Hey, remember phone books? Those huge, alphabetical tomes that listed the telephone number of everybody in a particular area, one-by-one. And then there were “yellow pages” (so called because of the color the paper used) that were business listings indexed by business type. Yeah, kids, that’s the way they did it before the Internet.
What, they still deliver phone books? Seriously? To people who don’t even want them? And businesses actually pay to have advertisements in the yellow pages when they know most people walk their phone books right to the recycling bin? That’s crazy!
How frustrating it must be for the conscientious Wallingfordite, who carefully tears up pieces one-sided letters to re-use as scrap paper, to have these thousand page unwanted books dumped on their doorstep. And to know that it costs our cash-strapped city $350,000 a year to recycle them? They oughta pass a law.
What, Seattle is the first city in the country to pass a law requiring the phone book companies to allow you to opt-out of receiving them? And the new web site launched last week? Well, what’s the URL?
>> http://seattle.catalogchoice.org/ <<
Get on it quick, though. We just opted out of 7 different phone books, and they noted that due to June print dates, you must opt out by May 16th to escape 2011 phone book delivery.
(5/16: Corrected opt out deadline date. It is May 16th, not May 17th.)
Just an interesting bit of trivia. The paper for the Yellow Pages is not yellow, but is printed yellow with ink. I used to work for Verizon Superpages, creating display ads, so I know.
Side note, my house is not gray, it is actually made of wood. It is just painted gray. I know because I painted it myself.
I am frustratingly unable to unsubscribe from the “Savings Source, a supplement of the Seattle Times Company” junk mail… I can’t find an “unsubscribe” option anywhere on their website, when I call the phone number listed on the paper it goes straight to a voicemail. And it turns out it doesn’t exist in Catalog Choice. Has anyone had any success getting this one to stop?
Hi Kellie, I was successful. I called and left voicemail, no response. Then when they littered my sidewalk with it again, I called again, left voicemail that said I was from Wallyhood and left it ambiguous whether I was a potential advertiser. They called back. I told them to stop delivering to me and if they were going to deliver to my block, they needed to get the fliers into the mailbox, not leave them on the sidewalk, where they would remain for weeks. They agreed and haven’t delivered to my street since.
Where do you live? I’d be happy to help.
The truth is, even though I’m just a resident and not the manager, if I could I’d unsubscribe my entire apartment *building* from all of these catalogs. Judging from the recycle bin next to the mailboxes, which is crammed full of them and overflowing every time another one shows up that day, nobody here wants these. I think I might just start calling the numbers on all of them, till I get a human on the phone, and trying to remove the entire building.
Thanks for the tip, Wallyhood.
Kudos to Seattle City Councilmember Mike O’Brien for getting this done.
How about an opt in instead of an opt out? After several minutes of trying, I am still not sure whether I am off their list or not. It was not a particularly user friendly system.
Agreed w/ Michael, the user experience of the opt-out site sucks. If it didn’t end with a checklist of a half-dozen or so directories stating that you’ve successfully opted out before their next deadline, you haven’t completed the process.