OK, some time on the weekend someone broke the brick wall which supports our letterbox. It wasn’t us. But given the poor behaviour of the junk mail merchants, who could blame us?
Despite the presence of a “No Junk Mail” sticker and the more recent addition of Marrickville council’s own “No Advertising Material” sticker, advertisers continue to shove their things into our box. So I’ve decided to name and shame.
This week’s advertisers who failed to follow this basic piece of etiquette are: Cavellis Woodfire Pizzeria; Cut & Save Tree Service; David Jones; Domino’s Pizza; Go Green Insulation; Kmart; MiniMovers; Papaya Thai Eatery; Raine & Horne Marrickville.
Now I do know that in Australia these stickers have no legal force — unlike online, where the Spam Act 2003 provides stricter rules. But if someone communicates a polite request not to receive a catalog, and the first thing you do is give them the catalog anyway… well, is that really a good marketing message?
I’ve also noticed over time that real estate agents are particularly prominent in our junk mail. What is it about these overpaid pricks?
I’ll be inviting each of these advertisers to respond.
[Update 9.15am: Missed one: Marrickville Metro (AMP Capital Shopping Centres). They’re another company that’s big enough to know better.]
I had a year-long running battle with the local real estate advertising journal, aka the ‘local newspaper’ in my area because for a while they insisted on delivering it repeatedly, sometimes by stuffing an enormous newspaper wrapped in plastic in my mail slot thus blocking for actual use by the postie. Sometimes multiple times too — we’re on a corner block I think we get two deliverers! And walking down the road on the way to work you’d see these things littered all the way down the footpath or rotting under hedges and stuff. As Simon Rumble says, it’s straight up litter.
I haven’t seen one for ages though, after repeated calls to their number and email complaints over the course of a full year. But then, I don’t see them in the street either anymore so hopefully they’ve gone out of business.
I was standing out the front a few weeks ago and I saw a junk mail delivery person notice I had a No junk mail note and diverted me, and it wasn’t because I was holding my Star Wars blaster gun. I have noted an 80% reduction of junk mail since placing the label on, so it does work. But Real Estate agents are the worst, followed by roof insulation companies (now with the government rebate scheme). We have 15 real estate companies serving our “zone” which is a little over the top.
I don’t know if you ever got this sorted out but if it is still a problem, contact the Distribution Standards Board – http://www.catalogue.asn.au/distribution/
In a previous life, I worked closely with them on a particular issue of *cough*Government priority*cough* in the last desperate days before the 2007 election. The DSB is a self-regulating industry body, I will admit. However, they’re genuinely not interested in having junk mail shoved into “No Junk Mail” letter boxes for precisely this reason – people get irate and threaten to boycott the products of their clients. I have seen first hand positive outcomes from people lodging complaints with them.
Walkers work under a “two strikes and you’re out” policy so I would be interested to see if your junk mail situation has improved.
@Scot Mcphee: I have always wondered why so many house have letter boxes whose slots are too small even for a standard business-sized (DL) envelope — let alone a B4 or C4 document envelope or the local newspaper. Was the world really so much smaller in the past?
@Shane: Thanks for the heads-up on the Distribution Standards Board. I’ll be in touch with them for surely.
I was going to update this post tomorrow anyway but, in brief, there was a significant drop-off of material immediately after David Jones’ distributor, PMP Limited, chastised their walker. But there’s still plenty coming through.
I’m particularly unimpressed with Domino’s Pizza, who didn’t even respond to my email enquiry, let alone cease spamming me. They’ll get a hasher complaint tomorrow.
I’m closing comments on this post. Continue the conversation over at the follow-up post.