24 Responses to “Great coverage from the blogosphere”

1. Question for y’all.

   In the geek world, telling a vendor to take you off their spam email list is a sure-fire way to triple the amount of spam you get, because it confirms that your email address is connected to a real person and is thus a better target for spam.

   Have you gotten assurances from your catalog-senders that they will really really stop sending the catalogs? Or are you providing them a list of “better” addresses, since the people at those addresses are really there, are environmentally active, etc.

   Curious minds want to know. :-)

   Thanks gang — this looks like a great service.

   Mike OConnor on October 13th, 2007 at 6:52 am

2. Mike:

   Great question. The terms under which we provide the opt-out requests to merchants state that they can only use the information to remove the names and address from their house list. Since there is no legislation over mail opt-out, we can only rely on the good faith of the merchants and the power of our user base (which is quite large already). In My Choices, you can report that you are still receiving the catalog. If that consistently continues with any merchants, we will institute other measures to make sure the merchants respect the opt-out requests.

   Chuck on October 14th, 2007 at 8:58 pm

3. Ok so I signed up for the service, even promoted on my green blog however, I am now getting emails every 3 minutes notifying me that the catalog I listed as being unlisted “is now available”. The problem is that when I then go to type in the name of said catalogue, “TLA Video” it does not show up in your database. Any chance you can fix that problem and have them stop sending me repeat emails every three minutes to my mailbox….

   Timothy B on October 15th, 2007 at 10:00 am

4. Timothy:

   Thanks for reporting this issue. Our development team is aware of this problem. We sincerely apologize for the multiple emails. We will get this fixed. Thanks for using the site.

   Chuck on October 15th, 2007 at 10:56 am

5. Hello–

   This is a great service–right up to the part where I can NEVER ‘get in’ to register.

   Sigh.

   Help.

   Marie on October 18th, 2007 at 4:58 am

6. Hey guys, I got signed up alright. It isn’t catalogues it’s insurance company offers , geico-etc that laden my mailbox.

   david fornaro on October 18th, 2007 at 6:07 am

7. This is a wonderful website and service. I have invited others to participate. Thank you.

   Ross John King on October 19th, 2007 at 9:23 am

8. what kind of lame website is this?
   I have to opt out of every catalog seperately? I’ll be here till spring!

   How bout a simple cancel all catalogs button? Then I might consider telling my friends about this site.

   Good idea, but without convenience to the consumer, you’ll never save the planet.

   Christopher on October 20th, 2007 at 3:42 pm

9. I have tried to be a particiapate of this project and have been rejected 3 times. Please help

   Pauline A Saunders on October 27th, 2007 at 8:50 am

10. Guys
    Wouldn’t it go a long way if you could include phone books as well. I am getting stuff from yellowbook, yellowpages, whitepages, pink pages etc. several times a year. This is a total waste! One provider would be sufficient and I would like to prevent all the others from sending me this stuff.

    Heinz on October 27th, 2007 at 8:54 am

11. Hello Chuck. Not a problem I got on the site and managed to cancel all the catalogs I could think of and as more pop up will delete them as well. Congratulations on this idea. There is no need to cut down natures’s trees or clog our mail with junk in todays technological world. GO ON LINE I SAY!! SAVE THE TREES AND OUR PLANET!

    Thank you once again

    Pauline A.

    Pauline A Saunders on October 27th, 2007 at 9:52 pm

12. Good job everone

    Pauline A Saunders on October 27th, 2007 at 9:53 pm

13. Apparently Christopher wants you to generate spam on his behalf to every catalog provider in the known universe, whether or not they’ve ever heard of him.

    The Direct Marketing Association (dmachoice.org) is a good resource for people who want to cut off ALL catalogs. Your targeted approach is just right for others. Thank you.

    Kate Y. on October 31st, 2007 at 11:39 am

14. What a great service. I have declined 68 catalogs to date and they keep coming. I believe that some have already stopped, however.

    THank you, thank you.

    Edith on November 8th, 2007 at 3:11 pm

15. Heard about this service on Bill Moyer’s program. I signed up and entered 30 catalogs to get started. Hope it works!

    Has anyone already experienced a noticeable reduction in catalogs?

    Paul Silver on November 17th, 2007 at 11:00 am

16. Paul: You will not see a reduction in catalogs from our service until the beginning of the year. The Merchants have already lined up their mailing for the holiday season. It takes approximately 10 weeks before the flow will slow. If the catalogs do not slow down in early 2008, use the “Still Receiving” link on My Choices page to indicate that the merchant is not complying with our request. Thanks. Catalog Choice Team

    Chuck on November 17th, 2007 at 12:57 pm

17. I have put a fake address above because your site does not apparently accept an address with an underscore. My real address is jjfletch_@hotmail.com. This inability to read an underscore was a problem once several years ago, but has been fine since.

    Help please. I have a ton of catalogues that I need help with.

    Thanks

    John Fletcher on November 22nd, 2007 at 10:20 am

18. John:

    We will have the developers look into this. Check back next week after we digest our Thanksgiving meal.

    Chuck

    Chuck on November 22nd, 2007 at 11:10 am

19. I have opted out of 104 catalogs and counting, and suggested at least 5 more so far, in only a week. I cannot believe how much trash we were getting until I counted them, nor was I aware how many variation there are on the spelling of my name! I’m actually glad I heard about this now, because as all the holiday catalogs come in, I now have my customer #’s to add to my choices very easily. I opted out of some companies I will order from, too, since I only shop online now, anyway. That still leaves at least a few I just like to look at. How can it be this bad?! Your site was the feature editorial in the Chicago Tribune this morning. Minus the totally unnecessary political jab at their least favorite presidential candidate, it was a good review, and a great endorsement. Hope it works. My husband also just heard local radio personnel talking you up, although they had your catalog count at over 100 million already. Wish you were!!

    Pam on November 24th, 2007 at 2:36 pm

20. I have been opting out of nearly 200 catalogs, and am excited about the prospects of not received them in 2008. I have found that I get multiple catalogs under the same name with a different customer number and am unable to enter more than one number under one name. Will they keep on coming?
    Thanks for everything you are doing!

    Patricia on December 27th, 2007 at 5:32 pm

21. Great idea! I get tons of catalogs and they all go in the trash. I almost always order on-line and I don’t need “mail order” catalogs. If I want to order something, I google that item and get lots of sites to order from or I go the on-line catalog of the company I want to order from. I can hardly wait to get rid of all the “trash”

    Peggy on January 16th, 2008 at 8:41 am

22. What a great idea! I’m a “FlyBaby” and am trying to reduce the clutter at home, especially paper, and this is the easiest way to do it by far, because the stuff never even gets to the mailbox. Thank you very much!

    Elizabeth on January 18th, 2008 at 10:04 pm

23. The trees thank you.

    Barb on January 30th, 2008 at 10:47 am

24. I just wrote you. Did you get the comments I submitted?

    Mary Ann Byers on February 19th, 2008 at 3:30 pm