How divorced do you have to be

[Jodi]

@olivesmarch4th

Would you mind explaining, then, to whom I owe the honor of my sudden inexplicable subscriptions to Seventeen, CosmoGirl and Country Weekly?

That was me, and it was out of love. I’d appreciate a hand-written note of thanks.

[Voyager]

@OtakuLoki

commasense, it’s also my understanding that some magazines (esp. startups) will send free subscriptions as a means of establishing their circulation numbers, and so justify their ad rates.

Trade rags do this as a matter of course, but there usually seems to be some attempt at proving that the subscriber is of use to the advertisers. The magazine makes money selling ads, and the bigger the circulation base the more they get. I used to have a job title as DFT manager, which seems to be short for Drafting manager (it means something totally different) and to this day I get calls from magazines about machine design and drafting. I politely tell the caller that the magazine has nothing to do with me, but some of them seem really heartbroken that I won’t take it.
I’m not denigrating these magazines, some of them are good, but they have an odd business model.

[Voyager]

@MGibson

My father died in 1996. I live in Arkansas now and my father had never lived here at any point in his life. On occasion I still get mail for him and once in a blue moon someone calls asking for him. It’s weird but there you go.

Marc

I can understand the mail. If he used to live with you, someone with spare time at the Post Office sent a change of address notification to a mailer at sometime or other for him thinking it was you, and his “new” address got into a database.

[Voyager]

@hajario

I bought my house in 1993. I got lots of mail for the former owners for several years before it finally died down. Then, sometime early this year, they must have turned 65 because I have been bombarded with junk mail for them having to do with Medicare and such.

The woman who lived in our house before us had a geneology service, and we have gotten a trickle of junk mail for her over the past 12 years. It’s cheaper to send out the junk than to clean up the database.

[commasense]

@LurkMeister

I’m wondering if I want to bother filing a COA with the Post Office, since I can just as easily notify everyone I want to know about my new address online.

Unless you want a lot of extra junk mail at your new address, DO NOT fill out a USPS Change of Address form:

@USPS

The U.S. Postal Service provides the addresses from its Change of Address cards to mailers who have your old name and address. This often includes the major marketing and financial companies. The Postal Service’s goal is to have less misaddressed mail. This is one way unsolicited mail is able to follow you to your new address.

If this concerns you, you might consider not filling out the Change of Address card (USPS Form 3575) when you move. You must be sure to contact all your correspondents individually so you are able to continue to receive bills, account statements, correspondence from friends and family, and other important mail.

From here.

[LurkMeister]

I had heard that somewhere else, which is why I was thinking of skipping the Post Office COA notification. I recently canceled a couple of credit cards, and I’m still getting mailings from them; maybe if they start bouncing the company will stop bothering me.

I’m also considering not keeping my old phone number, in hopes that collection agencies will stop calling me trying to reach the person who had the number before me.

[Solfy]

Prior to our state’s primary I got election junk mail from Obama’s campaign. I got it at my house under my married name. I also got it at my parents’ house, again under my married name.
I haven’t lived with them since 1999 and have had three addresses since then. They moved from my childhood home to a new address last year. There should be no record linking me, using my married name, to them at their new address.
Weird.

[Clothahump]

@BrainGlutton

My mother died five years ago and I still get calls and mail for her. That’s just how it is in the Information Age.

I’m still alive, but all three major credit bureaus are reporting me as being dead.

And I still got a car loan.

[BlinkingDuck]

@Clothahump

I’m still alive, but all three major credit bureaus are reporting me as being dead.

And I still got a car loan.

Sure…as long as your credit is good.

They don’t want to face a zombie discrimination suit.