUR LIST in red pen by my address. If that doesn't work, I fill the envelope the same way and add washers. If they continue to pester me, the box of rocks is their 3 strikes you're out. Works every time. I will say that the envelope of washers (usually about $5. in postage due) usually does the trick.
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