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I get all bills online, file taxes online as well, property taxes are easy enough to obtain through website and pay online. Just fail to see why we are not moving forward, by letting those of us, who choose not to be in the mail system opt out.
Maybe the postal service can require that you leave an email address as a forwarding address.
Perhaps.
My husband and I just received jury duty notices in the mail. It's against the law not to show up for jury duty...so to those who may be tempted to "opt out" or just throw everything away might want to consider that sort of thing. In some cases the bailiff (or the police) will actually come find you, drag you out of bed, whatever, and make you appear - along with fining you or making you do community service for not showing up to begin with.
We do get a lot of junk mail, and I am no big fan of the rather inept postal system we have (locally it's a joke - constantly misdelivering mail, not implementing holds, GIVING HELD MAIL TO SOMEONE ELSE, etc), but we aren't at the point yet where snail mail is obsolete.
At my first place back in "the day" (about 20 years ago), I ended up getting a phone number that apparently had belonged to a bagel shop which had gone out of business. I would get calls at the crack of dawn from people wanting to order bagels. After I would explain that the place went out of business and I had the misfortune of inheriting their phone number, half of them would call back. Some of them would end up cursing at me or arguing about it. It got to the point I would start taking orders.
Now to get back on topic, which is the reason for bumping this old thread...
I ended up here after doing a search in regards to dealing with mail still coming for the previous owner of my house. I've been here just over a year, so the mail-forwarding period has ended. I am now starting to get mail for the previous owner.
Even when mail-forwarding was in effect, I still got stuff that looked important - insurance renewal documents, etc. I was not given a new address for the previous owner, so I've written "no longer at this address, no forwarding address available, return to sender" on everything that slipped by the mail-forwarding.
The previous owner did me no favors, believe me. That being said, I honestly I have zero motivation to do anything "above and beyond" in regards to this issue. So, I think I am going to just continue as I have been. I did like the idea of using pre-printed labels. I can run a batch through my laser printer and be done with it. Maybe if I see my mail-carrier I'll explain the situation and see what she tells me, or I'll go over to the post office myself.
First I change my number. Seconds mark all mail no such person lives at this address and pin to mailbox for pickup. Otherwise live with it.
I've had a cell phone, oh 8 or 10 years now, and whoever had the number prior must have owed money to every credit card company, MD utility and department store there was. I got collection calls for her for years. They stopped 3 or 4 years ago but have recently resumed. Apparently she still uses the number on applications sometimes.
How would you like to be getting calls on your home phone from a BUSINESS that had your phone number 2.5 years ago?
The phone number belonged to a boat business and we moved here in winter so didn't get any boat calls until about April. From then on--5-10 calls a day! We tracked down the business, which has move out of state but they were no help. At least we had their new phone number to give to the callers.
Now, 2.5 years later, it's just a few customers and is mostly Google. The business owner has cooperated, at last, and has told Google that WE are not HIM but Google is like an octopus with branches all over the places. Google Places, Google Maps, Google Everything Else.
When we complained to the phone company back when we were at 5-10 calls a day, all they could say was that they ran out of phone numbers. They could change our number--well, by that time we had already given out our number and didn't want it changed. You would think something could have been done. Mostly I don't think a phone company should be handing out new phone numbers from businesses until there has been a waiting period of at least a year.
I've had a cell phone, oh 8 or 10 years now, and whoever had the number prior must have owed money to every credit card company, MD utility and department store there was. I got collection calls for her for years. They stopped 3 or 4 years ago but have recently resumed. Apparently she still uses the number on applications sometimes.
Quote:
Originally Posted by in_newengland
How would you like to be getting calls on your home phone from a BUSINESS that had your phone number 2.5 years ago?
The phone number belonged to a boat business and we moved here in winter so didn't get any boat calls until about April. From then on--5-10 calls a day! We tracked down the business, which has move out of state but they were no help. At least we had their new phone number to give to the callers.
Now, 2.5 years later, it's just a few customers and is mostly Google. The business owner has cooperated, at last, and has told Google that WE are not HIM but Google is like an octopus with branches all over the places. Google Places, Google Maps, Google Everything Else.
When we complained to the phone company back when we were at 5-10 calls a day, all they could say was that they ran out of phone numbers. They could change our number--well, by that time we had already given out our number and didn't want it changed. You would think something could have been done. Mostly I don't think a phone company should be handing out new phone numbers from businesses until there has been a waiting period of at least a year.
I can relate... I had the same problem with bill collectors calling my current home phone number that we got last year when we moved here. Apparently, they were looking for the person who had the number before I did. Of course, these calls didn't start until after I had given the number out to everyone under the sun, so I wasn't about to change it either.
We were getting about 5-6 calls a day, generally after 5PM. Occasionally, I'd get them right at 8AM. Once I quickly realized this wasn't a case of someone dialing the wrong number, I would take the time to explain the situation. Pretty much every time the caller would apologize and tell me they would update their records and remove my number from the list. The number of calls declined, but we still were getting calls every day. I then found out my wife was just telling these callers that they had the wrong number. Once I got her onboard with explaining that this was our phone number, we just moved here, and didn't know who this person is - the number of calls dropped even more. We'd still get a few calls a week. But after I ported our phone number to Ooma last month, their community blacklist seems to have stopped it all.
I have a new wrinkle in my mail situation. Yesterday, I got a piece of junkmail addressed to a company I didn't recognize. My address was on it, so it wasn't a misdelivery. But, I did recognize the person's name that was listed in addition to the company name. It's the original owner of my house (previous research taught me he was also the builder).
My house was built in 1985, used as the personal home by the builder, and then was sold in 1991 to the person I purchased it from last year.
Apparently, the original owner owned multiple companies. His construction company is still active, but they have relocated to another part of the state. The other company listed on this piece of mail I has apparently been defunct since the 90's. An online search generates some hits, with my home address listed as the company headquarters.
An online search generates some hits, with my home address listed as the company headquarters.
I'm glad somebody else can relate. Once the address and phone number get on the internet it seems that they are there forever. Just the other day we had a call from an accountant who wanted to speak with "the business owner." Sometimes we feel like screaming "We are NOT a business!!!!!!"
Even when we are nice, which we usually are, the callers will sometimes swear at us and hang up on us. I mean, we MUST know where "Mark" is and we are just hiding him. Sure. Oh--and the FCC was no help at all. Neither was the Do Not Call List.
My mother-in-law, from whom we are renting from, has long since moved to North Carolina and all the mail from the city and the state regarding the house and what not, same case with my brother-in-law who moves more than a nomad. One mail man told me to put a note in the mail box stating all mail to so, and so forward to this address.
I'm going to hijack this thread now...I get mail for my father, but with our address...so his name and our address
An online search generates some hits, with my home address listed as the company headquarters.
I'm glad somebody else can relate. Once the address and phone number get on the internet it seems that they are there forever. Just the other day we had a call from an accountant who wanted to speak with "the business owner." Sometimes we feel like screaming "We are NOT a business!!!!!!"
Even when we are nice, which we usually are, the callers will sometimes swear at us and hang up on us. I mean, we MUST know where "Mark" is and we are just hiding him. Sure. Oh--and the FCC was no help at all. Neither was the Do Not Call List.
Oh yeah. I think these bill collectors were assuming my wife was this "Susan" person they kept calling about.
Take the mail to the Post Office. Bring proof that you are the resident of that address (lease,deed). the PO will create a document stopping all mail for that person. It may take a few days to go into effect since it has to be forwarded to the Postmaster General. It should stop it for at least a year. Will it stop it forever, I dought it? I get mail for someone once in awhile who hasnt lived here in twenty years. I get mail for my mother who never lived here. Its all junk mail and place it back in my box as return to sender. Why are we still getting their mail you may ask? Because someone out there is selling outdated mailing lists at a discount. And you know how people react when they think they are getting a deal.
is there a form in usps.com for that so you can do it online? I can't find it.
I guess you have to do that in person?
now this is a separate issue. I went to some casinos and restaurants with my neighbor, few weeks later I am getting junk mail from those casinos and restaurants. (I think my neighbor signed me up without asking me because I never got anything from those places and I have been here for awhile. I commented that I enjoyed the casinos and restaurants but they can't just sign me up without asking me. Now I am getting junk mail from malls, newspaper that I didn't order, and other stores......annoying, isn't it illegal or some kind of offense to do that.
This thread is hilarious. I'm now terrified to open my mailbox for fear that someone else's mail might have accidentally landed in it.
Thing is, when I read the title of the thread I thought the author had been getting letters, etc. from the previous owner. I had this image in my head of the previous homeowner unable to "let go" and writing to ask for updates on how the front hedge is growing, or whether the water heater is still making that weird noise. It would later escalate to pleas not to re-paint the shutters, or even stalker-ish notes threatening them into not pulling down the back fence or face the consequences.
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Just the other day we had a call from an accountant who wanted to speak with "the business owner." Sometimes we feel like screaming "We are NOT a business!!!!!!" 
