Thursday, January 13, 2011

Good 'ol Snail Mail Issues

In the wake of all the telemarketing and Internet spam complaints we hear about lately, I think we've lost sight of one good old fashioned pain in the ass: junk mail. Lately I've been drowning in it.

Recently, Asurion (the phone insurance partner of T-Mobile) has ass-uredly crossed into the realm of the ultimate boneheaded company. Aside from the T-Mobile rep signing my daughter's phone up without her permission, Asurion has been stuffing our mailbox with a steady torrent of welcome letter packages. Not just 1 but 6-10 DAILY for over a month. I contacted them after the Thanksgiving holiday about this problem. After 3 transfers and redial to the ultimate responsible dept, I complained to a representative who assured me the problem would be fixed. It wasn't. With the holiday mailing season, Asurion's collective brainfart, our mail carrier's devil-may care delivery schedule (she's like Newman, she doesn't believe in creeds) and the recent snow problem, all my mail has been backed up. I'm now fortunate to receive all the backed up mail from December a day at a time. A few days ago I called and gave them an earful and they obviously knew about the problem and said the "glitch" was fixed just last week (that would be the first week of January). Given that I have received 6-10 pieces daily up until Dec 22. I may have as much as 6-10x6x2=72-120 pieces of mail coming before the paperworks shuts off. Fun.

Mailing lists. Remember them? They are much harder to prevent and get off of. Plus getting your post office not to deliver is a bit more involved then a click on your spam filter. By some inexplicable means, my wife has gotten on an expectant mother mailing list. (FYI - we are both about 50 with a college student daughter). It started with Babies-R-Us discount postcards. Then various mail with the baby-centric theme. Then Baby-Talk magazine. After the second came, I sent them an email to stop the unwanted magazines. I think the effort just initiated a form of junkmail virus cell division as we then started receiving American Baby magazine - 2 at a time. The next day, a UPS package of Similac formula. 2 16 oz jugs.

With all the fighting I have done over the years to fight & right dumbassed wrongs over customer service issues, I'm really losing my oomph for engaging in new mindless battles. I have enough to worry about.

What do you think?

*update Thu, 1/13/11 6pm.

8 Assurion letters received today. All dated Dec 13th

The letters



The pamphlets



So perty. Can't wait til tomorrow...