I am an independent health insurance agent. Part of what I do to find new clients is direct mail advertising- ADVO mailers, which have pictures of missing children on one side and ads on the other, in my case “No obligation information on health insurance at afordable rates”. Underneith that, it tells a little about the plans available, and then it says:" Yes! I would like no obligation information. Please provide the following information:" followed by a space for filling in name, address and phone number, an address to mail it to and my voice mail number.
Pretty simple, right? You’re interested, you fill it out, I call, we see if what I have meets your needs.
Well, today I got one back in the mail. The person had filled it out, and then written a note:" Please don’t contact me, I’ll call if I’m interested"
WTF??? 
I don’t understand. Are you interested or not? If so, why don’t you want me to contact you, if not, why fill it out and mail it back? Is this just a heads up for me that you might be interested at some future date? Did you have a $.34 stamp that was burning a hole in your pocket and just had to mail something? Were you drunk? I don’t get it. Basically, this person sent me a reply saying “Yes, I want information, but don’t contact me, I’ll call if I’m interested”.
Huh???
I would add “email address” to the data you collect, so you could send a link to this thread.
I think it’s a pretty funny answer, designed to screw with your head.
Just a guess, but it may be that the person assumed that you could send him a stack of booklets, brochures etc which give details on the available plans, and that if any of them interested him he would call you for more information or to sign up. If your business is anything like the independant homeowner/auto insurance business and you act as a broker for a large number of health insurance companies, this is probably not an option for you. You might want to send him a letter with more information than you can fit on your ADVO ads, and maybe some sample rates for various plans, soliciting more specific information on his needs so that you can provide a customized plan.
He may be afraid of getting a high-pressure sales pitch, or not be readily available during usual office hours, or might just not like to do business over the phone unless he initiates the call. (One of my pet peeves is getting some “fabulous offer” in the mail which is followed up a week later by a phone call asking if I received the mailing and am I interested in more info - to which my response is usually “If I were, I would have called you, and since I didn’t call you, why are you calling me?”)
Well…
Of course i can’t speak for the individual who returned your card, but i have, at times, felt like doing the exact same thing. It’s not that i may not have an interest in picking up some insurance (hell, maybe even ADVO), but that i don’t want a constant flow of these ‘convenient’ mailers sent to me. Pretty much everybody knows that insurance is available and a quick perusal through any yellow pages will garner a plethora of providers. Also, consider that your mailer is not the only one that this individual will receive during the course of the week. Basically the majority of these type of mailers i look upon as a pain in the ass. I have to go through them just to make sure that there is no important mail mixed in that i could inadvertantly shred when the pile hits the shitcan. And so, sometimes i feel like filling the thing in just so somebody can waste their time going through the thing to find out that, if i were interested, i would give them a call.
Additionally, while i do find some of these more offensive than others, i take a dim view on any company that tries to get my business by cluttering my mailbox and will not, unless it is something truly unique, consider boing business with such a company.
< As an aside: Have you ever gotten a call from a long-distance provider who asks if you are the one who pays the phone bill? It seems ludicrous to me to try to solicit my custom when you do not even know my name name. >
On the other hand, your waste of the bulk postage rates helps keep the USPS afloat, so i can’t say that the practice is 100% evil.
I don’t know if your original post qualifies for the Pit, but i think that my response crossed the line at about ‘…pain in the ass’.
As to your posted question (i.e. What should i do?), the post itself asks only rhetorical questions. The answers i could give therefore, would be of no conceivable relevance.
No offence intended.
Weirddave
I find that i owe you an apology. I took your post at first glance to be a rant (could have been the bit after the WTF???) and without delving into the substance, ranted right back. After reading LurkMeister’s post, i reread the OP with a less jaundiced eye.
It appears to me that the respondent is requesting more information but would rather receive it in the mail to allow him the luxury of going over it in his own time. Many people, myself included, do not feel comfortable discussing such matters over the phone for fear of missing some bit of vital information. I generally don’t answer the types of mailers that you use (and by the way, it did finally strike me that the mailer is what you referred to as ADVO, not the insurance company) and always request that telephone solicitors mail me their packets for just that reason.
Again, i did jump all over this and please, accept my humblest apologies.
weirddave, you may have gotten some one like my mum.
she has been driving me crazy lately with her wild idea of sending back all mail that requests information. i have NO idea who told her this would be a great idea but there it is. she will gather all the items from the mailing write NOT INTERESTED in huge letters all over it, put it back in the return mail envelope and send it back.
you may imagine what i do with these when she gives them to me to post.
octothorpe, great handle, welcome aboard.