As of last night, I have started paying my 12 year old $1 per catalog to call companies and ask to be removed from the mailing list. That can not be any less effective than my experience here.

Studies have shown marketers that they get a “lift” in response if they repeat an offer in a given amount of time I think its two or three weeks). So if you saw an offer and set it aside thinking you would get around to ordering it eventually, you’re more likely to remember if you get the offer again. So DMers sometimes purchase a list for “unlimited” mailing. They pay a multiple of the list rental to mail the list as many times as they want within a given time frame. I suspect a lot of the holiday period mailings employ this strategy. You will not be removed from the stream once the names are added to the file. So be patient.

Second, if you suspect a cataloger got your name from a rented list, it’s worth a phone call to find out where it came from and contact the renting party. If you call the Marketing Manager’s office with the key code from your catalog, they can tell you where they rented from. You can then call the source of the list and ask them to remove your name from their rental data, and then ask for the name of their list manager. Contact the list manager and tell them you have instructed x, y and z to remove your name and have them confirm that its been done from their data as well.

There is a lag while information is transmitted and updated and the best thing you can do is try to get off a list BEFORE it gets sold. Mention that you are on the DMA’s mail preference list, since most reputable mailers and list managers DO want to comply with the DMA program, this may help.

You may be getting more catalogs because companies are already starting to mail for the holiday season – please enter the unwanted ones here and we’ll continue to communicate your requests. We’ve also begun listing contact information for each company if you’d like to contact them directly. If you email me at paul@catalogchoice.org, we can go through the catalogs you are still receiving and I can give you specific advice about each one.

Debora, thank you for the insightful comment above. Our merchant license states that we provide participating merchants with our members information solely for the purpose of fulfilling and confirming your mail preference request; and merchants are not allowed to rent, sell or trade the names we provide. We DO instruct participating merchants to add names that are not on their house list (prospects) to a Do Not Mail list.

Please stick with us as we work to fulfill your requests!

The source of these “new” catalogs you are getting, especially when the name is varied a bit, is likely from these compiled sources, or purchased from other catalogs. Although you should never have customer number unless you’ve ordered something from the cataloger. A tip for the form letter someone drafted. Add a sentence requesting that your name be added to their permanent “do not mail” file for inclusion in their suppression file for future “merge/purges”. This is a list of names they remove when they receive them from OTHER lists.

Third, you should be aware that catalogers keep an “expires” file, which they sell to other catalogers. It is possible that when you are removed from their own list, you are being added to this file and passed along, as a way of retaining some value. CC.org should get the catalogers promise that they won’t sell or trade your name as a former customer either. You should also be aware that some mailers, not just catalogers, don’t feel obligated to honor a “remove my name from your list” request beyond a certain period (say 12 or 24 months) and may not keep you on a merge/purge suppression file beyond that period either. There’s not much you can do about that except start over with them. So much of the process is automated, you just cannot expect human judgement to be applied.

Chuck