« Back to blog home page

What is your reason?

Last week we added a new feature to the Decline Catalog page in which we ask you to let us know the primary reason why you are declining to have the specific catalog sent to you in the mail. If you have not seen it yet, here are the list of choices that we provide. If you don’t want to answer the question, we make it easy by pre-selecting the Prefer not to answer option. But, for the benefit of our team and the merchants, we really want to know why you are making this choice.

catalog-choice-eliminate-unwanted-catalogs-you-receive-in-the-mail.jpg

Some of you probably saw this question when you were making your choices last week. We rolled it out quietly so that we could get some initial feedback from users. We quickly learned that we needed to add the option “I want to help the environment” as many members were adding this answer or the answer “I don’t want to waste paper” to the Other category.

We will be creating a page for existing members to quickly go back over their existing opt-out requests to answer this question, if you wish. In the meantime, you can find the question for each opt-out request by going to My Choices and selecting View Details.

As the data starts flowing in, we will share it with the merchants that have signed up for our service so that they can better understand the customers’ perspective. We will also share aggregate data with the community so that we all can better understand what drives our community to enter over 7 million opt-out requests in 3 short months.

This entry was posted on Sunday, February 10th, 2008 at 5:49 pm and is filed under Customers, Featured. 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.

32 Responses to “What is your reason?”

  1. UNSUBSCRIBE TO ALL
    Catalogs coming to this
    Address please and save
    our Trees

    Ruben Schaaf on February 10th, 2008 at 6:33 pm

  2. To save our Trees

    Ruben Schaaf on February 10th, 2008 at 6:33 pm

  3. This is a really nice feature. Thank you for adding it. I will go through my choices today and select answers for each. I can already tell you, though, that two-thirds of the catalogs I’ve received since joining Catalog Choice in October have been prospecting efforts, totally unsolicited and undesired by me. All but two of the remaining one-third catalogs came from merchants with with whom I’ve shopped before, and with whom I’ll likely shop again—I just prefer to make my purchases online. The last two are places where I’ve had unsatisfactory customer service experiences. I won’t be buying their products again, regardless.

    Tracy Glomski on February 11th, 2008 at 8:05 am

  4. I love this service. Thank you. I do have a suggestion for the Catalogue List that you provide to choose from. Make check boxes to do more than one catalogue at a time. That way if the name and address are the same we can do the selections more effeciently. In that section we do not know the customer number from the catalogue anyway. Hope this is a viable idea. Thanks for this service.
    Heather Blatt

    Heather Blatt on February 11th, 2008 at 8:16 am

  5. what does it really matter,for this is what is really happening so here we go again..i’m receiving plow and hearth with a new customer number after my choices has it down as confirmed that they will not send me any more catalogs..also receiving many other catalgs with new customer numbers that have been opted out previously but not quite ten weeks has elapsed…i reported an infraction for plow and hearth and now you tell me it’s another ten weeks….tell me what is going on when 95% OF MY OPT OUTS ARE UNCONFIRMED….THERE IS A BIGGER PROBLEM WITH THE CATALOG SENDERS CHANGING THE CUSTOMER NUMBERS to continue the mailings..

    gina marino on February 11th, 2008 at 11:44 am

  6. It has really gotten out of control. I receive inches of catalogs some days! Thanks to you maybe we can get back to normal. Jeanne Maddern

    Jeanne Maddern on February 11th, 2008 at 2:19 pm

  7. This is a great service. I am amazed that some of the companies refuse to stop the catalog without my calling. You’d think they’d like to cut down some of their expenses.

    While I want to definitely save trees, the majority of my reasons for declining these catalogs is that 1) I don’t want their products, and 2) they were entirely unsolicited … I’ve never shopped from them. They got my name by buying it from someone else. Wish we could get that practice stopped.

    I can guarantee that any of the catalogs I’ve received without my asking, I will never purchase anything from … I can guarantee this.

    Thank you for offering this wonderful service. I’ve passed your web site information on to all of my friends.

    Marilyn Rubin on February 11th, 2008 at 3:01 pm

  8. I am so sick of all these magazines. I guess they pay my mailman’s salary but that is the
    only positive thing about them.
    I am so glad I found out about this website.

    linda fleming on February 11th, 2008 at 6:56 pm

  9. I don’t think it is so smart to tell merchants that some of the people requesting not to receive their catalogs are doing it “just” to save the environment, rather than because they don’t order from the catalog… it may tempt them to keep sending it. What should matter is that the customer doesn’t want it. At the very least, let people check multiple reasons, rather than just the primary one.

    Kathleen ONeill on February 12th, 2008 at 7:35 am

  10. I joined Catalog Choice when I received 60 catalogs in a single week! Some of these places send multiple catalogs every week, with a statement on the back that the company is committed to the environment and has used recycled paper to generate it. Committed to the environment, my foot! What a wasteful and disgusting practice. I’m offended that some of these companies refuse to honor a request to stop a catalog–that’s the surest way to lose my business for merchants with whom I would otherwise have continued to shop online. I agree with the last post, that we should be able to check multiple reasons for declining catalogs. Thank you for providing this service; I hope it only continues to increase in effectiveness.

    Anne Coventry on February 12th, 2008 at 7:57 am

  11. What is my reason?

    I like trees, I hate waste, and our planet’s in enough trouble already.

    I’d also really like to actually get MAIL in my mailbox.

    Between the catalogs, the “special offers” from local chimney sweeps, and the ridiculous “invitations” for a brand new credit card practically EVERY DAY, I’m tempted to just take myself off the grid completely and delete my own address.

    If that were even possible.

    Kate on February 12th, 2008 at 11:51 am

  12. I really enjoy this website. I joined in Nov 2007 and so far am seeing a drastic reduction in catalogs. We have opted out of over 80 catalogs. I look forard to see what happens when a year has gone by & I don’t have to sort and recycle all those wasted mailings. Thank you Catalog Choice!

    Anne-Marie Older on February 12th, 2008 at 1:28 pm

  13. During the holidays we were receiving an average of 15 a day. Catalogs for kids (don’t have any) horses ditto, dogs ditto.
    Just amazes me the amount of catalogs that sell earth friendly products but send a new catalog every month.
    Catalog Choice is going to all my friends.

    Lil Forcey on February 12th, 2008 at 1:29 pm

  14. I love your site and will be visiting regularly, especially as new catalogs arrive in the mail. I,too, like the idea of multiple choice on reasons for stopping a catalog. Thank you for your service. I look forward to less of a pile in my recycle bin!

    Rae McDowell on February 12th, 2008 at 3:09 pm

  15. I, too, have received catalogs with a new customer number — very frustrating. Primarily, I want to eliminate the catalogs because they have been unsolicited after a recent move. I ordered from one vendor whom I believe sold my address, which really irritated me and I have since put their name on my list of unwanted catalogs. My sister lives with me and we used to receive at least two of every catalog, but after our move, no one has found her, so I am the only one who is ordering products in an effort to avoid duplicate catalogs. What is amazing how quickly the new catalogs are coming in.

    Shawnee Kizzire on February 12th, 2008 at 4:47 pm

  16. When I called Garnet Hill to ask why they had refused your request, they told me that there is an incompatibility with your software and theirs. The address that comes through to them is all garbled so they are not able to honor the request. Any truth to this?

    Mary Barlow on February 12th, 2008 at 4:52 pm

  17. Mary:

    It is not true that the software is incompatible. It is not true that the address comes through garbled. We have over 100 merchants using our system. We are in contact with the Garnet Hill executives and are working to get this resolved. Thanks for the feedback.

    Chuck on February 12th, 2008 at 5:19 pm

  18. Wow. I knew we were getting tons of catalogs but we’re up to 84 opt outs and still climbing since joining in December 07! YIKES! Thanks for this great service. I like the improvements and tweaks to the site so far. Agree with suggestions to allow more than one choice for reasons. Carry on!

    Donna L Maxwell on February 12th, 2008 at 7:44 pm

  19. Kate:

    If you want to opt-out from credit cards offers, you can try http://optoutprescreen.com (I opted out 5 years ago and it works).

    You can also try to look at bulk mailer home page (like http://valassis.com - big paper spammer in Bay Area) - sometime they have opt-out page.

    Also you can try http://proquo.com - this site help to remove your name from various databases including mentioned above.

    Chuck:

    Is it possible to introduce page on Catalog Choice with link to mentioned services (something like “Other useful recourses”) since Catalog Choice can’t cover all possible junk mail sources (fro example http://optoutprescreen.com will require SSN)?

    Eugene Zelenko on February 12th, 2008 at 9:50 pm

  20. I hope the merchants are more responsive to a website representing thousands of consumers. Yves Rocher is the ONLY catalog ever to honor my individual request to remove me from their mailing list. Other requests have gone unheard, and I thought there was no way to reduce the junk in my mailbox until now! Most of it was unsolicited. I love the service you provide, and it’s great that the Merchant website links are accessible from here so that I can easily shop online from any website I choose. I have noticed a reduction in the amount of junk mail I get, and I’m sure my Postal Carrier appreciates it!

    Sheryl on February 13th, 2008 at 12:03 pm

  21. This seems like a good idea, but I have one small cavil — adding this box of choices makes the page just long enough that the “Decline Catalog” button is now often off screen and I have to scroll down to click it, so it adds an operation to an otherwise very slick interface.

    Peter on February 13th, 2008 at 5:10 pm

  22. I would like to be able to select more than one reason, and for some of the catalogs, I prefer to shop in stores. I would say my biggest reason is the combination of too frequent and I don’t buy that often. If I got 1-2 a year from some of these companies it would do for browsing and spark my interest to go on-line when I need something. But I hope those that I will never buy from (kids, dogs) will pay attention and save the trees!

    Ginger on February 15th, 2008 at 8:14 am

  23. Like Ginger, I would like to check more than one box. I do want to help the environment. But, I also want to give some retailers more information about my shopping interests.

    Darrin Ellis-May on February 15th, 2008 at 3:49 pm

  24. Great idea to be able to give reason for opting out, but I agree that checking more than one box would be more helpful. Some catalogs I will never have any interest, some I will. Your website keeps improving. Thanks.

    Sandra Lunny on February 17th, 2008 at 10:24 am

  25. The reason that we only allow one answer to the “reason” question is that the results are more meaningful for analysis. We report the data to the merchants on a percentage basis. If users were permitted to enter more than one answer, the percentages would be harder to interpret since we would no longer know the “primary” reason.

    However, we will explore some ways to let you tell us more reasons without compromising the results. Thanks for the feedback.

    Chuck on February 17th, 2008 at 12:37 pm

  26. I would like to be able to indicate more than one reason for declining, since it is often a combo.

    Also, I would be happy to get one catalog per year from many merchants, but only one.

    Tonya on February 20th, 2008 at 7:30 pm

  27. I too, would like the option of checking more than one reason for opting out. I don’t want all this junk in my mailbox; I want to save trees; I won’t EVER purchase anything for kids or animals; etc., and the retailers should hear all of this!

    NCN on February 27th, 2008 at 8:10 am

  28. I just prefer to say “I don’t need these items.” Knowing that
    do you really think they will stop. I sure hope so.

    CITIZEN on February 27th, 2008 at 8:12 pm

  29. We need a decline category which states the catalog does not carry my size. I receive several catalogs which only carry M width shoes and I were Narrow. I would never buy from them. Why would they desire to send me a catalog which does not carry my size?

    Barb Butzow on March 5th, 2008 at 9:12 am

  30. Ditto to Barb’s note re: wish to tell catalog company they don’t offer my size.

    LMcC on March 6th, 2008 at 10:41 am

  31. Such a cool service. Thanks!

    I just submitted a new request and my reason is tied between not wanting to waste paper & I prefer to shop for this item in stores/would never buy clothes without trying them on first.

    Just another reason you might want to add to the list. :)

    Avocado on March 7th, 2008 at 8:13 am

  32. 412 opt-outs since Nov 2007, hundreds of duplicates received, scores or infractions reported, and dozens of phone calls made. Still getting new catalogs every day mostly from all of the above but with name modifications. Sixteen different name modifications. But we’re making progress, aren’t we??? Please say yes!!

    Abby on March 27th, 2008 at 3:35 pm
 

(required)

(required) Will not be published