About a year and a half ago we asked Qwest to knock it off with the phone books by calling them at 1-800-422-8793. It worked. I’m hoping it works as well with Verizon.

It was, again, surprisingly easy. I called Verizon’s directory department at 1-800-888-8448 and gave my name, number, and address to a slightly surprised-sounding customer service rep. (”You don’t want phone books?” he clarified carefully.) I encourage anybody who’s tired of the big paper phone bricks to give the companies a call. They do have ways to ensure that you don’t get the phone books; they just don’t advertise the fact. The hold time wasn’t even that bad.