Any way to stop spam mail in letter box?

CrazyRabbit

Ever since I moved to this area I've been spammed to hell and back with leaflets in the letterbox. I get 3 of those "donate your old clothes to charity" sticker things per week. How much old clothes do they think I have?

It's getting beyond a joke now. Does anyone have any good ideas on how to stop these muppets from spamming me?

I was thinking of contacting the business owners who are sending them and threatening to report them for illegally dumping commercial waste on private property, but I'm not sure if it would have any effect.

Zaph

I agree, the amount of junk that comes through my letterbox every day is ridiculous. It was starting to get nearly as bad where my parents live, so they put up a sign in the porch that says something like "No leaflets, flyers or collection bags. Thank you." It made a huge difference, they get hardly any of this rubbish now, just the odd one from seemingly illiterate delivery persons.

gollyitsolly

Zaph wrote: »

I agree, the amount of junk that comes through my letterbox every day is ridiculous. It was starting to get nearly as bad where my parents live, so they put up a sign in the porch that says something like "No leaflets, flyers or collection bags. Thank you." It made a huge difference, they get hardly any of this rubbish now, just the odd one from seemingly illiterate delivery persons.

Ive done this too. I put up a sign saying "No leaflets, no posters, no bags , no money. I dont want to buy anything or give anything away, thank you."
It actually worked. I took it down to clean my windows and forgot to put it back again. Must do it again. The plastic bag and bogus clothes charity ones are the worst. They really annoy me . They sell this stuff at the markets round Dublin and dump what they dont want.

CrazyRabbit

Suppose I could just booby-trap the letterbox as well.

Seriously though, there doesn't seem to be any laws to prevent people from dumping their crap through the letterbox. I spoke with a Garda friend today and he suggests contacting each of the businesses that are depositing the junk mail and telling them to stop. If they persist, I can persue a complaint against them for harrassment.

Zaph

The problem you have there is that the businesses involved just farm out the delivery work to contracting companies, who hire and pay the delivery people. Telling Dominos, for example, that you don't wish to receive their menu every week is all very well, but really it's the people working for the delivery contractors that you need to speak to. As for the collection bags and leaflets, many of those businesses come over from the UK, so they won't really care about your complaint about harrassment. Putting up a sign seems to be the way to go, tbh.

Stoner

I've noticed these guys delivering at 3.30 in the morning, its very annoying, as all the dogs in the area go mad.

I dont know who they deliver for as I have a secure gate and a letter box on the side wall of my house with a "No Junk Mail" sticker on it, seems to stop about 50% of the muck.

quank

We used to have a sign up and it really did work but I don't know where it went. I actually like getting all the junk, it means I have plenty of take-away options to choose from, I have a few free newspapers to read on the bus etc.

gollyitsolly wrote:

The plastic bag and bogus clothes charity ones are the worst. They really annoy me . They sell this stuff at the markets round Dublin and dump what they dont want.

Do you know this for sure? We get at least one every two weeks and to me, they look pretty genuine but I've never really questioned them. For the first time around a month ago, we actually used one of the bags.

gollyitsolly

Have you tried ringing the non existant phone numbers on the leaflets? The only charities they collect for are the "me fein" charities.

flame123

Guys ( N Gals)

I am at my wits end with this crap..!!!!, about twice a week these idiots drop their stickers in my door at 4AM, asking for my old clothes and each time they do, the dog next door goes mad, waking me up....!! I am up each morning at 0530 which means I get disturbed sleep. I am going around like a Zombie

I am so fed up with it, that if I get my hands on the F***ers, I am going to lynch them and hang them from a lamp post .Maybe when their friends see them there they may decide not to go down my road again.

The phone numbers are all bogey, the collectors are bogey, the charities dont exist and all they are doing is pocketing the money themselves. If people never ever gave them anything , I am sure they would go end their collecting, but I partly blame the fools who put stuff out for these people.

Remember a bag outside your door to be collected is an open invitation for a complete stranger to walk into your garden and up to your front door ... suppose he had other ideas about what he wanted to collect from your house

fast1

its not very "green" is it?

its a pain in the hole, I am sick of walking over a mountain of paper every time I walk through the front door after work of an evening.

Stoner

yeah, I'm surprised that there has not been a clamp down on this, for example all those metro papers etc left around the place, they seem to be expanding, I see now that they are giving them out on the navan road near the kempton estate, people just take them for the sake of it and then ditch them on the bus or the ground, never mind not recycling them, they don't even bin them.

Anyway it's one of those things that i bitch about but do nothing about, at the end of the day I'm not part of the solution, so I must look into it.

Nevyn

There should be a way of opting out and getting on a restricted list by those companies.

DvB

I've complained to the people doing the 'posting' loads of times, they tend to just ignore you which is equally infuriating, i also had a sign up literally at my letterbox saying 'No junk mail' it made not a jot of a difference and i still recieve a green bin load of the stuff every month or so, it is incredibly annoying though, i mean how many times do i need to be told theres a Dominos pizza place in Dublin 15!!!

CrazyRabbit

DvB wrote: »

I've complained to the people doing the 'posting' loads of times, they tend to just ignore you which is equally infuriating, i also had a sign up literally at my letterbox saying 'No junk mail' it made not a jot of a difference and i still recieve a green bin load of the stuff every month or so, it is incredibly annoying though, i mean how many times do i need to be told theres a Dominos pizza place in Dublin 15!!!

There's a Domino's place near you. Just in case you didn't know.

I'm seriously considering taking a cival case against these clowns for littering/illegal dumping on private property. My only concern is that if I lose the case I could be left with hefty legal bills.

flame123

I just had an idea...

If everyone put their junk mail in an envelope and addresed it back to the companies that sent it, with no stamp on it.......would the companies be liable for the postage costs..??

If so, it would be a great campaign to start, if everyone sent the junk mail back to the offending companies my guess is, that it would not be long before they stopped sending it out

But that will not stop the problem of the plastic bags in my door in the early mornings

r3nu4l

quank wrote: »

Do you know this for sure? We get at least one every two weeks and to me, they look pretty genuine but I've never really questioned them. For the first time around a month ago, we actually used one of the bags.

Yes. Most of these collections are for companies. All charities must have their charity number on the bag or leaflet. What many clothing collection companies do is place their company number on the bag such as: Cy 10231, or similar to make it look like they are a charity.

Many of these clothes are actually never sold on, they are sent to Northern Ireland from the republic, or Liverpool or Leeds from other sites in England, Scotland and Wales, shredded and pulped and used for other purposes. Some of the bags will say that the clothes are used to 'help children in Africa'. Again, this isn't a lie, the companies do recycle some of the materials and SELL them to other companies, in Africa...

It's not dishonest but it is disingenuous.

T-Maxx

To be honest I don't care what these bogus charities do with my old clothing. If they sell it on and make a few yo-yo's - good for them. If it really goes to charity so much better. Alternatively I would have had to chuck in the grey bin and paid someone to dispose of it.

As for all the paper leaflets. that's why you have a green bin that's collected "free of charge" every fortnight.

r3nu4l

T-Maxx wrote: »

To be honest I don't care what these bogus charities do with my old clothing. If they sell it on and make a few yo-yo's - good for them. If it really goes to charity so much better. Alternatively I would have had to chuck in the grey bin and paid someone to dispose of it.

As for all the paper leaflets. that's why you have a green bin that's collected "free of charge" every fortnight.

I guess I'm lucky as I have clothing bins nearby

flame123

T-Maxx wrote: »

As for all the paper leaflets. that's why you have a green bin that's collected "free of charge" every fortnight.

Wonderfull....so, because I have a green bin, I should have no objection to all this stuff coming in my door!!!!

Stark

Indeed. Nothing at all wrong with printing out hundreds of leaflets that go directly to the "recycling/shipped off to other countries to be burnt" bin.

T-Maxx

Well, until such time as you guys have solved the annoying leaflet issue, I'll keep on chucking it in me green bin. Under the circumstances I think that's just about the best thing to do with it.

T-Maxx

flame123 wrote: »

Wonderfull....so, because I have a green bin, I should have no objection to all this stuff coming in my door!!!!

That's not what I said or implied.

Stark

The Irish consumer association or someone has a register of people whom you're not allowed send unsolited post to. I just have to find the exact details. A friend of mine was able to claim money off a company before after they sent him junk regardless.

Edit: There seems to be some information here:
http://www.dataprotection.ie/docs/A_Consumer_Guide_to_Dealing_with_Unsolicited_Direct_Marketin/288.htm
http://www.citizensinformation.ie/categories/consumer-affairs/communication-services/dealing_with_unsolicited_direct_marketing