I admit I was the SC - But you are BUSTED!!

[Lace Neil Singer]

I don't mind having a Yellow Pages around, in case I need to look up something important, but there's no point whatsoever in me having any other phone book as all the numbers I'll need are on my mobile or on my computer. When any get delivered I just sling them in recycling.

[jedifarfy]

We have 2 or 3 sitting on our porch still in their bags. We have 2 computers in the house, why do we need this massive book?! One day they'll end up in the recycling bin. :P

JF

[Becks]

I really wish they'd stop delivering phone books and the two free local papers to my house.

I really have no need for them.

[Gabrielle Proctor]

We recieved a call for "the homeowner" at dinner time. I was about 12 years old at the time and asked them what the call was regarding. They told me that this matter was for the homeowner only. I asked them if it was really that important or if it was a sales call. They still wouldn't say.

Finally, I got fed up with them. I told them that I would hand the phone to my dad, but I hoped they wouldn't be suprised when he cursed them out. They hung up.

I wasn't trying to be rude, I was trying to save them some grief! My dad hates telemarketers and he doesn't care whose feelings he hurts!

[chops]

We have 2 or 3 sitting on our porch still in their bags. We have 2 computers in the house, why do we need this massive book?! One day they'll end up in the recycling bin. :P

JF

Sometimes I find it easier to just break out the book than look it up online. Plus, a lot of Yellow Pages these days have a comprehensive restaurant section with complete menus all in one place...very helpful.

The other major disadvantage of online yellow pages is those national ads that get worked in amongst the local listings. Often times they're completely unhelpful.

This, I'm sure, will change with time as the market dictates.

[Primer]

I live about 30 miles outside a major metropolitan area. I do receive the small, local phone book, but I really DO want the <city> books. I usually end up snagging them from work and bringing them home.

On the rare occasion that we do get the <city> directory, we get only the yellow pages, when I really also want the white pages. Ergo, I swipe those from work, too. No, I don't feel bad about bringing them home from work. They drop the pallet outside the mailroom, and they ALWAYS have extras left over at the end of the year. So it's not like I'm depriving somebody else of their books.

[PepperElf]

junk mail solution....

it won't stop the phonebooks (o man those are annoying when you go to throw them out...bulky and junky) but it will work for junkmail.

it won't be free but... have your mail forwarded to a post office box.
They don't forward junk mail.

[conanismyidol]

This has little to do with exact post, but it involves unwanted calls, like other people have posted about. I'm in my early 20's and the military (all branches) kept calling me trying to recruit me. They wouldn't take no for an answer, even though I told them I was enrolled in college and had a job, etc.
So finally I thought up something that would work... they asked me if I was interested in joining the Army and I said "Only if my girlfriend can join"... and I'm female (i'm not gay, but I know how the military feels about gay people)... they said "Oooh..." and hung up. I haven't received any calls from them since then... and it's been over a year. lol

[Seshat]

Apparently "no junk mail" signs aren't legally binding.

Or so I've been told, both when I used to deliver junk mail (I obeyed the signs and got told off for it!)

My mother used to manage an area for a junk mail company. The company was firmly against their distributors putting junk mail in letterboxes with a 'no junk mail' sign, and I honored that whenever I saw one - except for one case.

The government had us distribute a drugs booklet - one of those 'what parents need to know' things that was incredibly short of detail and long on rhetoric. We were strictly told to ignore 'no junk mail' signs for that one. Boy did I get some dirty looks on that trip.

And the damn booklet had sharp edges - and irritating ink. I got so many paper cuts for that one, and the ink hurt them.

[Lace Neil Singer]

I once had this catalogue delivered to me, regardless of the fact that I'd ordered no such catalogue. Countless times, I called up the number printed on the accompanying letter and asked them to take my address and name off the mailing list. The girl said she would... and the next week, the catalogue arrived. -.-

Eventually, I snapped. I picked up all the ones I could find, put them in a padded envelope with a bit of gravel and a few stones, and addressed the envelope to the company but without stamps. I sent it back to them and from that day on never received another catalogue.

[TryNotToBeThatOne]

My thoughts on junk mail in the mailbox, unwanted phonebooks, etc.

1) it is illegal (in the US) for anyone other than a mail carrier to put anything in your mailbox. And I don't mean misdemeanor. Does the word 'felony' ring a bell?
2) My laptop died. So I'm finally glad that I have a phone book.
3) but I still don't need 5 of them
4) Our recycling company won't take them with the other recycling. You have to take them to special (read about 1 per county it seems like) recycling centers
5) that useless weekly 'sales' paper, conveniently left near our recycling bin. It requires only the effort to pick it up & drop it in. Voila. Nuisance gone (for me).

[Terry]

Apparently "no junk mail" signs aren't legally binding.

Or so I've been told, both when I used to deliver junk mail (I obeyed the signs and got told off for it!) and by someobdy I caught putting junk mail in my aunt's mailbox (when I was house-sitting for her)

Junk mail is still mail. The mail person, legally, still has to deliver it, otherwise, they have commited a felony.

[aurelemsrealm]

As for phone books, they don't bother me. I figure it's got a lot of useful information I may need someday down the road. So, I just put them on the bookshelf with my other reference books until the newer phonebooks come. Then, I pitch them.

As for junk mail, I just mark it "Return to Sender! Recipient does not reside at this address!" in black marker. Then, I put it with all my outgoing mail for the next trip to the mailbox or post office. That has reduced some of the unsolicited credit card offers. My dad likes to deface junk mail literature and use their SASEs when enclosed to return nasty notes, which I will do if it keeps happening after a few of the return to sender messages. What's fun is to run the literature through the shredder, and use the SASE to return it to them. I also seem to get tons of junk mail for the previous tenants.

Free papers, I skim through them for any items of interest, but usually end up pitching them in the outdoor trash can on the way back inside.

[Emrld]

If the item does not have an adress on it (in otherwords given to postal worker to place in every box - some of the add mailers are done this way) or it has the phrase "or current resident" on it. Then asking for it to be returned won't work.

Locally we had a man who collected the junk mail and marked it return to sender - took a month or two worth to the post office - they delivered it back to him.

I recognize that the post office has to make money and with cell phones and internet making long distance no big deal, add in auto payment . . .there is a drop in postal usage . . .they don't really have the ground to stand up to those willing to give them money.

I have a friend that placed a trash can on her porch under her mounted mail box . . .labeled it junk mail. For about 3 years she had a great postal delivery person that would sort for her . . .junk went in the trash, the rest in her box (yes, they were acknowledged every holiday) Then the delivery person retired and the new one won't do it . . .places it all in the box. (they are not acknowledged at the holiday, basically you do the bear minimum for your full paying job - no extra for you at the holiday)

[Fire_on_High]

The net goes down, DNS won't resolve for a time, or power goes out...you have no phone book, now what?

I'll take a phone book please, if nothing else I'm a lot less likely to lose it in clutter than a paper with the ISP's number and the electric company's report an outage line on it.

Plus they're great for leveling out the cheap tiny spare monitors I tend to have floating around en masse when one of the real ones goes to the junk heap in the sky....14" by itself sits one phone book lower than a 15" and 2-3 than a 17", if anyone was curious :-)

(and before someone says it...yes. I have a normal corded phone for power outages as well)