So, three and a half months after “closing” my account with Vistaprint (see Vistaprint sucks for details) guess what I got in the postal mail today? Junk mail from some loser motivation speaker series addressed to me with my tagged postal address. I always give a unique shipping address to companies I order stuff from. Then when they violate their privacy policy, I have proof. That’s so cynical of me that I have to assume that companies will violate my privacy that I have to do such things. But it’s not like anyone ever gets in trouble for not following their privacy policies.

So I visited Vistaprint, and tried to log into my account, the one that was closed. I spent a good amount of time with a Vistaprint customer service representative back in April, and told him to close my account. Well that really worked. I guess I now need to worry about my address getting further sold. The privacy policy for the motivational speakers says they will market the information they collect. I now get to file a Form 1500 on them.

I’ve now emailed Vistaprint and submitted my request that they close my account. Tomorrow I’ll be mailing them the request. Of course, at this point, I doubt they will really do anything.

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In Verizon needs to stop jerking me around Derek pegs why junk mail sucks. And a bonus, he pegs why Verizon sucks.

Just yesterday my office’s T1 line went down. I call the helpful UUNet number to discover Verizon owns UUNET, or MCI, or whoever the heck it is. I have more important things to do than keep up with the name of the company currently providing service to the service I have had for over 5 years now. It used to be when the line went down (which was rare) I’d call the 800 #, a technician would answer the phone, he could ping my router, and if the ping didn’t work, tada, a ticket was opened.

Now how does Verizon handle the same problem, my T1 is down? The phone is answered by a “customer service representative.” She isn’t helpful. Friendly, but not helpful. She takes down my trouble description. And enters it into some computer. Then an engineer will look at the problem to see if it really is down. Then they will start working on it. I should expect a call back in about an hour. Yes, an hour. Totally unacceptable. It actually took about 90 minutes before I got a callback. Luckily it was fixed by that point. Tough, on Monday I start searching for a new broadband provider.

And yes, the 800# first thing says to try to get help on their web site. The same thing they say when I called in about my DSL being down a few months ago. I hate systems that are created by someone that doesn’t use the system.

At work yesterday I received a glossy advertisement from Microsoft touting their new adCenter. Beyond the irony of using postal junk mail to advertise an online advertising platform is the irony of the opt-out method for stopping this junk in the future.

If you prefer not to receive future promotional mailings of this type from Microsoft, please send this mailing back to the sender with the following text visible to the recipient: “return to sender” and “unsubscribe me from your list.” We will promptly update your contact preferences; however, please be aware you may still receive previously initiated promotional communications.

The sender? That would be “Microsoft adCenter.” The nice letter was signed by a Corporate Vice President, Joanne Bradford, should I mail my note to her?

Why can’t they simply set up a web page somewhere at microsoft.com to allow me to opt-out? There is already a unique code on the inside of the mailing, which is also on my address label printed on the envelope. I’m so sure that MS has a staff of people waiting to go through dozens of opt-out requests. Or they could hire one programmer (I’m sure they have some out there somewhere that aren’t busy screwing up Vista and Office 200x) to spend a couple days to integrate their address label system with an opt-out system.

I just started a personal subscription to MacWorld. And got my first issue the same day I got junk mail from MacWorld selling my address info. How do I know they sold my info? Simple, I gave them a tagged mailing address. Their opt out information is at BuySub.com.

They also helpfuly tell you to opt-out with the Direct Marketing Association to help reduce your junk mail. Why don’t they do everyone a favor and simply respect people’s privacy and NOT SHARE SUBSCRIPTION INFORMATION? My opinion of MacWorld has gone down slightly, although my opinion is slightly helped by them providing opt-out information fairly easily.

I just got some junk mail from the University of Phoenix. It was sent to me at work, with one the web sites I manage as the company name on the address label. Wow, I am so excited! I can now get my Bachelor’s degree. Wow! I guess my Masters Degree doesn’t count for anything. What a lame company, to manualy scrape web sites looking for recruits, and totally ignoring the facts that were right in front of them. Idiots. Everyone raise your hands if you got your degree through a school you learned about through junk mail.

I just prepared six more applications against junk mailers, mostly local. It is quite annoying that all commercial mailers do not include a return mailing address. I do a google search, but some businesses can’t be found online. So I call the phone number given, and they don’t have any useful info on there, they just want you to leave your contact info so they can get back in touch with you. Yeah, I’m so sure I’ll leave you my information.

I also emailed one of these companies to get their address. Their web host is so screwed up, their email bounced with relay errors. you have got to love junk mailers, they are so close to the competence levels of spammers. Maybe a junk mailer bred with another junk mailer to give us spammers?

The Post Office though will give me the mailing address of the Bulk Permit owner. But it will cost me $4.40. Let me get this straight: First I have to get this garbage in my mailbox. Then I have to pay the USPS to get the address to complain about. Then I have to pay postage to mail the forms into the Post Office.

I just realized my Form 1500 application for Valpak got ignored by the USPS as well. Luckily, their web site has an opt-out form: ValPak Opt-Out.

And then I discovered as I was filling in the opt-out form, the USPS gave me someone else’s mail! That must be against the law! I hope no one is getting my mail.

Isn’t it amazing that of the five (5!) Applications for Prohibitory Order that I’ve filed against Comcast Cable, that none of them have even been acknowledged by the USPS? I guess when I file the next one, I need to send it with a Return Receipt requested, so I will know that the Processing Center has received the application.

And isn’t it amazing that Comcast sends their spew from mailing addresses all across the country?

AT&T slammed me a few months ago. I made the huge mistake of giving them my street address when I called their slamming resolution center. I am now gettings tons of junk mail addressed to me as a “former AT&T customer.” Now I know if I ever get slammed, don’t give my mailing address to the phone company.

Luckily, I was able to get a prohibitory order againt AT&T from sending me more of their garbage.

My old junk mail page is a bit out of date. I’ll start keeping it up to date via my journal entries.