@MyEasyTV: I was thinking the exact same thing while reading this. Sounds like an easy way to add people to their mail list! Call me skeptical. Only until the government creates a site something similar to the "Do Not Call List", I won't trust these other sites. The State of Texas tried to get a law passed similar to this, but guess who had it overthrown... yep, that's right, the US Postal Service. Of course, if you took away junk mail, USPS would be practically out of business. I contacted the USPS to see what could be done to prevent "Bulk" mail from being delivered to me, and they stated that they are 'obligated to deliver mail that customers pay to have mailed'. What about our right to privacy?!?! I consider it an invation of my privacy to be mailed all this SH^T and my name/address being on numerous database systems that I haven't given authorization to.

However, ANY piece of junk mail that I receive that includes a postpaid reply envelope, I write "NOT INTERESTED -- TAKE OFF OF MAILING LIST" on the form, cram it back in the postpaid envelope and send it back to them. This seems to have (only eventually) worked in most instances.

I was ASTONISHED a week or so back when I actually received a response from Wells Fargo, telling me they'd take me off their list, but it might take month to accomplish it. The first time this has ever happened.

PS, for reasons not made clear in this post, I hate Wells Fargo.

this is terrible advice. sending those forms in is a bad idea. in the end you're just putting yourself on more lists. how exactly are these opt-out services any different from naively clicking on every unsubscribe link in your email spam folder? food for thought.

I'm lovin that mailbox photo. I'm pretty sure those things come standard with every house in the FL Keys. Makes me want to go back again.

Opt-in marketing is far more intelligent and gets a much higher return rate versus piss-off rate. Why don't more marketers adopt it? A mixture of arrogance and laziness, I suspect; why work at making only happy customers when you can still make a profit with a few happy customers, and have a large number of neutral consumers (or consumers too lazy to complain)?

I love catalogchoice.org! I use it at work all the time to cancel junk catalogs for employees who don't want them or former employees.

@CorporateTool:

" So how are they supposed to acquire new customers? "

Not our concern ... but if they really DO want to connect with new customers there are many proven methods that work better than irritating possible customers by swamping them with unsolicited junk mailings ...

This means that companies can only market to you after you have conducted business with them. So how are they supposed to acquire new customers?

Opt-in means that when you're filling out a form and it has one of those tiny boxes that says in teeny tiny text "don't not tick to never not receive future mailings from us not never" you don't have to carefully wade through the umpteen negatives to work out if you need to tick or not tick it to stay off the list.

The default becomes you must tick the box to be added to the list.

[www.catalogchoice.org]

@tmccartney: Are you sure they sold your info? In some states, mortgages are recorded with your county government. This is public record and shady companies pay your county for lists of new mortgages.

We just refi'd our mortgage with Regions Mortgage, and when I sent back their "customer care" survey, I gave high marks to the originator, closer, etc., but RAILED on them in the comments section about how they sold our names AND mortgage amount to everyone under the sun who sells mortgage-related products, like disability/life insurance, etc. The volume of junk we've gotten is unbelievable.

www.catalogchoice.org