The fruits of merchant account managers’ labor are ripening. Every week, more and more merchants are signing up to our free, secure service to honor consumer mail preferences. In the past week, PC Connection, Van Bourgondien, Wisconsin Cheeseman, and Duluth Trading Company have all opened accounts and started the process of honoring consumers requests.
These and the other Bravo Merchants, are saving money in many ways by setting up a merchant account. First, it is easier and faster to honor the request through our secure download rather than transcribing requests sent via our push email fulfillment service. Second, there is no sense in sending a catalog to someone who does not want it. If you want a free merchant account, contact us at merchantservice@catalogchoice.org.
Is it possible to improve Bravo Merchants page by adding new sort orders in addition to alphabetical?
1) date, when merchant start to collaboration with Catalog Choice. It’ll help to find out new names.
2) number of honored requests (== total environmental impact).
you’re all doing a wonderful thing. i am spreading the word. thanks!
Yay! That is excellent news.
There are a couple of discrepancies between the flags in my personal opt-outs page and the listings on the Bravo Merchants page. I think I can understand why one of my catalogs is confirmed yet not listed on the Bravo page—maybe the merchant has agreed to run the opt-outs by e-mail rather than establish the account to download? But I can’t think of a reason why a merchant who’s listed on the Bravo page would be listed as “unconfirmed” in my account. Is that an oversight that I should bring to someone’s private attention, or is something still in process there?
Tracy –
There are a few merchants marked “confirmed” that have active accounts and are processing your mail preferences; but have asked not to be included on the Bravo merchants page for their own reasons.
If there is a merchant that’s on the Bravo page but listed as unconfirmed in “My Choices”, it’s because they have not downloaded their data file since you’ve registered the opt out. Don’t worry – your selection will be marked ‘confirmed’ just as soon as they download their file.
Thanks, that makes sense. Rock on!
I have been noticing on several catalogs I have opt-out of that I’m still receiving these catalogs now with a new customer number. Is this how they are able to keep sending these damm catalogs which I have to dispose of?
At my age these silly catalogs
come in sizes 6,8, or 10.
I am a senior citizen and I don’t
appreciate catalogs featuring
short short dresses with long long necklines. When will catalog get real
I suggest you categorize the catalogs with fair ratings to help distinguish and channelize in a proper direction, depending on the kind of merchant services. It will cut down time browsing through.
I’m thoroughly disgusted with the merchants who are ignoring my requests to opt-out by changing the customer number and sometimes by changing my name to a “Ms” or “Mrs”. A catalog called “Solutions” has now sent me a catalog with a third different customer number and slightly changed the name. Even though I have emailed them, they continue to disregard my requests. Is there anything more we can do?
Fran, Solutions belongs to Golden Gate Capital, who has acquired at least 15 brands within the past five years. Some of their other holdings include catalogers Norm Thompson, Sahalie, WinterSilks, Newport News, and Spiegel. If I was getting multiple Solutions catalogs, I’d be tempted to write straight to the top (info@goldengatecap.com) just to read what response, if any, comes back.
Solutions is also a DMA member. On October 15, 2007, all DMA members were advised to:
(1) “…provide existing and prospective customers and donors with notice of an opportunity to modify the receipt of future mail solicitations from their organization in every commercial solicitation…”
(2) “…disclose the source from which [the direct marketer] obtained personally identifiable data about that consumer…”
(3) “…use DMA’s Mail Preference Service (MPS) name-removal file every month (instead of quarterly, the [former] requirement)…”
Those rules were supposedly effective immediately, although enforcement of the notices is not set to begin until October 15, 2008.
I spent a tedious half-hour last night Googling every “unconfirmed” and “refused” merchant in my Catalog Choice account. There are at least 25 DMA members who have sent prospecting catalogs to my home within the past four months. In most cases, the catalogs do not bear a customer number, since I have not done business with those merchants previously. In a handful of instances, there is a customer number (or multiple customer numbers) which I believe may have been assigned for tracking and data-gathering purposes.
I should not be receiving these mailings at all, because I am enrolled in DMA’s mail preference service. I’d like to think that my previous enrollment was still in effect. But it’s tricky to be sure, since DMA allows the opt-outs to quietly expire every few years. I could’ve sworn it was five years, but I see they now say three. Hmmm. In any case, I have now signed up yet again through January 2011.
Pat Kachura, DMA senior vice president for corporate responsibility, appears to be in charge of ethics concerns over at DMA. This was somewhat challenging, but I have tracked down Ms. Kachura’s phone number and e-mail address (which are both posted at DMA’s website, just not in a terribly obvious place).
Here’s what’s going to happen. Come October 15, 2008, I will call every single DMA member who continues to send me unsolicited mailings. I will ask you to tell me where you got my name. I will demand that you finally remove me from your list, so that you can no longer sell my personal information for a dime—or more—a pop. I will then personally contact Ms. Kachura and complain. I will keep complaining until I get satisfaction.
Meanwhile, lets all please not shoot the messenger (Catalog Choice). To my mind, the CC team is trying to facilitate a positive process. I really admire how courteous they’ve been. If I’m still having to deal with this in October, I suspect I’ll personally feel a touch less inclined toward courteousness. It’s not difficult to see where the problem is originating, and it is not originating at Catalog Choice.
Sorry to post this rant on what started as a “good news” blog entry. I am genuinely happy to see more and more merchants recognizing the benefits of this dialog and this service.
That really is all I have to say on the subject for now.
Perhaps this has been addressed elsewhere, but I’d like an option to reduce the number of mailings from one company. For example, I want to receive the main L.L. Bean catalogue, but I get several each season, plus separate catalogues for women, men, the home and outdoor sports. Instead of 20 to 25 Bean catalogues each year, I’d like to receive two or three. Is there a way to request that?
Hi, Deborah. Many of you had the same request regarding frequency of catalogs. Some merchants can handle that request – others currenty cannot. However, we’re right now at work on adding that feature for the merchants who can handle frequency requests.
Deborah:
It’s outside of CC, but if you call LL Bean, they’re more than happy to send you only their “main” catalog. And the LL Bean folks are unfailingly pleasant.
We are a World magazine of Ideas and the Arts, and we chose your website as our Site of the Month for February 2008.
Tracy, could you please post the number & address for the Golden Gate contact? Thank you.
LMcC, I haven’t much looked into Golden Gate Capital, but the e-mail address I posted above came from a related Google search which led me to their website.
Their portfolio of companies is here:
http://goldengatecap.com/portfolio.shtml#consumer
Their contact page is here:
http://goldengatecap.com/contact.shtml
One Embarcadero Center, 33rd Floor
San Francisco, CA 94111
Telephone: (415) 627-4500
Fax: (415)627-4501
Email: info@goldengatecap.com
Incidentally, I placed an order this morning at the website of a company who’s confirmed my Catalog Choice opt-out. It was the first time I’ve bought anything from any multichannel merchant since last summer. I added a note of thanks for their cooperation with Catalog Choice and requested that they not resume the mailings. We’ll see how this goes.
Hey, LMcC, I posted a response to your question earlier, but it didn’t “stick.” I’m not sure if that was a technical glitch, or if there was a problem with the content of my reply. Sincere apologies to the Catalog Choice staff if I wrote something inappropriate.
I haven’t experienced huge problems with Golden Gate Capital brands myself. They have sent some unwanted mail to our house, but they are not the worst offenders. Lately, I haven’t seen anything from them at all. So I don’t plan to contact them personally in the near future.
If you want to read more about them, though, you can find lots of information at their own website. Just type their name into your favorite search engine.
D’oh. The post is visible now that I’m logged on. Sorry for the confusion. I’m still figuring out this blogging system, which is a little different from the one where I normally post. I didn’t mean for there to be live links in the original response; I’m used to coding them manually, but they happen automatically here. I’ll keep that in mind for future comments.
Any chance we could have a preview option for our comments?
I opted out for Blair Catalog.
While I had to call them to do
so,they just sent me a letter
saying they would honor the opt-out. Thank you all for doing this. I am undulated with catlogs every day, some I have
never heard of. The catalog people are giving our address out and being paid for doing so.
Even when I order I tell them not to sell, rent or give out my name and address. I’m sure they
still do. It’s more money for them.
Thank you for what you are doing!
JEANNE,
THANK YOU FOR MENTIONING THAT TOO. AS A SENIOR CITIZEN I RESENT THE FACT THAT THE SIZES
ARE SMALL, AND THE PLUNGING NECKLINE THAT ALMOST REACH TO THE SHORT SHORT DRESSES AND SKITS. JUST WHEN WILL THE CATALOG
REALIZE WE ONLY JUST “NOT” WANT THE CATALOGS BUT PROTEST AS TO WHAT THEY ARE TRYING TO SELL OUR
CHILDREN AND GRANDCHILDREN.
I HAVE MADE SURE TO PASS THIS ALONG TO EVERYONE I KNOW.
THANK YOU FOR THE COMMENT!!!!
The last time I was checking my CC list, I found a number of comments on the blog complaining about CC (how slow it was, etc.). The process is slow, because merchants are not hopping on the bandwagon as quickly as they should. But no revolution is easy! CC is making a difference, not only in helping me opt-out of the catalogs of cooperative merchants, but in motivating me to call all of the uncooperative merchants. Since last weekend, I have literally spent hours calling company after company and opting out of their mailing and rental lists. Thank you, CC, for planting the seed of the idea that I should/could (one way or the other) make this catalog nonsense STOP!
Attention Catalog Companies :
Remember TELEMARKETING
You are KILLING the GOOSE that lays the GOLDEN EGG.
IF you DO NOT PAY ATTENTION you will BE RESPONDING to Congressional subpoenas and LAWS restricting your commerce.
It will come from the HUE and CRY from your MISCONDUCT.
It’s in YOUR HANDS.
As a USPS employee these catalogs make our paycheck. Volume of mail is everyhting to us. 1st clas mail has been reduced due to internet use. Please dont take your name off the lists. If our volume is reduced we lose money. I personally lost 1ok last year due to a drop in mail volume. Just throw them out or give them to Docs offices, or librarys if u dont want them. Thanks
Laura, you are probably the first person since I’ve joined and blogged on CC.org that I will apologize to.
After dealing with my late mother in law’s house that had literally thousands of catalogs and magazines that she had been receiving while she was in a rehab facility for two years, (it was quite a journey to go through her house) and our own two households, receiving 100 per week, it was time to say no more. Before I retired, I was considered the “Catalog Queen” because I ordered and ordered but now, I don’t see the use of receiving catalogs we no longer need. I’ve done fine doing without the merchandise I used to order. Alot has to be that hubby and I want to spend more time with each other and our family and not spend time shredding our mailing labels or on the phone requesting removal.
All of us in this economy have lost $, some more, some less. It’s very hard. My own grown up sons are being reminded that when I was a single mom when they were young we dealt “going without a lot”. With their own families and financial crunches, they now understand. For me personally, I have three very close family members (including hubby) that need my time and support rather than having our mail info exchanged so I have to deal with unwanted catalogs and the waste of paper.
I keep saying one day I’ll start accepting some catalogs but they will have to be my choice and that’s why I joined CC.org.
I am sorry for your difficulties, Laura. Am I understanding correctly that your hours were cut?
The USPS is in a world of hurt. But after reading more about it online today, I don’t think the primary cause is consumer opposition to unsolicited mailings. If the reports I found are correct, it sounds like the USPS has sunk into debt primarily due to health care contributions mandated by a 2006 federal reform law, further aggravated by exorbitant fuel costs during the summer of 2008. Meanwhile, postage increases are capped to the rate of inflation, which is absolutely crippling if there’s no inflation.
I don’t know the solution. I wouldn’t be surprised to see some facilities close and an end to Saturday delivery. That means further job losses, which is awful to contemplate. Hopefully the cap can be waived, given the severity of the current economic crisis. I have received excellent service from the USPS for nearly all of my first-class mail. I would be willing to pay more for it.
In December 2008, I received 16 mailings from friends and family and only two catalogs. I am trying to keep the big picture in mind, but from a purely personal perspective, that is a vastly improved situation compared to what I was experiencing in 2007.