22 Replies to ""Do not mail" registry? Seattle City Council vote tomorrow"

• marco January 10, 2010 (6:53 pm)

  “When you stop polluting it will cost jobs” doesn’t sound like a good argument. How about throw your garbage in the street for the job security of trash pickers?!?

  I hope this measure includes those useless yellow pages. I just wish it was opt-in only.

  In Germany, you can put a red “No Ads” sticker on your mailbox and nobody is allowed to put non-direct mail in there. That would also help.

• Alex January 10, 2010 (9:17 pm)

  This is an excellent idea. Everyone hates junk mail, so lets stop it. So simple, it’s amazing we haven’t done this yet. There is no conceivable way that giving people a choice regarding whether to be targeted for junk mail could be a bad thing. Choice is good!

• homedk January 10, 2010 (10:55 pm)

  I do like the idea of a registry so that people can choose to opt out of receiving junk mail.

  My concern is that if too many people opt out, businesses that send unsolicited mail will then look for alternatives for reaching potential customers. That may cause an increase in door-to-door solicitations. Personally, I would rather see door-to-door soliciting stopped, as a higher priority than clamping down on junk mail. Door-to-door soliciting is more invasive than junk mail, and it causes safety issues in that people with bad intentions can pose as solicitors.

• bolo January 10, 2010 (10:57 pm)

  I would personally like to thank Comcast for subsidizing the post office: “…jobs would be lost and the US Postal Service’s future would be in danger because advertising mail comprises a third of what it handles…”

  Seriously, I am hoping this resolution makes it.

• Civik January 11, 2010 (6:47 am)

  Why not also pass a law that bulk solicitation mailings must pay full price at the post office?

• Rick January 11, 2010 (7:39 am)

  YES!YES!YES!

• austin January 11, 2010 (8:22 am)

  An end to USPS spam? I never thought I’d see the day when it was even considered. Half of my large recycling bin, filled twice a month, is junk mail that didn’t even make it in the house. How much is it costing us each year to dispose of solicitation mail that we didn’t want in the first place? The USPS is costing individuals money for a “service” no one asked for, while at the same time lining the pockets of hardcopy spammers. If the USPS can’t remain profitable without spreading around this litter then they should go out of business.

• sam January 11, 2010 (9:50 am)

  yes- PLEASE- I would sign up.

  also, sometimes I am successful and sometimes am not, but I wish there was a way to keep charities from sending me mail after I send a donation without having to take time to call them.

  I send a check, and I like a receipt for taxes obviously, but wish I would not get follow up requests for more donations every couple of weeks. all non-profits are guilty, KUOW, Mercy Corps, Save the Children, Doctors w/ out borders…..and it is enough to make me want to keep my money all to myself.

  I think that is most of the junk mail I get.

• jc January 11, 2010 (10:46 am)

  You can already manage what mail you receive by going to the Direct Marketing Association’s website. Here’s a link to the portion explaining about their DMA choice online tool. https://www.dmachoice.org/dma/static/about_dma.jsp You register similar to the do not call list. Read it over there are lots of options for eliminating various types of mail, while still getting the mail you actually want to receive.

• Zgh2676 January 11, 2010 (10:58 am)

  It would be excellent if this measure passed.

• ForestEthics January 11, 2010 (12:15 pm)

  jc wrote: “You can already manage what mail you receive by going to the Direct Marketing Association’s website.”

  The DMA is the group responsible for sending us ever increasing volumes of junk mail. They are not bound to honor your requests, and there is no guarantee that if you request to get off of one junk mail list, that your name and information won’t simply be sold to another company to send you junk mail.

  The national Do Not Call Registry, passed into law in 2003, would not be nearly as effective if the industry were allowed to run it themselves. Why should the fox be entrusted to guard the henhouse?

• Cheryll January 11, 2010 (12:16 pm)

  The argument of people losing jobs or the USPS going broke doesn’t fly with me either. I don’t want ANY unsolicited marketing coming to my house, period. That includes paper junk mail certainly, but also phone calls, emails, SMS texts from my cell phone carrier (ATT), etc. I’m not interested. And if/when I need a partiular service, or require info about a business, or would like to make a donation, I will do the footwork & make contact on my own. Thank you very much.

  Advertisers, the USPS, the government, PR and Marketing firms, etc. all assume I’m too stupid to know how to find what I need, WHEN I need it.

  I’m sick of having to go to more effort to STOP this junk mail (emails, calls, etc.) than they have to go through to send it.

  Stopping bulk rate pricing for businesses is a GREAT idea. If they had to pay full price to mail out all that paper waste, I’ll bet you they’d quit the practice altogether. Only the all mighty $$ seems to speak anymore. Clearly they don’t give a crap about what I want as a consumer, b/c they keep sending me stuff I don’t want, after repeated requests that they don’t. Grrrr.

• Pokey January 11, 2010 (9:50 pm)

  While I’m certainly not against eliminating junk mail, the priority of our city council dealing with this makes me laugh. Remember the Snake River dam that Heidi Wills and Judy Nicastro were always dealing with like their hair was on fire? Here are some issues I would welcome from the mayor and the council.

  .fix our streets
  .fix our sidewalks
  .fix our power outages
  .relieve parking
  .ban door to door solicitation as a matter of public safety
  .keep as much free parking as possible or ease our
  transportation problems
  .replace our street lamp bulbs in a timely manner
  .fix Pioneer Square again
  .etc, etc, etc
  No wonder Olympia shakes it’s head at us. I will gladly continue to recycle my own junk mail if you can fix the above stuff.

• Matthew Broder January 12, 2010 (8:36 am)

  Consumers already have significant control over what comes into their mailboxes. dmachoice.org, optoutprescreen.com, and any number of websites that will help purge you from mailing lists for free or at nominal cost. Do Not Mail legislation chokes off the one affordable advertising option for nonprofits and small businesses. Not a smart idea at any time, much less in a recession.

  Matt Broder
  Pitney Bowes Inc.

  • WSB January 12, 2010 (9:34 am)

    Thanks for the thoughtful discussion. The City Council’s action summary says final action on this is delayed two weeks to 1/25.

• RC January 12, 2010 (10:31 am)

  I hate to tell them this, but the USPS comes under Federal law, not local. You can pass all of the city ordinances you want, but until a federal law is passed, it’s totally pointless. But then they’re politicians, they just want to look good so you’ll reelect them, not solve any real problem.

  • WSB January 12, 2010 (10:33 am)

    One small clarifying point, the city proposal is a resolution asking the state to pass something. That still goes under your jurisdictional concern but they’re not proposing a city law doing anything but voicing support.

• JD January 12, 2010 (11:32 am)

  Some of you need to realize that the USPS doesn’t have a choice but to deliver the mail. That’s their mandate. If an individual or organization places something in the mailstream with the proper postage it is to be delivered. Please don’t make it sound like the USPS has a choice in this matter. Also, direct mailers use the USPS because it works… it brings them business. If you receive mail you don’t want… throw it. I sift through my mail everyday in less than 15 seconds. Really not much of an inconvenience and there are often pieces of so called ‘junk mail’ that get my attention, get my business, and save me money as a consumer. Imagine if you could take all the phone calls you get in a day, interrupting you at work, dinner time, family time, etc … bundle them up and take 15 seconds a day to decide which ones you want to follow up on and which ones are worthless to you. direct mail is one of the least intrusive forms of advertising. You choose if and when you wish to go through your mail.

• RC January 12, 2010 (2:25 pm)

  “they’re not proposing a city law doing anything but voicing support.”

  In other words, wasting time doing pointless ineffective things instead of working on solving the problems that they actually can control.

• 2GUN January 13, 2010 (4:22 am)

  One problem with that is that about 90% of the postal service revenue is derived from AD money. That is how the USPS can be the only federal agency to operate without a penny from the federal budget. Cutting out junk mail (which would take an act of congress) is basically voting for a tax increase. Mail service is constitutionally mandated. Without junk mail subsidy you would have to pay the real market price to send a letter from Seattle to New York. It isn’t 44 cents.

• teri January 14, 2010 (3:47 pm)

  Yes! Let me be the first to add my name to a “NO Junk Mail” Registry! This is a Choice/Option which is Long over due. A Whopping Ninety percent(90%) of my paper mail is useless junk mail of which goes directly from my mailbox to the recycle bin! Most of my important and pertinent mail I receive via Email/internet. Bye, bye paper mail and even more so, Junk Mail.
  I hate Junk Mail and the companies who keep sending it! Junk Mail is an incredible waste of time, money, trees, and other resources.

• Don\\\\\\\'t Mislead January 17, 2010 (10:38 pm)

  @ Pitney Bowes Matt – DMAChoice has 761 companies listed in their service. The directory of catalog mailers lists over 10,000. Let’s not pretend that DMAChoice is a full fledged registry. It is a tool that the industry uses to AVOID legislation.

  If you want to point to an opt-out service that works on behalf of consumers, then what about Catalog Choice

  @ RC – The City pays to dispose of the waste, so they have every right to pass laws to control it.

Sorry, comment time is over.