Two years ago, Mr. Saurus mail-ordered 2 cookbooks for me from a well-known cooking magazine. Ever since then, the company has mailed additional cookbooks to him, at a rate of one every 3 or 4 months. He never signed up for any kind of a “club.” These are completely unsolicited by us; we do not ask for them and we do not want them. Usually the packing box the book arrives in has an invoice on the outside, which we would mail in with our payment if we were keeping the book.
Of course we can mark the box “Refused - Return to Sender” and mail it back, but since each package weighs more than 1 pound, we can’t just drop it in the mailbox – we have to make a special trip to the post office to send it off. This is annoying, to say the least.
But for awhile, we were being Good Citizens and mailing the books back. Finally, Mr. Saurus got tired of it and called the company to request that we be removed from the mailing list. They assured us it would be taken care of, but of course we’re still getting the books. He’s really pissed now, after several more calls and emails, and has informed them that he will not be returning any additional unsolicited materials that they mail to him. So he’s letting the incoming books just pile up, and now they’re sending us “past due” notices.
Why is this kind of crap allowed? What are our options? Can they actually collect anything on this, or are we justified in telling them that since we never asked for their product and they continued to send it to us, it’s their problem? What’s the magic word you have to say to these people? We just got two more in the mail last week!
My suggestion at this point, if you want to be absolutely sure you’re in the clear on a legal basis and able to take them to court if they turn those past due notices into credit report damaging collection agency stuff… (IANAL, take with large dose of salt)
Grab the pile that’s built up and mark it return to sender.
Write out and make a copy of a letter stating that a) You did not sign up for more books than you purchased, b) you have no desire to receive further books to review and decide whether or not to purchase, and c) you will be donating any further books received to your local library and ignoring any invoices attached to them.
Send back that pile, send the letter via registered mail to the billing address.
Start donating… don’t be surprised if your library doesn’t want them either.
Write letter to company stating how you are a very religious person and if they don’t stop sending this filth to you you will report them.
4)Place letter in box.
Seal box and send using a method that requires a signature on their end.
I read the title of this thread as, “How to get a company to stop sending unsolicited boobs?”
I was wondering what company would supply solicited or unsolicited boobs. And what kind of boobs they’d be sending you–like, idiots (as in, “No, you addlepated boob! I never ordered this cookbook!”) or the type that hang on women’s chests.
Write to them and tell them that they have 30 days to collect their product since you did not order it or request it from them.If it’s not collected,write again stating that since they have not collected it,you are treating it and any further orders as a free gift from them to do with as you please.Keep a copy.If they get funny and try to take you to court,you have the letters to wave at the judge to show you a)did not want the goods b)gave them an opportunity to come and collect them.
Excellent ideas all. I guess I’ll end up sending some kind of registered cease and desist type letter, and I’m willing to bet they’ll ignore it. Bastards. It’s even sadder because the magazine itself is just wonderful, but I don’t want to deal with their company at all, even to just subscribe.
MaddMaxx, I love the idea of sending a porn magazine to them…but wouldn’t that be a waste of perfectly good porn?
I’ll feel guilty just hanging on to the books, but we’ll see what happens. Maybe I’ll donate a few, after copying out the recipes I want to keep.
In the UK (and I believe this is pretty much the same in the USA, although specific details may vary), the law concerning unsolicited goods and services is quite favourably weighted toward the recipient - in our particular case, you’re allowed to just do nothing and keep the item as an unconditional free gift (cite). - This is a fairly recent amendment though - it used to be the case that you had to give notice and wait(a while), or not give notice and wait(longer) before you assumed ownership.
Are you sure there wasn’t some bit of contractual small print somewhere though, when the original order was made? (if this is the case, then the items may not truly be ‘unsolicited’ in the eyes of the law).
That was my guess. I know that a number of US cooking magazines have book-buying “offers” that sell cookbooks at a decent price but require you to buy X books within the next X year(s), with books being sent out unsolicited, IIRC. Not that this is necessarily the case here, and it’s possible that they did an actual straightforward mail-order, and were mistakenly put into the “book club” required purchase system.
Yeah, I asked him about that, and (2 years later of course) he is relatively sure that it was a single, discrete transaction. I have no way of knowing what was on the original order form, of course, but I trust him. And none of the letters and notices that have followed have said anything about fulfilling your obligation to the club. When I’ve been involved with those kinds of clubs in the past, they seem to constantly hound you with “the number of purchases needed to fulfill your obligation.”
Norinew, I’d just love to see the face of the poor envelope-opener when he or she is confronted with a nice lurid piece of visibly worn-out porn. Do you think I should add some extra crumpling, just for effect?
