Greg
Sweeney, President and CEO
The
Potpourri Group Inc.
101
Billerica Ave., Bldg. 2 N. Billerica, MA 01862
January
2, 2018
Dear
Mr. Sweeney,
I
am taking the desperate step of sending you a letter via the USPO as trying to
stop your catalogs from coming to my house via regular channels is not working.
Since
2012, when my husband’s mother ordered something for me from one of your
catalogs (I returned it because bless her heart, my late mother in law had
horrible taste), I have been unable to stop the flow of catalogs.
By
the way, I have not ordered a product from a paper catalog since I was in my
20s. I am a 54 years old, middle class, employed, married no children white
female with an MBA. You may want to add this information to your “probably not
a target demographic for us” list, as I do not think I am at all unusual.
Here
are the things I have tried to get you to stop sending me catalogs:
- February 2012: Submitted a request via the Catalog Favorites website for catalogs to stop
- April 2012: Submitted a request via the Catalog Favorites website for catalogs to stop
- September 2015: My husband put his mother’s name, his father’s name, and their address on the Deceased Do Not Contact list. (Mother died May 2015, father died July 2015)
- September 2015: My husband put in a forwarding order for his parents mail so he could get their mail at our house as he closed their estate.
- At some point, you guys decided that a forwarding order trumped a “Deceased do not contact” order and started sending Doris’s catalogs to my home address.
- I tried to get you to stop.
o
I
don’t want your stuff
o
Even
if I did want your stuff, I would not buy it from a catalog – I would go online
o
I
really don’t want my dead mother in law’s mail
- I submitted repeated requests to your websites, yet continued to get catalogs, to the point that yesterday, I got catalogs addressed to the request I sent you via your sites a few months ago
o
STOP
SENDING YOUR CA OR CURRENT RESIDENT (Catalog Favorites)
o
TAKE
ME OFF YOUR LIS OR CURRENT RESIDENT (Whatever Works)
Mr. Sweeney, I do
not know how I can be more clear.
I do not ever want
a catalog from your group to hit my mailbox. Even 50 years after I am dead, I
do not want Potpourri Group catalogs to arrive at [my address].
I say this as
someone who has a (God willing) defined benefit coming someday from
International Paper, which means I have a strong interest in the consumption of
coated papers. Yet I do not want your catalogs. Please remove me and remove my
address (and you might as well remove Doris, as she has been dead for
over two years) from any list you have now and any list you might ever have in
the future.
Sincerely,
The Gold Digger
Find his home address and forward every catalog you get from them to it.
ReplyDeleteGene is a genius!
DeleteI would love to see the elimination of the cheaper bulk mail rate for these companies that like to send junk mail. I bet that would make a big difference in the amount of junk mail sent. Which would be better for the environment, too.
ReplyDeleteOf course, without bulk mail subsidizing the cost of sending letters, stamps would be even higher...but in a day and age where even wedding invitations go out via evite, does it make sense to let that stop us?
I started by contacting via email every place that sent my (deceased) dad mail (that I had forwarded to my PO box). Then I move on to twittershaming them (by which I mean, despite the name, embarrassing them publicly on any social media). After well over a year, I'm just writing "DECEASED" on the subscription/donation card, stuffing everything in the postage paid envelope, and dropping it in the mail.
ReplyDeleteAlthough it might not work with catalogs, it's very cathartic.
And I've done Gene's solution with email -- I usually have a different address at my vanity domain for every org. and company, but even if I don't, you can set up a filter based on the "From" address. :)
Yes, anytime there is a postage-paid response, I put as much weight as I can in the envelope and send it back.
DeleteI hadn't thought of the twitter shaming, but I need to start!
But did it work yet?
ReplyDeleteI don't know. I haven't gotten anything since I sent the letter. I would think that at the least, I would get a job offer. They are wasting so much money sending the catalog to people who don't want it. They need more focused marketing!
Delete