NTL junk mail

MOH

Is anyone else getting a ridiculous amount of junk mail from NTL?

I got a letter this morning addressed to our house, but with "The Householder" instead of a name, plugging NTL digital.

This is identical to the letter I got last week - it's even dated Aprill 11. I got another letter two or three weeks ago which was similar.

I mailed the online sales address given on the letter last week, and it obviously hasn't made a difference.

Does anyone know what the format is for e-mail addresses within NTL? Is it name.surname@ntl.ie? The letter is signed by an "Alan Briggs, Head of Sales", so my next stop is an e-mail to him.

nava

Hi

I haven't got any junk mail from them so far.

To contact I think the format is inial first name+last name @ntl.ie or @upc.ie abriggs@ntl.ie, abriggs@upc.ie, I know they had that in the website a few weeks ago but can't find it now.

jdivision

They're sending out two a week it seems at the moment. If you got to the Data Commissioners website I think you can fill in a form stating you don't want to receive junk mail.

nava

jdivision wrote:

If you got to the Data Commissioners website I think you can fill in a form stating you don't want to receive junk mail.

I think that only works if the post is address to you, in the case of MOH it comes to the house owner, etc.

I think you cna get a sticker that say that they do not want junk mail. Might be handy if you get lots of rubish.

Regards

mcaul

Just put it in the bin and you can also ask your postman / delivery office not to deliver unaddressed mail.

MOH

jdivision wrote:

They're sending out two a week it seems at the moment. If you got to the Data Commissioners website I think you can fill in a form stating you don't want to receive junk mail.

I thought that, but as nava said, it doesn't apply unless your name is on it - if it's just addressed to "the householder", or "the resident" they won't do anything.

Guess I could legally change my name to "the householder", then go after them ...

Sad Professor

UPC are desperate for new customers it seems. And I'm sad to say the quality of service they're offering to their existing customers is degrading as a result (as if it wasn't bad enough to begin with).

thos

From the Data Protection Commissioner:

Postal marketing

This is the traditional and oldest form of direct marketing. For mail received through your letter box to be considered to be direct marketing it must be addressed to a named person and must be promoting a product or service. Unaddressed mail put into your letter box or mail addressed to “the occupant”, “the resident” or “the householder” does not necessarily involve the use of personal data and consequently data protection legislation does not apply.

I get the same junk from NTL alright, it's annoying.

wyndham

Aye, getting it 2/3 times a week here, all addressed to the householder. Annoying indeed. The dog enjoys opening it though.

jimmy2shoes

got my weekly letter from chorus today. i've been receiving a letter a week for the past 10 months, all addressed to the householder. i rang them and asked about their broadband and digital tv, said i had a better deal with my current providers, and she agreed(she obviously wasn't donig her job right), asked to be taken off their mailing list and 4 days later received another letter from them. glad i have a recycling bin.

MOH

When I got the letter last week, I mailed the online sales address at the bottom of the page.

Hadn't checked that e-mail account in a few days before last night, but they actually got back to me a couple of days later.

They said they'd pass my details on to customer services, but that I should contact an post, because that's where they get the mailing lists from, and because I'd be better off trying to stop it "at source".

Now this is the only addressed junk mail of this kind that I'm getting (the rest is the usual ton of fast food menus, election blah, and charity collection bags). Plus I don't see how An Post are "the source" of NTL junk mail, they just delivering it.

So I forwarded their e-mail to this Alan Briggs character. I'll see if I get any
further response.

Slow Motion

MOH wrote:

They said they'd pass my details on to customer services, but that I should contact an post, because that's where they get the mailing lists from, and because I'd be better off trying to stop it "at source".

Emm This is bull$hit that is not where they get the mailing lists from they are generated inhouse from their own address database which is populated from an an post database once a year or so. So they were basically stringing you along. You should however contact customer services because on the account in their database there is a tab which can be ticked to say you don't want any unsolicited mail, and the CSR can do this at your request. You'ld never guess I used to work for them

jor el

I get the same crap from Chorus twice a week, advertising Chorus digital and Chorus broadband, neither of which is available at my address as my estate has no cable in it. All letters are addressed to The Householder. I opened a few with the intention of sending back the freepost envelope full of sand, but alas there was no envelope inside only a phone number to apply for their crappy non existent service.

Must check the next one for an email address and fire off a "please f**k off and stop annoying me with you stupid spam" email to them. I think I'd rather let them keep sending them though as it costs them money to post them but costs me nothing to throw them in the recycle bin.


Not the biggest fan of Chorus/UPC/NTL, if you couldn't guess

mackjohn

First sorry for lack of post over the years..

Rang NTL today 02/10/07 was talking to customer care girl, informed her that I have returned 4 letters over the last month addressed to "The Resident" to the PO Box321, Dublin 3. and asked her if she could remove the address from the database. Was told to apply in writing to "Niall McNally, NTL Communications Limited, Building p2, East Point Business Park, Dublin 3. when I aked her if this was a freepost address she informed me it was.. So I'm thinking of sending them a old Telephone Directory and asking them to remove my address.. I'm aware that the customer aka you will end up paying for this package to get delivered and the cost of your service may increase.. but on that ground if NTL didn't send out so much mail to me I wouldn't have to take the time or effort to remove my postal address from them.. If other people were to do this on a larger scale how long before the "shareholders" notice this.. i.e. 20-30 telephone directory's being delivered a day at the expense of NTL will make a small story in the newspaper. After all they will get recycled.

As a side note the cable that NTL use for the TV is so old in this area of Dublin that it can not support Broadband..

Kensington

I've been getting it aswell, each and every week since I ditched them about three months ago. Doesn't bother me too much, I just feck them straight in the green bin. And they can keep sending them as long as they like, nothing would ever want to make me move back to them.

MOH

I've actually been wondering lately - since the envelopes they send their crap to you in are freepost, if you were to steam open the envelope ,put your own post inside, and seal it again and post it, would you get free post?

[Legal disclaimer: I have no intention of doing this, it's just a thought experiment]

philcsl

I used to receive 2-3 pieces of junk mail EVERY week, one would be addressed to me, one to the previous owner of the house who is a few years dead and the others would be to 'the householder'.

I sent an email to customer.support@upc.ie and I got a reply two days later to say that my name and address had been removed from their database. They were obliged by law to send a letter to confirm this which I got a week or two later.

They also said it would take up to one month to stop all letters as some may already be "in the system". Sure enough after 2 weeks I never got another letter from them!

zippo22

Any unaddressed junk mail that An Post dumps on my hall floor goes back to one of their pillar boxs. I usually wait till I have an armful and then stick them back in the post. Doesn't take long to build up either. I usually have an ass load to return every 3 weeks or so. I like the thought that what An Post litters my hall with has to be handled by them again first by the person emptying the pillar box and then again at the sorting office. It's my way of making the polluter pay.

dahamsta

zippo22 wrote:

Any unaddressed junk mail that An Post dumps on my hall floor goes back to one of their pillar boxs.

Same here. I do the same with addressed junk mail, marker over my address and RETURN TO SENDER in nice big letters in the same marker. I've got better things to do with my time than talk to some lacky in CS that probably won't deal with my request for removal anyway.

adam

zippo22

For addressed junk/litter I use a different tack. Junk from Company A I switch to Company B's envelope ( and vice versa) and drop in post. Not all of these clowns provide envelopes so I always have a supply of brown C5 envelopes here. Actually I prefer to use my own envelopes. They cost pennies and not sure, but I think unstamped post costs the recipient double postage.

dahamsta

There's always a little glee in my eyes when I spot a prepaid envelope.

mackjohn

Big thanks to all who posted ways for me to have fun with the collection of spam postal that is building up.. now where did I leave all those old telephone directories and my trusty black marker...

XJR

I have to say I agree with most of the above and I've sucessfully been removed from the makreting database of a number of individual companies.

However I wonder has anyone used Irish Direct Marketing Association (IDMA) and asked them to remove you from their members lists?

if you want more information on it have a look here

dahamsta

The IDMA is an industry association about as trustworthy and useful as the ASAI. I deal direct if I think it'll be worth it, otherwise I resort to the aforementioned guerilla tactics.

adam

padraig71

I've just stumbled on this thread. NTL has been sending its crap to every flat in my block about twice a month, I reckon, for as long as I have lived here. Nobody in the other flats even picks it up, but then it is obviously junk, being addressed to 'The Householder' and bearing a big NTL logo…

I wrote to NTL and received a letter telling me my address had been removed from its database but I would have to wait 28 days for this to take effect. Lo and behold, today another one arrived, dated 34 days after the previous letter. Today I emailed, asking for info on the company's environmental policy, whether their paper is recycled etc (as well as complaining about the continued stream of junk, of course).

This thread has given me some useful ideas for further action. Thanks.