stop getting junk mail (read all 11 entries…)
verizon wireless 2 years ago

Today I called Verizon Wireless to get off their solicitations list, and boy, was it a pain. The customer service representative told me that I was the first person he’d ever talked to who wanted off the lists, and I can see why.

First I called the telemarketing people, whose number is in big red print on the promotional mailing I got today. They sent me to customer service: 1-800-922-0204. At that number I had to press #, 4, 4, and then ignore the voice that told me to enter my Verizon Wireless number. After a while, the hold music came on (from “The Nutcracker”) and I talked to a nice guy who told me that he didn’t think Verizon had any mailing lists. Well, we straightened that out, but it took him a while to find the screen that let him put our information on the Verizon do-not-annoy lists.



Comments:

Has this started working for you? i get nervous providing my info to ANYONE now, even these people, because who knows who is getting info from them! (I know it’s total paranoia, but I am SO SICK of the junk mail!)

thanks for posting!

Cam

Well, I haven’t gotten any more junk from Verizon. And, in fact, my junk mail load is pretty darn low now.

I figure that if they’ve already sent me mail, they have access to my address one way or another. The thing I do try to keep in mind, though, is that if I call a toll-free number to have my address removed, they do get my phone number. That was a problem once with a shady, pushy local satellite-dish installer. But I’ve never had a problem like that with a reputable major company.

Did you see my posting about:

http://www.privacyrights.org/fs/fs4-junk.htm

This webpage has a bunch of tips for reducing junk mail. And going to the their home page:

http://www.privacyrights.org/index.htm

will provide all kinds of tips for protecting your privacy & identity.

Good stuff!!

Response

Many of the tips are very useful for reducing junk mail. It takes some time & effort to write or call so many people & organizations but totally worth it. I found the website by doing some intense web searching. I’ve cut my junk mail in half so far. Sometimes I have to e-mail or call a company directly that send me junk mail but it really works esp. the opt-out number for receiving pre-approved credit card offers. (That’s on the website – totally legit.) Sometimes you have to provide identity info. to your phone co., credit card co., landlord, etc. & there is no way around that but it helps to limit as much as possible – reducing junk mail also reduces chance of being identity theft victim as there is less mail coming to you with your information on it & less floating around cyberspace. Also, for any credit card offers you do get in the mail, shred, shred, shred!!! Get a cross-cut shredder & always shred anything you don’t need to keep that has identifying info. like SSN, date of birth, mother’s maiden name, etc.

awesome! thank you for the info! i did get a shredder and started shredding recently, which is what got me on this kick. what a vicious cycle, get mail, then shred, then create more paper waste, then you don’t respond, they send you more, etc.

i’m going to try it!

Well, it takes a little effort but there are places you can take your shredded paper to for recycling. In my town, a lot of the HS & middle schools have these bins from a company called “Paper Retriever”. They accept most kinds of paper which gets recycled and is a fundraiser for the school.

As for your concern about giving these opt-out companies your info, trust me, they already have it & probably dozens more we never heard of. That’s what they do – buy & sell people’s info. to businesses & companies for these junk mail lists. Sometimes if a particular store or business sends you a lot, you have to contact them directly. I found most catalogs & coupon mailers have an e-mail address for their customer service dept. I’ve gotten off of some catalog mailing lists by e-mailing them directly.

Also, I highly recommend going to:

www.optoutprescreen.com.

Filling out the form will really cut down on the # of pre-approved credit card offers. Since I did it about 3 months ago, I rarely receive a credit card offer anymore.

FYI: There are 2 kinds of shredders: One cuts the paper into long strips. The other cross-cuts the paper into tiny little pieces. Always go for the cross-cutter kind because identity thieves can still get your info. from paper that is not “cross-cut” shredded. (Saw that on 20/20 or Dateline.)


 

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