We are nine months into our odyssey to give consumers choice over what comes in their mailbox. Here is where we stand:
- Consumers trust our service and have demonstrated a significant demand for a free and easy to use way to set their catalog mail preference. Almost 950,000 households have set up an account and opted-out of over 12 million catalog titles.
- Merchants are steadily coming around to accepting requests generated from our service. There are over 250 merchants who have activated their merchant accounts and many others have received their opt-out file and are working on the process. In the past two weeks, we have delivered over 1.5 million opt out requests to several large merchants. More big wins are on the way.
- The DMA continues to persuade merchants to not work with us, introducing unnecessary tension into our merchant outreach efforts. Here is their most recent letter to merchants. This was sent out one hour after I finished a panel discussion on Do Not Mail with two merchants, USPS and the DMA. Without this resistance from the Association, I know we would have made more progress to date. But rest assured we are prevailing despite their propaganda. By the way - we do not and will not rent or sell any member’s name. We have made this clear on many occassions.
- Frustration with unwanted catalogs still abounds. Despite your disappointment when you open your mailbox, your continued support in promoting the service with friends and words of encouragement on the blog and to customer service keep us rolling on our mission.
- We are working on several fronts to improve our service:
- We are making it easier for consumers to support the merchants who are honor your mail preference requests by adding product categories and electronic catalogs to Bravo Merchants.
- We are making it easier for merchants to honor requests by automating the process with their Service Bureaus.
- We are meeting everyone’s desire for more choice by developing a process whereby merchants can offer less frequent catalog mailings - referred to as “opt-down” or mail frequency. Look for more on this topic in the coming weeks.
- We are spending endless hours meeting with executives throughout the mail industry to build trust and partnerships so that your requests will be honored.
Thanks for your continued support.
Catalog Choice Team
111 confirmed for us is very impressive. Considering over 500+ input = about an average of 2-6 variations logged in. Good Job CC.org for helping on the catalogs! So far this month, we’re doing good.
It’s quite obvious from some of the above postings that mail suppliers don’t know what they are doing by selling old and incorrect info as well as “expanded” info in changing customer #s and such. It’s also irresponsible to send mailings to relatives that passed away yeas ago when USPS was properly notified by the survivors.
-Still want a Do Not Mail Law that may impose penalties to those that create a possible environment for Identity Theft as well unwanted waste.
When I started reading the postings in Jan08, CC.org did not really have anything to say about certain mail suppliers. I really respect them for what they are… very honorable and ethical. Maybe, the first call to merchants (catalogs, charities, miscellaneous) will get the point to suppress by address and not by name.
Question to all: Are you enjoying your evenings because of lesser calls from solicitors at dinner time? = Do Not Call Legislation did the trick.
Ingrid: thanks for the info. As far as DMA, they seem to change their rules about what they want (credit card info and $) in regards to membership terms when it suits them. Sounds like a fitness scam I fell for awhile back and lost $. I would say DMAs 36 years is long enough to improve on gaining public trust and to quit bragging about the marketing range they can provide.
Tom: We think ProQuo has designed a nice site, but can’t speak to the effectiveness of their model for delivering opt-out requests to catalog merchants. We list all of the merchants that are honoring your requests on the Bravo Merchants page: http://www.catalogchoice.org/pages/merchants
Ellen: You bring up an important point. It is usually effective to call companies directly and request to be removed from their mailing list. Since it is so time consuming, we built Catalog Choice, and are working hard to achieve greater compliance within the catalog industry. In just 10 short months, we have over 260 catalog mailers using Catalog Choice to honor your requests. When you do call a merchant, please let the customer service representative know that you’d like them to start using Catalog Choice. And, stick with us – the service is only going to get better!
Lori: stay tuned for news about an “opt-down” option.
To Joe (July 11) re: point #5, are you sure that the catalogs you requested are actually now on the site? I have received several emails from Catalog Choice regarding catalogs that I requested that are now on the site. (Thank You!)
It has taken about 4 months, but I am finally beginning to see a marked decline in the number of catalogs we receive. The marketers are crafty; we can see evidence where our name has been “sold” from one to another, and it’s sometimes months between a purchase and the onslaught of new (unwanted catalogs) from the sale of our name.
Thank You to Catalog Choice for providing an easy way for us to at least reduce (if not completely eliminate) those pesky catalogs.
Thank you so much for this service. I don’t recall when I signed up - probably late 2007. It took a while, but I’ve noticed over the last two or three months that just a few catalogs trickle into my mailbox now. Compared with the deluge we used to receive, this is phenomenal. For better or worse, I refused to call the Speigel companies, since they refused to deal with me via Catalog Choice - they weren’t worth my time, and even those catalogs are no longer coming. I’m so thankful! I just received a huge ABC Distributing holiday catalog, which made me want to gag for thought of the trees hacked down to print that monstrosity advertising what I consider to be junk. Though I brace myself for the coming holiday catalog mailing season, I am not discouraged, because I’ve seen tremendous improvement in my own experience with these catalog companies. Thank you so much, Catalog Choice, for the work you do.
I have continually pursued each merchant who “refuses” or “will not participate”. The latest one, NapaStyle wrote an email that said the reason they will not participate is that catalogchoice charges them for each address they deliver. Why should they pay for what they can get for free was their response. Is this true? Would appreciate a speedy answer.
Sandra:
NapaStyle is unfortunately misinforming you. We do not charge the merchants for this service. Thanks for your inquiry.
Chuck
Thanks for the “heads-up” about NapaStyle. I’ve been a customer in their L.A. store and I’d planned to order a couple of items online, but I won’t support a merchant who lies to customers. They won’t get another dime from me. P.S. CC has lessened the stacks in my mailbox, without the tedium of individual phone calls - Thanks!
Thanks. That’s what I told them, even before I got this response. Interestingly, my email keeps being returned! It was a reply from several back and forth communications, so the address is correct….it’s like they won’t accept it! I told them they were going to get alot of bad press in our blog, and now they are getting their wish!
P.S. NapapStyle’s customer service number now has changed so you have to PAY to speak to them, by the minute! AND if you call their other number listed on their site, to place orders, it says it “is invalid…try again”! Great business, huh?
Hi,
If you can put the catalog companies Customer Service number next to their name.. in case they continue to send catalogs, it will be an easy look up to go through and call each company and tell them to STOP sending us trees in the mail!
Thank you for providing this valued service. My mail has reduced significantly, helping me living a more simple live by not being tempted by all the glossy “must haves”. Keep up the good work!
I’ve been doing this since 12/07 and we’ve seen a tremendous drop in the number of catalogs in our mailbox. But I’m wondering if they’ll start up again as the holidays near (gotta hope not).
I too have experienced the “change the name a bit and assign a new customer number” phenomonon but I keep listing them here too. More work for all of us but you have to figure that, sooner or later, they’ll get tired of all the games and just drop our names.
And…thanks for finally adding the suggested new catalogs. The broader the list, the better.
Bravo to CC!!!
I have a theory that as soon as I order from a catalog (say it’s Catalog A), they put my name on their “live one” list and sell it to everybody in the world. So if I’ve opted out of Catalog B, they just buy the next “live one” list being offered, and there I am again, with a new customer number and maybe a slightly different name. The only way to break the endless cycle is not to ever order anything from any catalog ever again–and I’m not going THAT far!
Pat: I posted a few months ago that catalog companies will probably start making their lists and checking them twice in July. You can guess what my wish is. Santa will probably throw me off his knee when I tell him. You’ll know sometime around September if you start getting “holiday” catalogs. They don’t get tired of the name change game, they get more creative and print several mailings in advance and put “Or Current Resident” above your name.
Betty: You’ve got it! (about the sharing of mail info because A got a live one=the great pyramid scheme of marketing) It’s as bad as grafitti on a bathroom wall that say trashy stuff about people and give their phone #s. I still order from a few (four to be exact) that I read them the Do not sell/share or rent act about my info or I’ll stop ordering from them. They’ve really been respectful of my request. But I state my request every time I order.
At first results were slim, but now I am practcally paperless! I have also cancelled local newspapers, going online or to the gym instead. It is great to help the environment in any way possible.
Let’s try paper and plastic cups at Starbucks and other coffee chains next!
I just got back from a two-week vacation. There was only one single catalog waiting for me in the mail at the Post Office. The last time I took a trip of this length, I got a stack of books nearly three inches thick.
Thank you, Catalog Choice. Now I can spend more time bonding with Sydney (our new rescue parrot) and less time sorting through unwanted advertising.
Yes, it seems like a vicious circle, but certainly worth the effort. I have been emailing/calling the biggest offenders who ignore all requests by CC (Casual Living and Footsmart to name two). I also call customer service. I figure if nothing else happens, I irritate someone as I have been irritated by continually receiving unwanted catalogs in my mailbox. I like the previous post of “return to sender” with no postage. I do that with junk mail - take all the stuff, remove my name/address, put it in the pre-addressed postage paid envelope and mail it back. Someone there will have to open it. Love it!!
just today a friend sent me to your site. i had just put a pile of unwanted catalogs in the recycling bin; determined not to spend a stamp on this junk mail. bless you and my friend. what a great relief to find those who are environmentally concerned. i am going to my post office to give the workers this message. thanks so much.
I want to add my kudos to those Catalog Choice has already received. But (and I’ve e-mailed you about this separately twice already) some merchandisers persist in evading these catalog requests by assigning “new” customer numbers, thereby allowing them to indicate they have honored a request but to still continue to send unwanted catalogs. Home Decorators Collection of Hazelwood, Missouri, is one such malefactor. I have had them on my “remove” list since March and I continue to receive new catalogs from them almost monthly — each with a new and different customer number. It is time to consider sanctioning such unethical business practices. I, for one, will be on the phone with the Missouri State Office of the Attorney General as well as the local Better Business Bureau. Constantly changing a “customer number” to evade a legitimate request to be removed from a mailing list should be construed as a deceptive business practice.
Erin: I’m with you on the practice that catalog companies change our names and customer number (and print Or Current Resident) to keep catalogs coming.
Catalog companies are actually encouraged by their marketers to do whatever they can to “broaden” their range of attracting consumers -including changing names/customer info/printing “We Occasionally Exchange Your Mailing Info”(It’s already been done 10 fold before you get the chance to protest). Do you think that catalogs companies should be in the mail supplier business? They get away with this because there is no penalty.
Unless the State Attny Gen has several similar complaints, they will not respond. I wish you the best- I am still trying but the last time I wrote an SAG - Florida, they responded stating that my complaint was forwarded to the USPS postmaster general’s office. USPS strongly supports DMA and catalog practices-a match made in wasted paper.
I’ll say this about Florida, forestehtics.org’s Do Not Mail legislation petition shows that Florida has a great deal of consumers signing up. More that most states.
What can CC do about a Bravo Merchant who says they won’t mail you, then does? I’m so frustrated because I did everything right with Meduri World Delights: I chose them because they were a Bravo merchant; after I made the purchase, I e-mailed them that I didn’t want to get any catalogs, didn’t want them to share/rent/sell my name, didn’t want e-mails from them — and they responded that they wouldn’t do any of those things. So what shows up in my USPS box yesterday but a Meduri catalog!
Debra, I don’t work for CC.org. It does sometimes takes the 1-2 mailings because they print in advance. So it may be due to the timing of your order and request for removal. Don’t know for sure but look at the back label for a requested mailing date. Evidently, USPS has room to store catalogs before they need to be mailed. Does this storage of pending catalogs cost the consumer or the merchant?
Also, it may be due to the catalog co buying a new mailing list. As said before, their printed “We occasionally exchange” has already been done ten fold before the consumer knows it’s happened. (mail & run!)
I know the frustration, I just “dismissed” one major company because of their constant errors in several shipping orders being either delayed or damaged and yet, I got a catalog after I requested deletion.
Just be patient.
What is odd is that organizations that are supposedly the most responsible and caring and make a huge deal out of their environmentalism and responsibility towards the public can be the most resistant to cooperating. For example I think Patagonia is truly a good outfit but they’ve actually developed a policy against accepting input from catalog choice. What gives? PBS Video I have refused to business with for the last 5 years, I have called them more than 20 times, yet I can’t get off their catalog list. However since using your service, I think the number of them has dropped but only the last 3 months. What a strange situation.
Yvonne,thanks for your response. I’m just frustrated because a large part of the reason I chose Meduri was I had never before received a catalog from them. I had no idea they existed. I know that in the few minutes that elapsed between placing my first — possibly last — order and completing all the opt-out functions, they could’ve given my info to other companies, which gives the lie to any company who says “we can’t cooperate with CC because we don’t have the technology” b.s.
And to Al: What a “strange situation” indeed! I admire your restrained language…when it comes to this topic, I’m afraid I can only think in terms not fit for this forum.
I would like to catalogchoice take a stronger position with retailer who do not cooperate. Why not organize a boycott of one of the larger retailers? It woudl garner some interesting publicity, and flex a little muscle. Retailer can ill afford to have bad publicity in this environment.
Reading others’ comments here makes me understand my own misadventures in getting deleted from some mailing lists. I have abided by my threat to no longer purchase from those companies. Thanks CC for all you do, regardless of the success we may or may not enjoy.
Has anybody else been told by a customer service rep. that ordering from a company’s web site means they will automatically start sending/continue to send you catalogs, despite the company having promised to honor your explicit opt-out request? That was my experience with Pottery Barn customer service this morning.
I believe that Catalogchoice doesn’t give our names out to marketers. But cheeze, I’ve been getting catalogs lately that are so “not me” I can’t IMAGINE where they got my name. Like today’s prize: Budk Catalog, apparently for people who like to kill people. I’m a 63-year old Quaker woman, for heaven’s sakes! I feel like every time I open my mailbox there’s a whole new pile of obnoxious catalogs I’ve never heard of and wish I’d never seen. Where are they coming from??
[...] readers (Fred B, Jim Wiggin, and Al) have commented about the fact that Patagonia was not participating in Catalog [...]