No-name-specified letters to my address from companies?

lucernarian

Hey there.

I was hoping someone would have a definitive answer for this. Like what the title says, I'm getting letters from UPC / NTL every so often with "The Resident" written as the receiver's name. Then my address, e.g. 36 Sea View, Whatever, Dublin 26.

Inside there's some crap about their supposedly great digital TV quality service. I'm not interested in a half-assed version of sky when they can't even offer me broadband anywhere near me. How do I get them to stop doing it every 3-4 weeks? It's not a major inconvenience, but it irritates the hell out of me to get them off that shower. At least until they fix up their decrepit network where I live.

Summary: How to stop NTL posting me crap about TV services every month to me!

Thanks:)

Venom

Officially you cant stop that rubbish being droped in your letterbox sadly Saying that a "No Junk Mail" sign on my letter box has cut out about 90% of the crap I used to get.

jor el

Ah, UPC love letters. Unfortunately you can't stop them, only if they're addressed specifically to you, and not "The Resident". These are delivered by An Post, so a no junk mail sign won't stop them.

lucernarian

Yeah, I was wondering if "The Resident" meant anything that could be covered under the Data Protection acts.

bcirl03

To_be_confirmed, I sympathise with you - I too get them all the time. On Average 6 a month.

Having rang up numerous times to get them stopped with no result I now stick a nice big printed sticker on the letter as follows:

"RETURN TO SENDER NOT KNOWN AT THIS ADDRESS"

In addition to that I add JUNK MAIL all over the back of the letter. I have no idea if they ever get back to UPC but I'm hoping they do and that they have to pay

I'd recommend you start doing that, and also don’t be afraid to steam open the envelope and provide them with some of the junk mail you get, that one helps me sleep at night.

Cabaal

To_be_confirmed wrote: »

Yeah, I was wondering if "The Resident" meant anything that could be covered under the Data Protection acts.

Its not covered by the data protection act as it doesn't have your name on it, unless of course you change your name to "The Resident".

This was looked into before

TheDriver

I remember one story of a guy who used to take the freepost envolopes of these companies and start sending them phone books and nice heavy expensive to post items!

bcirl03

TheDriver wrote: »

I remember one story of a guy who used to take the freepost envolopes of these companies and start sending them phone books and nice heavy expensive to post items!

Check this out "Postal Regifting for Fun"

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=0QbBqwjfvJE

lucernarian

Anyway, I ended up posting it last night with a return to sender scrawled over it.

Oryx

Blank out your address, write 'unsolicited' on it, and bung it back in the post. Its how I stopped Readers Digest posting garbage to me, tho it took a little while.

I do like the idea with the freepost envelopes tho. Fun.

lucernarian

How would they know which address to stop sending it to, if I blanked out the address?

Oryx

To_be_confirmed wrote: »

How would they know which address to stop sending it to, if I blanked out the address?

I used to do it to window envelopes mostly. Just do it enough that the postman doesnt send it back to you then.

monkeypants

TheDriver wrote: »

I remember one story of a guy who used to take the freepost envolopes of these companies and start sending them phone books and nice heavy expensive to post items!

I used to do that years ago with the freepost envelopes that banks, credit card companies, etc. used to send me. I always paid online, so I didn't need them. When they didn't stop, I started using their envelopes to get rid of unwanted letterbox vomit. Nothing heavy like phone books, just take-away menus and things like that. They might even have found some of it useful.