Help stop unsolicited mail from NTL / UPC

parsi

Just dropped 26 of them into the post box. All re-addressed to Mark Coan .

KoolKid

Mine will be going in the morning..

crossmolinalad

Only thing u all do is safe them money
They open the returns and re-use the letters to sent them back to u all
It safes them their money to print new ones

Other thing is they dump boxes full of them on the post office
Unnamed with only a street name and sometimes with a house number too
Posty gets paid for every letter he/she put in a house-mailbox
If you get a letter with to the resident of the house on it is not in a data base

KoolKid

crossmolinalad wrote: »

Only thing u all do is safe them money
They open the returns and re-use the letters to sent them back to u all
It safes them their money to print new ones

Not really saving them money.
They will be charged for the postage.
If they want to reuse them , they will need to pay someone to open them & put them into nev evvolopes etc. They also will not be able to reuse those ones that are just the folded over type with the address on the front. At the endof the day the postage is probably the most costly part of this.

tbh

just dropped 10 into the letter box - feels great

I was thinking, we should do the same in a few months but make an effort to really get people involved - maybe liveline or something. But for now - thanks very much everyone!!

KoolKid

tbh wrote: »

I was thinking, we should do the same in a few months but make an effort to really get people involved!!

My thoughts exactly...
Maybe August or September.

Cabaal

start a proper compaign, throw together a quick website and stick links in signatures?

parsi

They are publicising themselves on twitter at the moment so may be worth asking @weareupc about junk mail. I asked but didn't get a response.

KoolKid

Cabaal wrote: »

start a proper compaign, throw together a quick website and stick links in signatures?

I'd be up for that..:D

goretti

tbh wrote: »

just dropped 10 into the letter box - feels great

I was thinking, we should do the same in a few months but make an effort to really get people involved - maybe liveline or something. But for now - thanks very much everyone!!

+1

goretti

Cabaal wrote: »

start a proper compaign, throw together a quick website and stick links in signatures?

A great idea? What about something like petitiononline.com?

bcirl03

goretti wrote: »

A great idea? What about something like petitiononline.com?

Sounds good,

btw sent off 7 the other day.

Cabaal

goretti wrote: »

A great idea? What about something like petitiononline.com?

I was thinking if somebody wants to setup stopupcspam.com
Just post the info on it

KoolKid

I'll set it up if you want to look after it.
What do you have in mind for it?

tbh

koolkid wrote: »

I'll set it up if you want to look after it.
What do you have in mind for it?

I guess the information in the OP? Also would be great to have the ability to keep a running total of the amount to send back. Are you sure you don't mind setting it up?

Should we look at getting four or five people to help organise things - maybe a social group?

KoolKid

Sounds good TBH.

parsi

Since posting about this on twitter (especially during their rebrand publicity) they have engaged with me via email about removing my name.

So it may be worthwhile if you're on twitter to contact @weareupc and start the ball rolling - though where the ball will roll to is another question.

KoolKid

I'll set up the domain & hosting.
Who wants to design me a home page???
Or should we install a forum or guest book type software?

tbh

parsi wrote: »

Since posting about this on twitter (especially during their rebrand publicity) they have engaged with me via email about removing my name.

So it may be worthwhile if you're on twitter to contact @weareupc and start the ball rolling - though where the ball will roll to is another question.

this is interesting. I think we should be fair to them and contact them to say that we're going to ramp things up and make more of an effort to draw this to peoples attention, so we're going to give them a chance before we do that to give us what we want.

What I want is a line on the bottom of every letter that says "if you would like to stop getting these letters, please call this number". I would like that to be a dedicated number - no holding, no "press 1, press 2" crap - I call, give my address, and the letters stop.

So I think we should contact them, ask them if they are willing to do that and if they are not, we go ahead. What do you think?

tbh

contacted them on twitter, they gave me a mail addr to send to.

sent this:

Hi There –

I recently contacted your customer support team on twitter who gave me this address.

I’m a poster on Boards.ie, posting under the name tbh. I started a thread a while ago complaining about the amount of unsolicited mail I get from NTL/UPC. The previous owners of my house were customers of yours, but I’m not. I would get an average of about two mailouts a week, addressed to the old owners. When I sent these mails back, marked “no longer at this address”, the letters started coming addressed to me, and seemed to increase in frequency. I tried (hard!) to get my name removed from your mailing list, at which point the letters started coming addressed to “the occupant”. Frustrating 

I started a thread on boards to complain about this and to suggest that we hold these letters for a while and post them back en masse as a form of protest. The thread is here:
http://www.boards.ie/vbulletin/showthread.php?t=2055752178

It was, frankly, a half-arsed attempt to try to organise something, but it quickly gained support and gathered momentum. The initial batch of messages were returned last weekend. I doubt you’ll be getting enough of them to worry you, but we have decided that we should put more effort into it and take it outside of boards. A website – www.stopupcspam.com has been created and the idea is to publicise it as much as possible through local press and radio, etc.

I realise you’ve been busy rebranding and for what it’s worth, I applaud your efforts, and your new offerings. I also think it’s unfair to carry on with this without letting you know what it is we want, and give you a chance to comment.

So – to cut a long story short  all we want is the opportunity to quickly and easily remove ourselves from your mailing list, and a promise that if we do that, the letters will stop.
I would propose that you would have a dedicated phone number, which would be printed at the bottom of each marketing letter you send out, that I could ring, give my address, and have it removed from your list.
I would ask that this number be outside of your normal customer lines – I’ve tried and tried to remove my address before and have been passed from pillar to post with no success. So, I think it would be great if the process was as simple as I’ve outlined.

I’m sure you can appreciate that all of us who have complained about the amount of mail we’re receiving would genuinely wish you all the best in your efforts to rebrand and expand. I’m also sure you can also appreciate that pretty much anyone who hears about this campaign would have some support for it – nobody likes to get junk mail, and I (of course) think our request is reasonable. In my opinion, it would be difficult to refuse without appearing unreasonable, and I know you are making big efforts to improve your image, particularly with regard to customer services. I think this is a great opportunity for you to prove that the company has changed and is willing to listen to the public and give them what they want.

Sorry for rambling on so much. Can you let me know what you think? It’d be great to be able to go back to boards and tell them that this has been resolved.

Thanks for reading,
<tbh>

KoolKid

Sounds fair. Who wants to write the letter ?
Edit:
That was quick. Lets see what happens.

parsi

That sounds like a good way to proceed.

tbh

it's not looking good

Hello

I understand you sent a request through twitter that your address be removed from the UPC mailing lists for marketing offers. Can you please send us through your name and the address that the mailings are going to and we will arrange this for you.

Kind regards


My reply:

Hi <snip> -

thanks very much for getting back to me. I'm afraid the
essential point of my email seems to have been missed. I'm not looking
for a way to get *my own* address removed from your mailing list, I -
and a lot of others - are asking UPC to make it much easier for
*anyone* who wants to get removed to be able to do so. My request was
for you to set up a dedicated phone number that people could ring to
remove themselves, and include this information on the bottom of each
marketing mail that you send out.

thanks,



...it doesn't seem like they even read the email tbh.

KoolKid

I would think it's fair game to proceed with the site. What do others think?

Average-Ro

Just came across this thread now. I'm interested in helping out in any way I can.

parsi

Follwoing on from the UPC rebrand I engaged with them via twitter and email and was told I was removed from their database.

This morning I received yet another junk mail from them - this time in their spiffing new resigned stationery.

What a joke.

tbh

oh yeah - sorry, I forgot about this - been mental busy in work.

Didn't hear back from UPC for ages, prodded them again and got this:

My apologies, I understood this had been replied to already. UPC is fully compliant with the DPC rules and any customer who wishes to be removed from any form of marketing is removed upon request, for certain forms of marketing, in particular electronic marketing, customers must opt in to this in order to receive any communication from us.
We do not therefore have any plans at this point in setting up a dedicated telephone number for customers to call to opt out.

kind regards

so, I think we should move ahead - fair warning tho, I'm really busy for the next couple of months, so if someone else wants to take the reins, be my guest.

KoolKid

The hosting is set up. I am kinda busy also.
Anyone want to make a start on it PM me.

KoolKid

2 More letters from them this week.:mad:
Anyone have the time to make a start on this?
Maybe that social group would be a good place to start.
Please post here to show your interest.
Domain & hosting set up.

parsi

koolkid wrote: »

2 More letters from them this week.:mad:
.

I got back an email from them which informed me that the recent run of mails was based on a list pulled at the end of april and thus before the date on which I had been removed.

So it's a case of seeing do we get anything next month..