Passing junk mail back down the line...

[beldarin]

Totally fed up with the amount of junk that comes through your letter box? Tired of taking it straight from the door to the recycling basket?
Why not pass on most of it to interested parties, like I do...
Let me explain..
I was annoyed how many junk leaflets arrived with my gas bill, and the esb too for that matter, so one day I packed all the extras into the pre-paid envelope (who uses them anyway?) and sent it back to them, problem solved. I didn't ask for it, so why should I have to recycle it?
Then I got to thinking, If the gas company thought I might be interested in reading about hotel breaks, maybe I should do them the courtesy of letting them know when the local pizza place was having a special offer, so, next time a pre-paid envelope arrived, I very thoughtfully added a selection of leaflets I had hanging around, and sent em off. I even included a note to explain my generosity, just in case it should somehow be misunderstood. Now I always make sure to tell the ESB when they can get a good deal on water purifiers, or pass along ad's for odd-job-men to eircom.
Petty? Perhaps..., but fun nonetheless.

PS: For the record, I have actually asked not to have this kind of thing sent to me, Bord gais have obliged by having paper-less online billing, O2 have done the same, maybe the rest will cop on eventually.

[misstake]

Thank you so much for that idea Icant wait until my postie delivers all that junk yes even if i have to buy a stamp i will send it back to the sorting office Let them know i dont want it and will add a few i get in the paper for good measure

[Bettybooboopbedoop]

I'm sitting here laughing, while reading this. I am definately going to give this a go. I get loads dropped in the door, even from people walking around dropping in leaflets and fliers. Great idea, and no postage fee.

[tasmin]

brillinat idea...

so i though i might pick ur brain about another letterbox problem.

have you any good ideas about what i can do about the amount of leaflets/flyers that come through the letterbox?

at the moment i am getting anywhere between 6/12 of these flaming things a day....and i'm just sick of it!!!!

any ideas welcome.

tas

[Bettybooboopbedoop]

There used to be stickers "No Junk Mail" sold that you could stick on your letterbox.

[Stuarty]

There are a few things you can do to reduce the amount of junk you receive,

Firstly check the electoral register and make sure that you not on the register that can be used for commercial purposes, I think that the people in the library can point you in the right direction to make sure you are on the right one

Also check your listing in the phone book and make sure you are on the 'no direct marketing' list, your phone provider can sort this out for you,

Also some companies that operate loyalty schemes, eg dunnes, tesco have options that you can select that mean you just receive your vouchers and not all the leaflets that come with

and then theres the basic ones, if you enter a competition make sure you always tick the box that says you do not wish to have your details passed on...

This should avoid junk mail that is directed at you, the generic stuff is more difficult, you could put up a no junk mail sign on your letterbox. (the one that Betty just suggested) I luckily avoid this problem because I live in the back of beyond and I have a v grumpy Jack Russell!!

Good luck
Sarah

[mrsl]

Brilliant idea!

Thank you so much for that idea Icant wait until my postie delivers all that junk yes even if i have to buy a stamp i will send it back to the sorting office Let them know i dont want it and will add a few i get in the paper for good measure

No need to even put it in an envelope, - just drop it in the letterbox at the Post Office.

I wonder how An Post will like all the junk they receive!

[kilk]

No need to even put it in an envelope, - just drop it in the letterbox at the Post Office.

I wonder how An Post will like all the junk they receive!


its up to the postman to sort out all the post from letterbox, this is only making more work for him and could result in a delay in you receiving that all important letter! he is only doing his job. thats my opinion anyhow!

[unapam]

Brilliant!

What I do is leave the green bin outside the door with a note on it saying "Please deposit all leaflets/flyers here"

[biker chick]

Ive often returned all useless junk mail in the return envelopes & have a big sign "no junk mail" on my letter box which has greatly reduced what junk comes through my letter box,& ive often ran after my postman with the junk mail he had put through my door in the previous year & he no longer puts junk mail through my letter box as he is scared of me by now as i got quite mad at him & i refused to give him a christmas tip last year as a result of all the junk mail so now im more or less junk mail free.....

[The Mammy]

Brilliant Idea's,
I hate junk mail but my biggest problem is all the sticky labels and plastic bags , looking for clothes and toys for all over the world...I get at least 3 a day and the problem is I just don't know which ones are genuine....so they all go in the bin...And the clothes and Toys go to Jumbletown of course...
Cheers
The Mammy

[ireneo]

Just get all your junk mail in one pile and the free post envelopes in another and start putting every companys post in another companys envelope and post them off. Think of Tescos getting Dunnes`special offer leaflets. If we all did it they might get as fed up as we are. Let them all dispose of each others junk and then they wont be filling our bins.

[acket]

An Post gets an income from all this junk mail, postie doesnt deliver it for nothing.
And an army of deliverers earn bottom dollar pushing takeaway/repair/handyman/etc flyers through your door.
So not so easy to stop

Some interesting info here
http://www.donotmailus.org/section.php?id=3
Americans receive 4 million tonnes per year.

And some UK addresses that seemed to work there, maybe there are equivalent here
http://beehive.thisisderbyshire.co.uk/default.asp?WCI=SiteHome&ID=890&PageID=25635


I reckon your best bet is a No Junk Mail or Flyers sign on the door.

Hang a severed hand over the post box for extra effect.*
(Repurposed)

The finally the real perils of junk mail.
http://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/uknews/1579490/Home-owner-sued-for-junk-mail-injury.html

[RockyD]

I would never have thought of returning junk mail but I am going to do it from now on. I am not bothered if I am sending it back to where it came or to another junk supplier they will all get post from now on. Maybe if we all done this ,and with the power of Jumbletown it could be great. Let us know if you are interested in following up on this.

[Bettybooboopbedoop]

I'm definately going to do it anyway. I'm sick of all the junk mail. They can even have the flyers that are put through the door also. My hall table is usually full of them.

[BERTYBOY3311]

I must admit I nearly wet myself when I read this! It's a great idea and I will be doing this from now on!!!
Thanks!!! :)

[beldarin]

;-)

Glad to be of service!
Yeah, those stickers annoy me so much too, I have a No junk sign, which is regularly ignored, and what really bothers me is that you can't even recycle them!!

[triciaL]

I am fed up with having stuff put in the letter box in the middle of the night. we have had leaflets (clothes collection) put through at 3.30 am , 4.10 am. 5.30 am and thats just in the last 3 weeks, and when the dog hears the letter box he starts barking the house down so everyone is awake. cant blame the dog he thinks he is protecting us, but would really like to ring someones neck. Its too dark for them to read a sign on the door at that hour. How much junk do they think people have ,we get 3 or 4 of these leaflets alone every week not to mention the takeaway menus and advertising stuff. some have email addresses on them to make look legal but when you go to email them to complain about the hour they deliver at they dont exist. there should be some government dept to complain to.

[Bonnie]

Brilliant!
You have it up there for thinking you clever person you. I feel if a very large number of us start sending back all this junk mail that we didn't ask for in the first place the message is sure to get through eventually, brcause their admin department is going to have to deal with it and obviously it will be a matter for discussion if they aren't pleased. So come on people return the junk I say!

[ireneo]

triciaL
If its dark when they are coming with junk, You should set a mousetrap in the letter box. That should stop the junk

[mar754]

Hi All, Another sick of picking up junk mail every day, the best idea ever send them all back,there is money being made somewhere by all this. I am sure An Post is not doing it for free. I am going to start sending them all back now as well, the only way to maybe get through to all those people sending them.

[bridget123]

brilliant idea...

so i though i might pick ur brain about another letterbox problem.

have you any good ideas about what i can do about the amount of leaflets/flyers that come through the letterbox?

at the moment i am getting anywhere between 6/12 of these flaming things a day....and i'm just sick of it!!!!

any ideas welcome......
YEP! GET A JACK RUSSEL > THEY LOVE JUNK MAIL

[Bonnie]

Hi Bridget
I would be interested in the answer to that too. I am just after getting more junk mail via the postman.....2 of the same leaflets about sky box, 2 of the same leaflets about hidden hearing aids and a leaflet about a used clothes collection. That's five today and when you add these all up it comes to a fair amount in one week. Why should we have to recycle all this unwanted junk that someone else as you say is getting paid for and i'm sure you are right on that. Looking forward to hearing a free way of getting rid of this.

[bluecurlygirl]

Love this idea. I've just told the girls at work about it too and we're all going to give this a bash. Sure if nothing else it'll give us all a good giggle and everyone needs that too don't they! :-)

Thanks for the idea.

[petra]

A few months ago I saw red when yet another sticker came in the door and I put a sign on the door that says 'NO CLOTHES COLLECTION STICKERS'. It has worked in so far as I get the odd one now, but it's definately an improvement. Only thing is some smartass decided it didn't say bags so I have to add bags to it! I will be returning the junkmail from now on too...........a great idea

[DubDub]

I just bought a house and I haven't even done the whole "change of address" thing yet, so the only mail I get is the junk mail / flyers / clothes bags & stickers. This is such a brilliant idea! I am definately going to be sending it all back!!

Dubdub

[tasmin]

the other day i was in the kitchen talking to my nephew when i heard the letter box click....well something just snapped in me!

i ran out to the hall and grabbed the leaflets that this guy dropped into my letterbox and ran after the guy, when i caugh up to him, i said" here, i didnt ask for theses, so why should i have the responsiblity of getting rid of them, give them back to whoever ur working for" well you should have seen the face on him lmao

it was a a mixture of confusion and annoyance .

somehow i dont think he'll be dropping any more leaflets in my letterbox again :-)

and as for my my nephew,god love him, he though i had flipped, the poor chap didnt know what the heck was wrong with me lol.

though he did laugh when i told him what i did.
tas

[CleoCy]

Every got sick and tired of asking a company NOT to send you stuff? Or a company who persist in NOT believing that such a person no longer lives at this address? What I do when this happens is to return it to the sender, marked yet again as 'gone away' in an envelope with no stamp on. The sender has to pay the postage, and the time taken to open the envelope and only then discover that it is their own, junk, returned.

I wouldn't mind so much, this junk mail, if it wasn't all glossy, and so not suitable for composting in my many bins!

Doesn't even work well in the composting loo!

I would not like to p**s off my postie, though, who is a star for finding us in the rural wastes of western Ireland, so I won't be giving them back to him.

[pupster]

I too have a no junk mail sign on my door and still I get the odd junk mail and I get a sticker or a bag for charity collections every morning between 5.30 6.00 am (is this not classified as junk mail) I think anything not addressed to me and sent with the post man is junk.

My main problem is my 3 dogs go barking cazy when they hear something at the door, and often wake my 8mth old son from his naps. Ive tried get out of bed and shout out the window at them no junk mail, but they look at me like im cazy and Im not even sure if they understand me.

I must look like a nutter. after only getting back to bed after a feed at 3 Im probably asleep by 4.30 then someone other than my son wakes my dogs and baby and me again.

When are babies happy to sleep in there own cot for the night. it takes me up to 2 hours to get son to sleep at night usualy by around 10 ish I tried letting him nod of somewhere else and put him in cot afterwards but the second he hits the matress he forces himself into sitting up position and sometimes standing and crying for anything from an hour to three hours.

I am nuts this was ment to be about junk mail not babies. sorry everyone but I do feel better now I got that of my chest.

but will send the junk i recieve to whoever sends the freepost envelopes

[bluecurlygirl]

Oh pupster, my heart goes out to you. Do you have the baby in a room with a telly before bed by any chance? I used to do that and my little Angel wouldn't settle for me. Then I left the telly off one evening (by accident) and played music instead and -hey presto - calmly went off to bed. Maybe some soothing music before bed, relaxation cds or something like that and they say a massage helps too and it helps you bond even more with your precious angel. Best of luck and enlist some help during the day to give you a break and get some rest. Take care.

[misstake]

my youngest daughter slept with me until she was six or seven Now she is 23 has her own boy lol Before he was a month she had him in his own room now hes 3 its upstairs at seven thirty and asleep in less than five minutes Yes i dident think it would work but he knows his room then sleep Wish someone had told me it would work

[Dedicated Moocher]

We get NO junk mail at ours. We live straight across from a pizza place, Asian food place, and a coffee shop, and just nothing!! A drug dealer used to live here, maybe he did the severed hand thing...? Who knows. Personally, I don't mind, if people are making an income from it, it doesn't take much to drop it in the recycling. Enough Irish trades have gone down the capitalist hole, SAVE THE JUNK MAILERS!!!!!!!!!!!!

:D

I understand where the mummies (daddies?) are coming from though, fair nough!

[Jumbles]

Oh, I love it. lol!

I had figured out the letters with return addresses on them, I "return to sender" and put them back in the post box.

I have also gathered up about 60 "charity" stickers and bags which I intend to post to the council office, litter warden. It's their responsibility, not mine IMHO.
I had gathered about 30 more and my hubby threw them in the bin agh! (He thought they were junk lol!)

And now I know what to do with the rest of it, yay! Thanks Beldarin

[beldarin]

Ok, time to check in gang!

I was delighted to hear all those calls to action on the junk mail front, but i'm intrested now to hear ...
how many michievious letters were returned to sender?
Come on? did you get round to it? I'd love get an update,

and Pupster, i hope the wee lad has settled a bit for ya by now, have u got ur sanity back yet? I'm just starting to get mine....

[Mandolin]

Great ideas here, I hate junkmail. I don't know if this is just an urban legend but years ago I read of a woman who advised all these junk mailers (using their own reply envelopes of course) that her 'business' was evaluating flyers and if they sent her any more then she would bill them for her services at £100 a pop; and that by sending her one more flyer she would deem this to be their acceptance of her terms. So (allegedly) she was then legally entitled to charge them and they were legally obliged to pay. Wouldn't it be nice if it were true.
Mandolin