I officially hate the mail.

Today I went out to get the mail hoping to receive a David Regal book that was sent out last week (I won it on Ebay). Unfortunately I didn't get it (I don't hate the mail because of that) but what I did get pretty much ticked me off.

I am looking through the mail and I a letter for my parents, junk mail for my parents, a think from the bank for me, and oh what's this....a card to subscribe to Playboy!?!?!?!

I have NO clue how I got this crap. I don't go on those websites so how they got my information is beyond me. What ticks me off even more is the fact that instead of having it say Current Resident for the name in the address, it had MY NAME.

The only thing I can think of is that they got my information from E-bay. I clicked a sellers name to see more of what he was selling (he had a few magic books for sale) and it wanted age verification, since I'm new to E-bay I went ahead and filled it out then it took me to a section where there was pornography. I clicked my X to close the window.

That is the only thing I can think of. I did talk to friends that got the same thing 6-12 months ago and the didn't get anything after that (which I'm hoping I won't otherwise I'm going to sue somebody).

So yeah, I'm pretty ticked off because I don't want that stuff coming to my house. Especially if my little sister went to get the mail.

Chris

Ah the price we pay for living in an open and free society.
Junk mail is a way of life and you soon learn to ignore it. I get junk from virtually every credit card company in the world, the Republican party and various religious groups (I always send the enclosed post paid envelopes of these previous two groups back empty so they have to pay postage on them).
I get catalogs from places I've never heard of nor most likely will never buy from. Coupons, flyer's propaganda it's all in the mail.
I wouldn't sweat the Playboy subscription. Ray Bradbury has called it the best magazine that ever was and if you look beyond the pi-ups and pictorials he's absolutely right. Playboy published authors like Peter Benchley and Kurt Vonnegut long before the mainstream publishers would. Several New Yorker level cartoonists call Playboy their home and it's interviews and consumer product evaluations are top notch.
If you wish not to subscribe to this publication simply drop the form in the waste bin.
If it weren't for junk mail regular postage would be several times higher than it is today.

You have to be really careful, you'd be amazed how many ways people can get at your email or address. In the last several years I have gotten a total of three spam emails and not a single bit of regular mail from somewhere I've never heard of (of course I get unwanted advertisments from people I've signed up at, but nowhere else). EVERY time you EVER write down personal information, make sure that they have a privacy policy.

Unfortunately, you can't sue anybody for sending you mail.

If the seller from ebay didn't send the item, contact ebay. Ebay will repay you if the purchase was under a few hundred dollars.

Heheh, I have gotten a "newpaper" section which is really an ad printed up like a newpaper, detailing a story about this great money making conference that was going on in my area....


The envelope it came in was hand addressed, and there was even a sticky note on the newpaper that said "Hey XXX, long time no see, but I saw this and knew you would be intrested".

The funny thing is that there was no return address, and the name written on the postit and envelope were both fake names I use on the web..... wierd, huh?

Yeah, I guess I don't need to be to concerned.

I just went nuts because I could just imagine my little sister going to get the mail and finding that, freaking out...


I also got a bunch of other junk mail from 2 other companies today also.

Luckily it wasn't a magazine. Just a subscription card with a few pictures (but they were censored pictures thank God!).

Chris

Yes, occasionally I do hate mail (so maybe its hatemail then..?) These days the advertisers are so clever as well. I´ve had tons of letters which look like bills or otherwise important letters, just plain envelopes. One was really amuzing, it said "You´ve possibly won the possibility to win!" Great. that's what I´ve always wanted.

I don´t know whether other countries have these, but in Finland we have these things that are delivered twice a week, Wednesdays and Sundays. They´re not delivered by the postal service but an independent company and they´re just advertisements for companies, from onesheet to small magazines. There´s a lot of them usually but at times like Christmas it reaches ridicilous proportions. Granted, they´re not mail and thus a bit off-topic but well within the context of the thread. We have a sign in our mailbox which says "no advertisements". A few weeks ago on Sunday, I saw a bunch delivered in our mailbox. Grabbed them and ran after the kid who was delivering them. I questioned his ability to read and he told me the company he works for has told to ignore such signs as they´re not legally binding. So by their instructions people cant decide themselves what they want to receive. Well, a phone call cleared that one.

The problem is the advertisements delivered by mail. "No advertisements" sign doesn´t help there at all as they´re all addressed directly to me or my better half and the mailman obviously cant leave them undelivered.

One time we received an ad for a magazine. Inside there were small lottery coupons and according to the instructions, we´d get the stuff mentioned on the coupons IF we order. Ok so the magazine is totally crap, just a scandal magazine but has amazingly good TV schedule coverage, the best in Finland so we subscribed to it and were waiting for our MagLite, alarm clock and a cruise to Sweden. Nothing. I called thei customer service and was informed that in order to receive the gifts, we´d have to continue our subscription after the practically free 2 months trial period. The thing was that we had continued the subscription. Then it appeared that we indeed had continued the subscription but wouldn´t qualify as there had been a break according to their files, though there hadn´t been. Well, I was scammed.

Too bad such filters we have for email don't exist for snailmail.

Someone once put out a great idea about all those stupid flyers that your own billing companies send with the monthly bill... you take the flyers from one company and send them back with your check to another company... so the phone company gets the electric companys paper trash and the credit card company gets... well, you can figure it out.
Greg

That's a lovely idea, Greg.
Another idea I heard from my government teacher when I was living in the states was this:
If you get junk mail that requires you to place one letter of your address in each little box (as opposed to just handwriting the whole thing out), then it's going to be read by a computer.
He suggested that you fill in the junk mail's address on the form and send it back.
That way, they end up posting junk mail to themselves...

I absolutely positively cannot stand the U.S. postal service and even worse is unsolicited junk mail. Especially the junk you get from companies with the business reply envelopes.

When I’m not busy stuffing them with my own literature I will fill them up with quite a few rocks or heavy junk around the house I’m trying to get rid of.

The postage paid by the “addressee” is not cheap for each ounce it goes over weight, and is even more expensive when you factor in what it took for them to send it out only to get nothing in return.

One time I got an envelope from a company that was quite large so I unwrapped it then re-wrapped it and taped it around half of a brick.

According to the postal service they have to deliver it as it is “guaranteed” return postage, would have love to seen the bill on that one.

Payne, I just put your name on the Democratic party mailing list so you won't feel overwhelmed with just Republican mail.
Iven