I’m sorry if this isn’t the proper place to be asking this, but I’m at my wit’s end and I need assistance. Let me also say I’ve asked USPS customer service and my mail carrier, neither of which helped – unsurprisingly.
Every month I’m inundated with preapproved credit offers for two previous tenants (I believe they may have lived together). Since these offers are technically junk mail (presorted standard mail which is the official fancy name USPS has given “junk mail”) I cannot mark them return to sender (I’ve tried countless times) because the USPS does not forward standard mail.
I told my mail carrier this, but he told me he has a legal obligation to deliver the mail regardless of who is living at the current address.
What do I do to make this stop? Can I do anything?
The addresses are generated based on current address information in most credit reporting databases. It’s unlikely the old tenant hasn’t changed his address with his lenders. In time, when new mailing lists are generated, the old tenant’s new info will be pulled and it will be his new address.
A number of lists are out there, and as newer lists are generated, the mail will stop.
Nothing (in reality) can solve this problem except time.
Make a sign with your name on it and affix it by your letterbox.
Cut a slot in the lid of a dustbin.
Make a sign with the name of the previous tenants and fix it by the slot.
Leave dustbin conveniently close to your letterbox.
Give your mail carrier a nice box of chocolates/case of beer/bacon sandwich/whatever to get on their good side and let them know that more will be forthcoming if they could see their way clear to delivering the named mail to the named slots. Empty dustbin regularly.
I honestly can’t think of any other way of addressing the problem of snail-spam, which is if anything even more annoying than the email version.
In this country at least it is illegal to open mail addressed to someone else so you can’t even pull the old ‘stuff it all in the addressed envelope and send it back’ trick.
So, if I understand this correctly, these tenants’ lenders could be sending these same offers to their actual address but because their database isn’t fully updated they are still sending them to their old address as well? On what planet does this make any sort of sense? :mad:
Just to be clear, this has been going on for all of 2012. Exactly how much time is needed? I was also told by a mail carrier that anything marked as presorted standard mail is considered junk and that I am allowed to recycle it/throw it away. Is this true?
You’re also correct that they obviously updated their address because I do not receive credit bills or statements in the mail for them. Only preapproved offers. Drives me absolutely nuts.
On occasion, I have written “Deceased, return to sender” on junk mail and then drop it in the mailbox. It seems to work at least some of the time. I’ve even done this when I was the addressee.
I opened the thread to suggest exactly this, but slaphead’s last sentence reminded me that it’s technically illegal to open mail addressed to someone else. So you can’t legally extract the business reply envelope to stick the creditors with extra postage charges. Send back all you want with business reply envelopes that accompany offers addressed to you, though. (including the unopened offers addressed to previous residents, if you’d rather it be Somebody Else’s Problem, i.e., neither yours nor the recycling collectors)
What Philster was saying is that these mailing lists may be generated months ahead of time.
So, old tenant moves, a few days/weeks/month(s) later he calls his lenders (if he even has any) and lets them know that he moved. Some time in the next 6 weeks or so, they update his credit report with the new address. Some time after that, and I have no idea how often the mass mailers pull credit bureau info, they get the new address. They print a mailing with the new address, BUT, they have 8-10 weeks worth of mailings already printed with your address. All said and done, this adds up to several months and if you’re talking about someone like Discover who sends out a mailing 3 times a week, it’s a lot of junkmail.
The only thing I can tell you is to call them, as the addressee and ask to stop getting the mail.
I used to get all that junk mail for all those credit cards, Discover being the worst offender and I always called the number on it and very nicely asked to be removed from their mailing list, explaining that I don’t need a Discover card and if I did I would just go to their website and apply. They said “No problem, but it’ll take 8-10 weeks to for the mailings that are already printed to finish up”. I understood, but still called each time, just to be sure. They did eventually stop. That was probably 10 years ago and I haven’t received a single one since.
I don’t think I had to verify anything either so I don’t see why you couldn’t just say you’re the person whose name is on the envelope.
Businesses pay up front for bulk mailings. Sticking a brick or loads of junkmail in the reply envelope only makes your letter carrier hate you a little bit more.
The following is a joke. DO NOT TRY THIS AT HOME. :eek:
Go ahead and accept a few dozen of these preapproved credit offers in the name of this former tenant. Run the cards up to max and never pay a cent on them. I’m sure the credit offers will dry up like a fish stick in a blast furnace.
The preceding was a joke. DO NOT TRY THIS. IT WILL BE TREATED AS FRAUD. :mad:
But it would probably do the trick. The problem becomes “what will the next tenant do with your mail while you’re doing your 10-to-25 in the slammer?”
Sorry, not very useful. But in your place, I’d certainly entertain the fantasy of doing that.
the business reply envelope will only be mailed if it’s mailed as only a single letter unit. if you go beyond that in size or weight and it won’t get sent.
The problem becomes “what will the next tenant do with your mail while you’re doing your 10-to-25 in the slammer?”