22 Responses to “Shout Out to Our New Merchants”

1. 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).

   Eugene Zelenko on February 25th, 2008 at 9:29 pm

2. you’re all doing a wonderful thing. i am spreading the word. thanks!

   Mary... on February 26th, 2008 at 12:17 pm

3. 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 Glomski on February 26th, 2008 at 1:22 pm

4. 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.

   Paul on February 26th, 2008 at 3:29 pm

5. Thanks, that makes sense. Rock on!

   Tracy Glomski on February 26th, 2008 at 6:37 pm

6. 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?

   Jeanne Toth on February 27th, 2008 at 1:46 pm

7. 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

   CITIZEN on February 27th, 2008 at 8:10 pm

8. 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.

   Reed on February 28th, 2008 at 1:00 am

9. 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 on February 28th, 2008 at 1:54 pm

10. 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.

    Tracy Glomski on February 28th, 2008 at 5:59 pm

11. 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?

    Deborah on March 1st, 2008 at 4:47 pm

12. 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.

    Laura on March 2nd, 2008 at 1:02 pm

13. 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.

    Chris on March 4th, 2008 at 1:44 am

14. We are a World magazine of Ideas and the Arts, and we chose your website as our Site of the Month for February 2008.

    Word Worth on March 5th, 2008 at 12:11 pm

15. Tracy, could you please post the number & address for the Golden Gate contact? Thank you.

    LMcC on March 7th, 2008 at 9:49 pm

16. 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.

    Tracy Glomski on March 8th, 2008 at 10:38 am

17. 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.

    Tracy Glomski on March 11th, 2008 at 6:04 am

18. 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?

    Tracy Glomski on March 11th, 2008 at 6:10 am

19. 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!

    CITIZEN on March 12th, 2008 at 4:09 pm

20. 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!!!!

    CITIZEN on March 12th, 2008 at 4:14 pm

21. 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!

    Julia on March 15th, 2008 at 9:27 am

22. 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.

    Fed Up Catalog Orderer on April 8th, 2008 at 8:05 pm