PET PEEVE!
CATALOGS! About 3 years ago, I ordered an item or two from a website (Garnet hill or Sundance probably). And started to receive the catalog. Never asked for it. Then, over the next year or so, I started receiving about 30+ other catalogs. That I never ordered. Literally daily there is a catalog or two in my box. Being a generally unorganized and overwhelmed person, I got annoyed and threw them all directly into recycling when they came for a couple of years. FINALLY, I got a whole stack together, and called each and every one to "cancel" the catalogs. THAT I NEVER ORDERED. IT TOOK HOURS. Each and every one said, "You will get a couple more issues because they are pre-labeled." SIGH!!! I also tried the phone line and website that supposedly cancels them all for you, but they were not effective. The website had timers on all of the cancellation requests and I had to keep checking back to see if my request to cancel had been submitted...it's faster to just call the catalogs. The phone number didn't work at all.
So anyway, 3 months after canceling all the catalogs (I've never ordered a thing from any of them) THEY ARE STILL COMING. So maybe I was supposed to get 3 more issues each instead of two..?..or maybe I'll have to call them all AGAIN. AND, I'm getting NEW CATALOGS that I've never heard of, so I'm collecting those into a stack to call all at once when I get around to it!!!!!
More than the personal annoyance at the clutter and the work in addition to all the other junk mail, I am appalled at the waste of paper these companies create. Think of the millions of catalogs going out to people who DON'T EVEN WANT THEM!!!! And with internet WHY DO WE EVEN STILL HAVE PRINTED CATALOGS? Sure, people should be able to order their favorite and flip through it, but why is it legal to send something to people who have not asked for it EVERY MONTH when it's so hugely detrimental to the environment?!?
End rant. My question is: Does anyone else feel this way? What can we do? Is there a website or phone number that really works to stop this?
I understand because I have one or two catalogs I order from Usually I put the catalogs that I have never bought anything directly into the garbage Sometimes you will receive an issue that saids this is the last catalog and I say to myself good.
I regret ordering from Fingerhut ONCE! Now every week I'm getting their catalogs in the mail. URGH!!
Tyler ordered something and he didn't read the fine print....with it? We got a subscription to Glamour magazine. It's addressed to Tyler. The first time we got it, I asked him "Is there something you want to tell me?" He was baffled. We called to find out how to cancel it. We can't. It was part of whatever he ordered.
So we take them to our doctor's office.
There is a website where you can opt out of catalogs. I did it a couple of years ago and it dramatically cut down on what's being sent to our house. The website is catalogchoice.com. Start there instead of dealing with individual companies.
Have you gotten the Restoration Hardware catalogs ever? They must use one forest per catalog. They're enormous. Infuriates me. There is a place/website you can use and we have which works for a while. But then they start up again. But it's worth it for the amount of time they get cut off. It's like a "do not call" list. I'm sure if you google it you can find it and I need to do the same. I hate them as well and everyone I know does. Yet I guess they help sales or the companies wouldn't keep sending. I do sometimes come across something to order than I wouldn't have otherwise and I guess that's their point. But it's horrible.
I hear you! Entire forests have been cleared in order to fill your mailbox. It's actually (and sadly) cheaper for them to keep sending things than to hire enough staff to process the changes. And believe it or not, not everyone is on line and people still like to flip through the pages, which results in impulse buying.
And yeah, they sell mailing lists to other companies, whether or not the catalog companies are owned by the same umbrella organization. And others use centralized mailing services and are not sending out their own catalogs at all, so one big mail house handles many companies (and mailing lists).
We have 2 home businesses so we get double copies of everything including mass mailings, credit card offers, even phone books. We've lived here for 27 years, and I still get mail for the previous owner from NYU - donation requests, those alumni trip brochures, etc. I've written to them several times, suggesting that anyone who graduated some 40 years ago and who hasn't sent them a dime or updated his address info in at least 27 years is probably not a good candidate for their mailings. They don't care. I just recycle it all.
This won't help you with catalogs, but if you get a lot from charities, it may work. My mother gives to certain favorite charities every year. She makes a list in January & February, sends in her donation, and includes a note that, if they spend her money sending her more requests and mailings all year long instead of giving it to the intended purpose (veterans, cancer research, etc.), then she is crossing them off her list for next year. It works, most of the time, assuming it's a reputable charity.
Can't write any more - the mail just arrived so I have to go recycle catalogs!
Lol! I feel ya, A. J.!
There's BIG business selling mailing lists.
Unfortunately.
I hate the never ending catalogues!! What's funny are the ones that make a spelling error and then there is a barrage of new ones that come in with that same misspelling so it's so obvious who sold our name to others.
I do just as you do, I throw them straight into the recycle.
I have found that trying to cancel or acknowledge is akin to telling them this is a live address and means they can now sell it at liberty.
What's really getting to me is the websites that automatically sign you up for their newsletter unsolicited when you do nothing more than visit their page. At first I thought it was my imagination but I'm now getting emails from sights I've only visited but I know for a fact that I never signed up.
Companies are getting sleazier by the minute!!
On a similar note, I hate daily emails about sales! Before going to Ireland, I spent two hours removing myself from tons of lists I never signed up for. What a waste. I usually click, no email, but it's like I still get them. I was also getting two-4 different groupons a day. I unsubscribed, but I'm still getting them.
I need to check out the website site J.B, recommended, the catalogues are starting to take over. And I just ordered from two new places for Xmas!
Yes. I have a pile of them especially at this time of year. The ones I know I'm not interested in go straight in the bin. I do look at the others and have actually bought some things. I've only asked for two of them.
There are some people that don't have a computer that actually want a catalog especially if they live in a place where there are no stores.
Back in the 70s we lived in a place where there were no big stores and so we relied on Sears, Wards and Penny's catalogs for our shopping. Just sayin'.
But really, I agree it's all too much.
