The Junk Mail Man (an informal ombudsman)

[rkhff]

This is an old idea that never materialised. I'm adding it here in the hope that something will come of it some day.

The Junk Mail Man is an informal ombudsman dealing with junk mail issues. It should probably be called the Junk Mail Men (plural) as it's intended to be a platform where consumer groups and junk mailers can work together on raising standards in the junk mail industry.

This is, I'm convinced, something that's very much needed. Junk mail is by and large unregulated. If you have a complaint about a company ignoring your 'No Junk Mail' sign or if the publisher of a free newspaper refuses to skip your letterbox you're buggered. If you're angry because the Yellow Pages has yet again ignored the fact that you've opted out of receiving the book there's nowhere you can go with your complaint.

An informal ombudsman would try to resolve such issues in a reasonable way. It wouldn't have any enforcement powers (apart, perhaps, from 'naming and shaming') but it would be able identify (and quantify) issues and make suggestions for things that could be improved.

Put simply, the Junk Mail Man wouldn't just _talk_ about raising standards (we got the Direct Marketing Association for that) it would actually _work_ on making improvements. The difficulty, of course, is that it can only work if there are companies within the industry willing to get on board…

[West Field]

Well I'm in, not that it's a suprise to you..... however this is a
great idea and may just be the middle man (person) we are all looking
for, at last someone we can turn to to advocate our complaints and
comunicate with the companies as an Offical body, as opposed to just
me calling on my own.

All we need now is someone to be enthusiastic enough on the subject to
get the wheels in motion

[Stratus]

I found you while trying to figure out how to get the GREEN PARTY of all people to stop sending me junk mail.  I would at least like them to admit to seeing the irony.

  many of our local flyer deliverers ignore our no junk mail sign,  so I just bought a bigger one -  and I didn't even know about the post office door-to-door thing -  I'll be signing up for that soon enough.   I fill a big blue Camden Councel Recyling bag full of junk mail nearly every 2 months.. and that's with the sign.  <sigh>  

 

[rkhff]

@West Field - I had a think about how the Junk Mail Man could be established. The problem is that several people would need to be involved; representatives of the industry as well as consumer groups. I can't see this happening. In particular the junk mail industry is likely to be very reluctant to discuss for instance unaddressed mail; the reason why this type of junk mail is almost completely unregulated is because that's an ideal state of affairs for the industry.

The alternative may be to force the Junk Mail Man upon both the industry and consumer groups. When someone raises an issue about, say, political leaflets from the Green Party, the Junk Mail Man (which would be me, I guess) could contact the DMA, all the main political parties, and Consumer Focus to explain the issue and ask them for their views on how the issue should be dealt with. This would all be done in public so that anyone with access to the W3 would be able to find out about the issue and see what different parties have to say about it. If anybody doesn't respond this would also be published (i.e. 'The DMA doesn't have anything to say on the issue'). Members of the public would of course also be allowed to have their say.

Not going to happen anytime soon (my time is very limited at the moment) but any thoughts would be welcome...

@Stratus - The irony has been noted by the Financial Times: http://blogs.ft.com/westminster/2010/04/our-junk-mail-isnt-junk-mail/.

It's a topic that would be perfect for the Junk Mail Man. Political leaflets and 'No Junk Mail' is a perfect example of how industry self-regulation has failed. Different parties have different approaches, though most seem to be of the opinion that their junk mail isn't junk mail...

I have asked the DMA questions about this, and they take the view that if you sign up to the Your Choice Dummy Scheme (www.stopjunkmail.org.uk/guide/your_choice.php) and/or contact a political party directly (ideally by sending them an e-mail so that you have a record of your request) they should stop delivering leaflets to your address - with the exception of election leaflets (don't ask me why that's an exception). However, only if the Labs, Libs, and Cons ignore your request not to receive leaflets do you have the option of making a complaint to the DMA. This is because only the three main parties are members of the DMA - they don't have the power to do anything about leaflets you may receive from parties that are not a member of the junk mail lobby group. The DMA has no opinion on whether or not 'No Junk Mail' sign should stop leaflets. As far as the DMA is concerned such signs don't exist.

[West Field]

My sign often gets ignored as well, but if you are lucky enough -
(and bizzarely it has just this minute happened as I was typing this)
to catch them in the act, just give it back to them, the one that just
landed was some breakfast cereal promotion, the woman said its not
junk mail, I said it was beause A) I never asked for it and B) it
never either had my name or address on it.

She had no comment to those two statements and took the junk back.

As we are finding, what we call Junk Mail, they see as legitimate mail
- this is going to be a long drawn out battle it seems.