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Fulfilling your requests - Status Update

As you all know, there is currently no legislation that requires merchants to honor the opt-out requests that we are delivering on your behalf.  So, you ask, how will entering your opt-out request at Catalogchoice.org stop the flow of catalogs?  The answer is embodied in  three words - Choice, Respect and Persistence.

Choice - It starts with the power of the people, our community of over 300,000 conscious consumers, who are using our website to state their choice to no longer receive paper catalogs from specific merchants.  Consumers are doing a tremendous job at stating their choices - we are rapidly approaching 4 million opt-out requests.

Respect - We depend on the good faith of merchants to honor your choices.  Many merchants are working with us to incorporate the opt-out requests into their mailing process.  Due to the busy holiday season, some merchants have requested that they need additional time to add the requests to their do not mail list.

Persistence -  Our Merchant Service Account team spends every day emailing, faxing and calling merchants to ensure that the merchants have received our opt-out requests and are putting the names into their do not mail list.

Stay tuned for more updates.

This entry was posted on Thursday, December 20th, 2007 at 10:32 am and is filed under Fulfillment. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.

18 Responses to “Fulfilling your requests - Status Update”

  1. Is this process actually working? Merchants are making name change variations and changing the account number listed on catalogs that I have deleted in the opt out process online.

    cmyoung@galenalink.com on December 20th, 2007 at 10:55 am

  2. CM -

    The process will work if we are persistent and consumers work with us. With your help, we can identify those merchants that do not honor your requests. Starting in January, login and go to the My Choices page and click Report an Infraction if you continue to receive a catalog you have opted-out of. That will let us know which merchants are not honoring your request.

    Thanks for helping make the process work. Marketers are persistent - consumers can be as well. In the end, the customer is always right as we will vote with our wallet.

    Chuck on December 20th, 2007 at 11:34 am

  3. I hope this process works. I have a 95 year old mother who receives mountains of catalogs. She ends up ordering stuff she doesn’t need that I have to return. She knows she doesn’t need the catalogs or the stuff that’s in them. If you can help me stop them–what a great thing! Then for the new year, I’m giving everyone in my address book the joy of deleting catalogs.

    Judy on December 20th, 2007 at 11:44 am

  4. This seems to be working. Iv’e used this site for a couple of months and the catalogs are declining. Even this time a year. I think this website should also requests the merchants to stop selling or renting the names of people who opt out. I’m not convinced that when my name gets removed that they still might be giving my name/address to other catalog companies. Keep up the great work.

    John on December 21st, 2007 at 8:14 am

  5. We just started using Catalog Choice in mid-November and have already opted-out for 158 catalogs! We’ve decided to keep getting about 30 catalogs. That means we’ve been getting at least 188 different catalogs. No wonder I have a sore back from lugging the recycle container to the curbside. If you will post the names of cooperating and non-cooperating catalogs, that will help us further decide if we want to do business with certain companies. Afterall, if a company is not willing to honor a a customer’s request, why should we do business with them? Let us know how we can further support your efforts.

    Jeff on December 22nd, 2007 at 10:43 am

  6. I love the idea and hope it works. The only complaint was that your web site was very slow. This is now improving. I almost was going to drop out, but now, with your improvements it getting better. Please continue to work or the speed. It is very important to make the site user friendly. At some point you may also consider magazines.
    I really like the window to add catologs that are not on your list. I hope you are putting them into your site.
    Roger Sachs

    Roger Sachs on December 25th, 2007 at 11:05 am

  7. I opted out of many catalogs in October, but still am receiving them. At what point should I report these instances as infractions?

    Catherine McEwen on January 2nd, 2008 at 10:22 am

  8. Catherine:

    We are working with each individual merchant to have the opt-out request honored. The only way for us to know who is not honoring our requests is for you to go to your My Choices view and select the “Still Receiving” link.

    We are relying on the good faith of the merchants to honor your request. If they do not honor it, please let us know.

    This information is critical for us to know which merchants need additional attention.

    Chuck on January 2nd, 2008 at 1:00 pm

  9. I have been entering catalogs like crazy since Nov 1 and I would expect now to see them decrease… however, since the “My choice” list does not indicates when the entry was made, how am I going to know which now is not repsonding? (I am willing to give them the 8/10 weeks leeway… though it seems a lot!) I do remember some of the first names, but after that it is a blur.
    Tonight, however I received a catalog that i declined weeks ago WITH A NEW CUSTIOMER NUMBER!!!!
    I am so outraged!

    Isa Schaff on January 2nd, 2008 at 6:50 pm

  10. The ’still receiving link’ does not work, very frustrating….I love the idea of what you are doing, and hope that the kinks will get worked out…..

    Catherine McEwen on January 3rd, 2008 at 5:10 pm

  11. I really support this idea. I have just started to see the creeping back of a couple I originally posted and have changed the customer number on the catalog.

    My concern comes with the catalogs I have requested be added. Most of this came in November, however, I put several in today which may be duplicates of those already entered. I have not received any emails concerning these catalogs being added. Can you give me an update on this, please?

    Thanks for all of your efforts!

    Laurie Bluth on January 3rd, 2008 at 9:40 pm

  12. Laurie:

    Due to the overwhelming popularity of our service, we are still working through the large list of “suggested catalog titles”. We will be adding these as our Customer Service Team confirms the merchant information. Thanks. Chuck

    Chuck on January 4th, 2008 at 9:12 am

  13. I agree with your mission. We need to reduce catalog waste. But, I have a questions, what authority does Catalog Choice have to force this on catalog companies? No company wants to send promotional materials but it is very difficult to know which one to honor and which one is genuine. In other words, apart from the DMA and Catalog Choice, here are some other companies that offer the similar service: http://www.stopthejunkmail.com, http://www.CatalogEnd.com, JunkMailReduction.Greendimes.com… As a company, it is difficult to follow all these “opt-out” lists.

    Just Curious on January 8th, 2008 at 3:18 pm

  14. The problem with catalogend.com is that you have to spend $15.95 for them to delete the first 100 catalogs and $0.25 for each additional catalog after that. And they say it could take up to 6-9 months to stop getting catalogs. I don’t care where these companies “get their list” the should honor the request of people to be removed …period. Maybe if the companies LISTENED to people to have written, called or email NUMEROUS requests to be removed from their mailing list companies like catalogchoice.org, catalogend.com, stopthejunkmail.com et.al wouldn’t have to exist.

    Laurie on January 8th, 2008 at 6:49 pm

  15. What authority gives any business the right to profit from the sale/trade/rent of my name and address, to deposit unrequested trash in my mailbox, and to force me to pay for its disposal? When I signed up with Catalog Choice, I personally authorized the website to carry out a specific action at my request. I don’t care if it’s difficult for an advertiser to integrate multiple opt-out lists and requests–I’m already losing time and money sorting and dumping junk mail. I think Catalog Choice should be far more aggressive about revealing catalogs and companies that don’t cooperate promptly. (Why give them two 10-week periods to come around?) Regarding those companies that ignore my opt-out requests, I stop doing business with them. There are plenty of competitors who deserve my business for cooperating with my opt-out request. What is the compliance rate for successful opt-out requests? Has any company agreed to honor the requests and followed through? A webpage listing the cooperating companies would be handy…if there were any.

    Mark on January 9th, 2008 at 5:58 pm

  16. I am still getting the catalogs I asked to have stopped. The ‘report infractions” link does not work. I am very frustrated, as I had looked forward to reducing the items I send to the landfill each week.

    Catherine McEwen on January 9th, 2008 at 7:20 pm

  17. Re: Chuck : …As a company, it is difficult to follow all these “opt-out” lists….

    Why should it be any harder than adding new names from new mailing lists? That certainly does not seem to be too difficult for most businesses to accomplish.

    Lynda on January 10th, 2008 at 5:42 pm

  18. please do not send

    juanita Williamson on January 24th, 2008 at 9:36 am
 

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