Everyday our team of merchant account managers talk to senior staff at catalog companies to encourage them to activate their secure account so that we can guarantee that your mail preference request is honored. Without a merchant account, we deliver your request via email and password-protected CD. While our email system is effective, it does not come with the privacy protections and explicit agreement to honor your request that are included in our license agreement. By the way, our email system does not use your email address. It uses an address that we create for each member and catalog title. Just one more way we are working on your behalf to protect your privacy.
Even though our team is spread across the country, we ring the “virtual merchant bell” every time a merchant activates their account. In one fell swoop, an activated account means that we know that tens or even hundreds of thousands of opt-out requests will be honored now and into the future.
You can help us ring the merchant bell by encouraging non-participating merchants to activate their account when you follow-up with them.
And if they tell you that they are not signing up because Catalog Choice charges them or sells names – you should let them know that is not the case.
The collective efforts of the Catalog Choice community are making a difference. In the first year of operations, we have successfully connected over a million households with hundreds of companies that are eliminating over 100 million unwanted catalog mailings annually, saving money and preserving over 250,000 trees or enough energy to power 6,000 homes per year.
More work needs to be done as unwanted catalogs continue to arrive from merchants who are not yet participating in Catalog Choice. You can show your support for those merchants who are working with Catalogchoice.org this holiday season by going to the Cool Catalogs section of Catalogchoice.org to start your holiday shopping. Support the companies that respect your choice and share your sustainability beliefs.
In the end, it is about consumer choice and giving you a convenient, trusted and free way to easily express their mail preferences. It is clear that many companies are sensitive to consumer needs and wants and they share an environmental ethic. It is also clear that more work needs to be done to make the direct marketing system work for the target audience – me and you – “Joe the consumer”.
It has now been over a year since I signed on with Catalog Choice, and I thank you for getting the ball rolling…..there are a few catalogs which no longer come to me
( thanks!) but far more which refuse to participate.
Now, as I am newly inspired by the Presidential election, I am finally calling all the ones who will not confirm, and removing myself.
I do not think that we can be passive in this, we have to participate, to effect change. As a slogan of the winning candidate says ” We are the ones” .
I went to the DMA website, as suggested by the Customer Service rep at Lands’ End (nice, huh?) and opted out. However, not all of the annoying catalogs I want to remove from my mailbox are listed. Far more are on your list – at least the ones I get. Keep up the good work.
I know I mentioned this before, but after having stumbled upon another “family” of catalogs (Signals, What on Earth, Art & Artifact, Bas Bleu, Wireless and Support Plus), is there a way we can start another blog page where we can list these? I know your staff is busy, but maybe we can help each other out. I know that when I called Signals, I would have liked to have known that the other catalogs were connected. I would have specifically mentioned those in my conversation had I known.
Thanks!
Aimee:
I will try to figure out a way to show catalog titles associated with a specific merchant. Our customer support system is designed this way. It is on the development priority list.
Thanks.
The service is not working! I have over 6 months of entries. The same catalogs keep coming, often with new customer numbers. Catalogs from vendors I have never hear of are now arriving. Allowing an ailing parent to use my address for catalog shopping stopped 1 year ago but I cannot stop 10 catalogs/day from being stuffed into my mail. For 9 months I havenot order from catalogs and have been listing them on catalog choice. No Change!
Frank:
We understand your frustration. The new catalogs you are getting are a result of your name being rented by a variety of sources. We require our merchant partners to sign a license that strictly prohibit renting names.
At the end of the day, I can tell you that we have made huge progress in getting merchants to participate with this program. While it may not appear that way in your mailbox, over 8 million requests have been honored.
If we stick together to demand that merchants comply, we will succeed. Apart, our voices are too weak to affect the direct marketing systems.
Change takes time.
Chuck
Aimee:
I went to the DMA website and could not find Lands End listed. I expect you put your name on the “do not rent” list. This is good, but not the same as opting-out of a specific title. Lands End requires that you contact them directly.
I’m amazed at those who’ve posted that they are receiving EVEN MORE catalogs…I began opting out a year ago–now up to 110 catalogs on my list–and I’m very happy to have so much less junk mail. Of course, it helps not to order from the companies you’ve opted out of, too…
I was very excited and enthusiastic when I learned of this site, and have been diligently opting out of several catalogs for several months. Unfortunately, I am beginning to get discouraged by the barrage of catalogs that continue. I am also discouraged by the companies who are continuing to send me catalogs and assigning different custumer numbers. Maybe we should find a way to list all the obnoxious companies and our experiences and get this out to the public? Perhaps shaming these companies and bringing it to the forefront could get more attention?
Just wanted to say that Catalog Choice is working at our house! Although it is now the Christmas catalog season, and I just registered 6 catalogs today, 5 new ones, and one with a “new” addressee, I truly believe that we have received fewer catalogs this year.
Also, of the one which “do not participate” I have not heard again from several of them, and I emailed customer service on a couple more and they have said they will stop sending catalogs. That is an extra step and not everyone has the time for it (I usually don’t but these I really wanted to get rid of).
Chuck, thank you for all the great work you do. I know your service is working. It takes a long time to get the catalog flood down to a small torrent. One trick they are using, however, is changing up customer numbers. This has happened to me many times, most often with Harry and David. I blogged about my experience with Harry and David, as you know, and I agree that writing about these experiences with companies that do not honor CC opt-outs is a good way to make public their consumer unfriendliness.
Help us ring the right bell!
It is an important fact to remember that the senior staff at catalog companies makes the decision to participate or not in Catalog Choice. When you go to your mailbox and find a catalog that you have opted out of and your frustration propels you to the phone to call Customer Service remember that the customer service rep is our voice to those executives.
After requesting that your name be removed, take the time to explain how Catalog Choice works and how it’s designed to make the customer service rep’s life easier: no more ‘please remove my name’ calls which reduces waiting times, call abandonment rates and removing unresponsive names significantly reduces costs for their company. In large companies this may even avoid the need for layoffs of personnel. Please request that the representative pass the information on to the executives of the company including the reason for your opt-out request.
Serving the public can be stressful work. Be courteous and help our community voice be effectively heard.
I thank you for your efforts. At our house we are getting less catalogs. And I called Lands End the other day to cancel their family of catalogs. I also told the customer Rep to tell management that I will be buying no Land’s End products nor Sears clothing with the Lands End imprint until the company starts working with Catalog Choice. Who knows whether it will help change their attitude but I felt better for having told them!
Pat
I was told by the CSR at a company I called personally to be removed from their catalog list that the Epsilon Abacus Cooperative is the company to contact to get your personal info removed from the catalog sell/rent database. (That’s the list that companies buy or rent for new sales leads. Hence the duplicate catalog mailings with new customer numbers…)
You have to contact them directly, as they will not accept opt-outs from “third parties or other agents.” They don’t make it easy for you, but there it is.
Here’s the URL for more info and the e-mail opt-out address:
http://www.abacusoptout.com
I sent an e-mail last month and have been monitoring the state of my mailbox ever since. So far, so good…