You will not believe what happened to me yesterday.
I saw the guy distributing these through the neighborhood, and thought, “Sweet, I can just tell him I don’t want one and reduce waste.”
Nope.
He literally told me that he HAD to put one on MY doorstep. Not kidding. Even though me, the homeowner, verbally and directly expressed the desire to NOT receive these items, IN PERSON TO THE PERSON DELIVERING THEM. I was speechless. I should have told him to get off my property ASAP and tell AT&T tough beans but I didn’t want to scare my toddler.
I asked him if he could repeat what he just said to my camera. He declined for fear of getting in trouble with his employer.
So, big fail AT&T.
Phone books should be opt-in, not opt-out.
And P.S. Pretty sure I opted out last year. Guess you didn’t get the memo.
UPDATE, 1/31/13:
OHMYFREAKINGGOSH people, guess what was on my doorstep today?!
As per my FB post: ”Not even kidding. I just chased down the kidnapper van that dropped this off at my house to give it BACK to them. Y’all remember my rant last year, right? This makes two years in a ROW (at least) that I’ve opted out and yet, here we are again.” I am just beyond flabbergasted.
Thanks for this tip! Do you know how to opt out of receiving local newspapers?
Unfortunately, the only way I know to do it is to call them directly. That still doesn’t work though. I have called at LEAST 4 times to get them to stop littering in my yard. I am cooking up some ideas. Like saving up the papers and dumping them on the lawn of the Capitol so they pass a bill to make it illegal to just dump stuff in people’s yards.
You are one tough cookie! I can just picture you standing at your doorstep telling them get away. Now. And I would do the same thing–pulling out the camera and telling them to repeat themselves for the world to hear. Poor fellow is probably scared to death now.
Ha, thanks Desiree. He was a nice guy and just trying to do his job, but for pete’s sake!
I HATE when those arrive! First thing I do is ditch it in my recycling bin. I’ll have to call that number!
I have a feeling they are getting many calls/cancel requests this year!
Good for you. I have never had luck in stopping these. In San Francisco you have to opt-in to receive them. Sounds like a program I could get behind.
Sounds like San Fran is way more ahead of the game than we are in terms of these wastebooks.
I know exactly how you must have felt. I opted out of receiving phone books as well, but came home to find new phone books sitting on my front step. What a waste of trees. I don’t use phone books, and I am sure most people don’t either because they use the internet. Now I have to waste my time and gas in my car to take them to be recycled!
Looks like the unsubscribe requests sent last year by many were ignored. Hello mr. or mrs. investigative reporter, possible story here. xo