The first is for the Mail Preference Service (which also, helpfully, has a form to be added to direct mail lists). The second is for the Telephone Preference Service. The last is for the E-Mail Preference Service, which only prevents mail from DMA members and is probably useless as a result.
A mate of mine in London always puts the junk mail back in the pre-paid envelope, and sends it back to the company. They still have to pay the postage. If more people did this than throwing it in the bin, it might have some effect.
Call me as suspicious as Skeppy the Sceptical Bush Kangaroo, but does anyone have compelling evidence that this isn’t a brilliant way to obtain even more addresses for direct marketing purposes?
Definitely worth a try. I don’t expect complete success - my father was still getting junk mail eighteen months after he died - but I’ve signed up, and we’ll see what happens. Thanks, Matt.
In my experience the Post Office don’t like you to do that - I’ve had stuff returned to me marked “Oh yes you are” or words to that effect.
I have used the Mail Preference Service with limited success, and I rate jjimm’s mate’s method too. Better still if you add something heavy in the envelope.
Junk mail happens to be a pet hate of mine. I suppose we shouldn’t feel too upset when we get the scatter gun mailshot, but it’s more annoying to me when I get an invitation to open a bank account from my bank or a credit card offer when I already have one of their cards - it’s like they’re not paying attention isn’t it?
The worst ones though, are:
i) a certain company that actually prints a box on the back of their envelopes for you to fill in if the mail was addressed to someone who doesn’t live there any more. I’ve filled about four of them in but they still keep writing.
ii) my local “university” (East London), who keep writing asking this former student to pay them the fees she owes. She left the address over two years ago to my knowledge and I’ve actually been to the admissions office in person to tell them. They still write to her :(.
