You are right that this all is a mess. Even the DMA, who came out against us because they claimed that they have this all under control, can not get their members to use their service. You should have filed the complaint.

For the sake of the environment and good old customer service, we are not going to give up the effort to fix this the good old entrepreneurial way – by building the best system possible. It will work, with continued support from you and others.
Thanks, Chuck

This sucks, but after looking around this morning, I discovered that I was flat-out wrong in my long-standing assumption that DMA members are expected to use suppression files on all lists. The Commitment to Consumer Choice guide simply says: “CCC requires our members to…use the DMAchoice suppression files on a monthly basis.” It does not specify that DMA members must apply those suppression files to each and every list, regardless of source. In fact, the FAQ page seems to suggest that the rules are for in-house suppression only, and that merchants are simply asked to use their “independent judgment” when doing business with non-DMA members:
dmaccc.org/Faq.aspx

I still think I was right to file a report, however. The What on Earth catalog does not appear to meet the DMA guideline which asks members to inform consumers of opportunity to modify or eliminate future mailings. I so far haven’t received a response to that report, and I am not really expecting one.

While I was browsing here and there, I did find confirmation of the October layoffs at DMA. About 20 people were cut from an estimated staff of 120, and the vice president and counsel for corporate and social responsibility was among them. The comment thread which follows this article is very interesting.
directmag.com/news/10_08_dma_layoffs

Your post makes me wonder, however, if I’ve misunderstood a key point. I was under the impression that if a merchant is a member of DMA, then the merchant is supposed to honor the opt-outs in the DMA suppression files *regardless* of where the list was acquired. But maybe the DMA’s mail preference service applies only to DMA lists traded between their members. Is that what you mean?

Well, that does slightly alter my perspective, if that’s the case. I imagine there are quite a few merchants shopping around for lists outside the DMA, and if they’re not in fact obliged to run the DMA suppression protocol on those other lists, then I actually see little point in using the DMA’s service.

I’ll go research that and try to find some clarification. But not today. Today, I’m going to put my feet up after work with a cuddly parrot and a warm sweater and cup of hot cocoa and just enjoy the change of seasons. No unwanted catalogs arrived in my mailbox this morning. Or yesterday morning, for that matter. I’m breathing a sigh of relief about that.

I guess I should just be grateful that I can report a noncompliant company via DMAchoice’s contact page. Maybe there’s a quicker and easier way to do so from an account. If someone could tell me about that, I’d be grateful. I personally wouldn’t know, since I’ve lost access to my DMA account. I first noticed that back in February, about a month after I created my account. Every time I try to log on, I’m informed that my e-mail address is not on record.

Here’s the interesting part. Even though my account has mysteriously disappeared, my opt-out request was in fact processed properly. I’m certain my DMA opt-out was active by April, thanks to a kindly merchant who looked it up for me. So any DMA members who are prospecting are most definitely obliged to suppress mailings to my house.

Right now, I aim for double coverage on all unsolicited catalogs. I’ve got the DMA blanket opt-out, but I’ve also entered every single title here at Catalog Choice. It’s not impossible that the DMA’s service is helping, and for that reason, I do suggest that people try DMA if they want to stop their unwanted mail in a hurry. I really have no way of measuring which service has been more useful for preventing prospecting catalogs. For merchants with whom I’ve previously done business, however, Catalog Choice is the service that’s giving me the results I want. My DMA opt-out doesn’t address those. I’d love to go back to my DMA account and switch from global to granular opt-outs, but um, yeah, I can’t do that if my account no longer exists. I sure hope that was an honest glitch and no one deleted me intentionally. Hmmmm.

“Reliable” is not exactly the first word that comes to my mind when I think of the DMA.

What on Earth is a DMA member. Here is their mailing list data card:
lists.the-dma.org/market?page=research/datacard&id=73078

What on Earth has violated my DMA opt-out, and I’ve reported them at the DMAchoice.org website. It was noticeably more of a hassle at the DMA site than it would’ve been here. I had to type in the company name and address (I got an error message when I tried to do the full ZIP+4) as well as my info, including my e-mail address. I really prefer the more streamlined and user-friendly system here at Catalog Choice.