jeremyfrombenton

Stopping the telemarketing calls: Register your home phone AND your cell phone at the official donotcall.gov website. You simply enter in your numbers and your email address. They send you a link by email you must confirm to finish your registration. Since I registered my numbers, I haven’t had a telemarketing call in over a year.

Stopping (most of) the junk mail:

(From obviously.com) The amount of paper junk mail sent each year in the USA is staggering - some 4 million tons, nearly half of which is never opened. Even if you recycle there are still enormous environmental costs in terms of ink, energy to produce deliver and recycle the paper, recycling inefficiencies and loss of virgin forest to create the high quality glossy paper much junk mail uses. There is a lot you can do to reduce the cost to the environment and your own time:

• First class mail: Cross out the address and bar code, circle the first class postage and write “refused: return to sender”. Drop in any mail box, it will be returned to the sender.
• Bulk mail: The post office throws away bulk mail it can’t deliver, so returning it does no good. Bulk mail is the hardest to deal with because the USPS actively provides addresses, support and encouragement to mailers. However, if “address correction requested” is written on the label: circle “address correction requested” and treat like first class mail.
• Credit offers: The major credit agencies all sell aggregate credit information any bidder. Direct mail and credit companies generate mail based on demographics including zip code, income band and credit payment patterns. Stopping this is easy, you just need your address, former address within two years, and social security number. One call does it all for agencies Equifax, Trans Union, Experian and Innovis. Dial 1-888-5 OPT OUT (or 1-888-567-8688) 24 hours a day.
• Catalogs:
  • Call the company’s 800 number and have the label handy.
  • Write your instructions on the mailing label and fax it to the company. Mark “ATTN: customer service”.
  • Tear off the label, write your instructions on it, and enclose in the postage-paid ordering envelope. Mark envelope “ATTN: customer service”. This method is the least effective.
• AOL (America On-Line): You could pave the nation with the free discs these people send out, call 1-800-605-4297 (24 hours a day) to get off the list. Tell them your first name is “current”, last name “resident”.
• Publisher’s Clearinghouse Sweepstakes: You can get the Clearinghouse to stop clogging your mailbox by contacting customer service at 1-800-645-9242 (8:30 am to 8:30 EST), sending a fax to 1-800-453-0272, mailing to 101 Channel Drive, Port Washington, NY 11050, or you can send email to pch@ant.net. PCH will remove any number of names from a specific address, but you have to list each name exactly and insist nicely.
• American Family Sweepstakes: Ed McMahon and Dick Clark will stop telling you “You have definitely won 11 million dollars (maybe) ” if you call them at 1-800-237-2400. AFP is a division of Time-Warner.