Do Not Call List? We Need a “Do Not Mail” List

It’s not perfect, but the Do Not Call list in both the U.S. and Canada is helping to end the constant, dinnertime interruptions from telemarketers.

Now it’s time to move to the next level.    North Americans are inundated with junk mail.   It’s an environmental disgrace, and there ought to be restrictions as to the size and frequency of flyers, brochures and circulars.

But addressed junk mail is a greater problem, because it is a more expensive form of marketing.    Those marketing costs are then passed on to the consumer.

In Canada, the chief offender is Bell Canada.    Because they have a huge customer base, they can simply pass those costs on to its customers.   They may lose customers, but because it’s a utility, customers aren’t going to stop buying the service from someone. In a way, it’s like a tax, a tax burden that especially affects the poor.

Basically, Bell Canada can do anything it damn well pleases. Where we live, that means getting at least one mailing piece advertising satellite, internet, mobile phone and land line phone — plus various combinations of same — approximately every 3-4 days that there is mail delivered.    Some weeks we get more, and some days we get more than one mailing piece from them.

All of this driving up the costs of phone service, as well as costs to other phone service providers who receive wholesale services from Bell’s networks.

This has got to stop. You need to tell them, mark “return to sender” on their mailing pieces, and stop buying their products. For the sake of the environment. For the sake of the poor, who are bearing the indirect marketing costs. For the sake of people who already have enough to deal with in their daily mail delivery. For the sake of common sense.