This is so frustrating to me. I have not used a phonebook in 10 years - I don't know anyone who does - and I find it such a waste of resources. Why can't it be something you OPT IN on instead?
Anyone know how to get removed from "the list" - or do they just randomly deliver to everyone?
Otherwise - I plan to put a sign on my mailbox saying "NO PHONEBOOK PLEASE"....and hope that works.
miws
Member Profile
This was discussed a few weeks ago, and off the top off my head, I can't remember if an opt-out option was found for DEX, or not.
I *do* share your frustration. Actually, for myself, DEX is the one I *want* to have, (because I have QWEST landline sevice), along with the small, West Seattle book, that used to be called the Banana Pages.
I mostly use the 'net too, for looking up stuff, but like to have a phone book as a back up. I wouldn't mind opting-in to get them.
If the regulators won't come up with some kind of opt-in, I'd like to see them at least allow the phone companies to deliver phone books to their own clients only.
Mike
PlaneGuy
Member Profile
There's really nothing you can do. Seriously. Opt-out if you must, but resign yourself to the fact that there will by MULTIPLE phone books delivered nonetheless -sometimes multiple times a week.
I just pick them up and toss 'em in the recycle bin. Such a waste of resources.
I've opted out countless times in countless ways and they still keep coming. I don't think a sign will make a difference. They usually dump ours just inside the gate, 20 feet from the front door. From having delivered advertising circulars as a kid, I know we'd get in trouble if we didn't give away all of them, and I bet the phonebook people are the same way. Mine don't even make it into the house - right around back and dumped into the recycling bin. What a waste!
I've seen the people delivering these things and they don't have any paperwork or anything in their hands. So they're clearly not keeping track of who has opted out. Their delivery method is carpet bombing, not precision munitions.
I tried a sign last time. it didn't work any better than the sign on my gate warning about the dogs does for solicitors... or the no soliciting sign.
The folks who deliver the phone books apparently read the one about the dogs though because the books were just tossed over the gate landing on the path to the door.
Qwest does not produce the Dex phonebooks. Yes, Dex is the "official phonebook" of Qwest, but that's like Pepsi is the "official softdrink" of MLB -- it's a marketing arrangement. Dex is a division of RH Donnelley (http://www.rhd.com/).
The last time the van delivering Dex books came through my neighborhood, I happened to be at home and yelled at them through an open window "I don't want those books -- come back and get them!" and they complied.
If everyone just drops the books in the recycle bin, then IMO leaving a bag with phonebooks is no different from leaving a bag of shredded newspaper -- it's littering, and they should be fined for this.
This is only a partial answer, but it's a place to start.
http://www.banthephonebook.org/
When phone books are delivered after I "opt out", I call customer service and tell them to come pick them up. Sometimes I've been successful.
I think what happens is it's more trouble for them to ignore the "opt-out"s and just deliver to everyone. So I try to make it more trouble to deliver by insisting they come pick them up.
This is why we need an "opt-in" instead of an "opt-out".
Oh, and I think Catalog Choice was considering the possibility of adding phone books.
http://www.catalogchoice.org
i would love to opt out of phone books.
JoB, it would be better if you had to "opt-in" to get them. Without that kind of change, the "opt-out" will continue to be window-dressing.
miws
Member Profile
lighthouse, I agree!
I'd *love* to see the phone book companies fined for littering!
I'm in an enclosed apartment builing. Sometimes the stack of books is left on the outside landing of the building, even though, I believe, the front door may have been unlocked when the books were dropped off. If the books aren't shrink wrapped, or if so, and the wrap has been pulled off, there's a possibility of loose inserts that may be in the books being blown around.
Sometimes the books are dropped in the lobby (granted the apt manager or another tenant may have brought them in from the outside landing. I have in the past.)
Other times, the books are dropped in front of the individual apartments doors.
Not only does the actual waste of resources bug me, but the fact that the apt manager, and/or tenants, are left with the chore of picking the unwanted ones up, and dumping them in the recycle bin. And those buggers are *heavy*, so I can imagine a plastic recycle bin, and perhaps even the lift equipment on the truck, which is designed to lift smaller, lighter loads than their large dumpster lifting cousins, being strained, by lifting a heavy bin loaded with thick yellow pages.
Another thing, I'd bet the various phone book companies would cut back on customer service help to save a few bucks, *long* before they'd discontinue, or at least decrease the wasteful amount of phone books they produce and distribute. :-/
Mike
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