getting post i dont want

Tiff_2

kevin_M wrote:

The other day my OH signed for a package for me.. when i got in i opened it. its was some book club saying i have signed up to them. Which i had never.
(posting back tomorrow and telling em to remove me off there records)

Today i just recived a bill from readers digest. i have never had or ordered anything from them.

What the hell is going on and how can i stop it???..

it takes time and money to keep posting stuff back and phoning 0870 numbers (which i should not have to do).

i never used to get any junk mail now im getting bills and stuff..

Ditto Kevin! Thank God for that - I thought I'd finally lost it!:eek:
I never ordered Reader's Digest and they've sent me 2 books and a demand letter.
I'll be under the table if anyone has any ideas about Reader's Digest...;)

Wizwoo

I've just received my "First free copy of Reader's Digest" - which I've never asked for, and they are "so confident I'll enjoy my first issue that unless they hear to the contrary, they'll continue my first year's subscription at £13.95" :eek:
I don't care that that is a 60% saving I don't want it!!!

The best bit is that they don't give a contact address or phone number...

rog2

Surely this practice comes under the umbrella of 'Unsolicited Mail'. As I understand it, you may simply write to the sender and give them a certain time limit (possibly 14 days?) for them to collect the item (why should you have the hassle of returning it?). If they fail to collect, you may then keep, or dispose of that item as you wish. You need to inform them, in your letter, that any further unordered items they send will be treated as unsolicited mail, and thereby yours to do with as you please.

Bossyboots

I am surprised no-one raised this before rog2. Not only that, this subject comes up almost daily on these forums, the most common culprit being Mango Book Club. In the case of Mango, it appears that on some of the sites that are around where people are clicking through and applying for freebies, they are also signing up to Mango.

If the goods are truly unsolicited, then you can keep them without any reference whatsoever back to the company. It used to be that you had to contact them and ask for them to be collected. This was amended a few years ago and now you do not have to do anything at all. They are committing an offence by sending you an invoice.

We had a company at work who kept duplicating our orders. I kept telling them, but when a brand new order came twice I came to the conclusion that this was their normal routine and they were doing it deliberately. When the last lot came I rang them and told them that they had sent unsolicited items and that while I wasn't obliged to inform them, I was giving them time to come and collect them. They first of all said they would send a pre-paid label to send them back but I refused that as the item was quite heavy and would have meant a member of staff going to the post office just to send it back. I told them it was courier or nothing. They then sent an invoice so I rang them and quoted the Act and told them that it wasn't going to be paid, that if they were not collected in seven days they would be kept by us and if they sent out a statement or reminder invoice I would report them. I then put it in writing. We have never had a duplicated order since.

I can't find the original link I had for the rules on this but this one here sets it out http://www.oliverfisher.co.uk/cms/catsection/unsolicited_goods_and_other_scams.html and here is the dti page http://www.dti.gov.uk/consumers/buying-selling/unsolicited/index.html

*zippy*

A book club rang one evening when I was in work and asked my husband would your wife like free childrens books and hubby said yes please :wall: Hubby had tongue pie that night

A big parcel of books arrived, 2 free the rest of course to be paid for and more would be arriving every month. I packed them back enclosing a very shirty letter informing them I was sending these back, but if any more arrived they would have to come and collect them and I would report them to trading standards for opening a credit account in my name without even speaking to me. I heard no more from them.

On a similar vein I bought a TV off a catalogue a few years ago and I took out an extended guarantee with them, out of the blue a letter arrived last month saying as a valued customer they were very generously extended my guarantee for 22 weeks and were charging me £60 to do so, I need take no action as it was all sorted. I took three calls to 0845 numbers to sort, I was fuming, I was then told I had to put it in writing to cancel, why should I have to write a letter when I didn't request it or ever agree to it :mad: I have written asking for the cost of my calls to be refunded, but had no reply, think another call may be needed.

tawnyowls

It is a regular thing, which comes round about this time every year (for Christmas sales, probably). If you don't want to get this sort of junk mail, the Mailing Preference Service are the people to contact. Very easy - just register your address on the website, and in a week or so you'll get a confirmation letter. It'll take a few months to stop the junk mail completely, but it will start to reduce. If you stamp all unwanted mail 'Return to sender. Address registered with the MPS', that helps.

You can also register your telephone and fax numbers with the Telephone and Fax Preference services: https://www.tpsonline.org.uk and https://www.fpsonline.org.uk, and of late, there's also an E-mail Preference Service.

All the website addresses can be found here: http://www.dma.org.uk

Dolly_Smith

aaargh - don't talk to me about book clubs! I once ordered a few books from a company called Grolier - big mistake! They sent me stuff constantly and I paid for some of the books as they were quite cheap and my daughter was little. They then started sending CD Roms and charging - the biggest problem is that there is no phone number to call so I had to write loads of letters, yet stuff kept coming.

I finally lost my rag and wrote to them threatening them with Trading Standards if they continued to send me stuff I didn't ask for and was unable to return. Three days later, four return bags were sent and the bills stopped - never heard from them since!

GreyPilgrim

*zippy* wrote:

Hubby had tongue pie that night

reported for putting rude images in GreyPilgrims head

(what the hell is tongue pie?)

dawnylou

So on the back of this I am hoping someone can help me??
Some guy phoned me a couple of months ago pestering me to join a book club, I didn't want to but didn't want to be rude so when he offered to send me a book and information pack with no obligation and just pay p+p I agreed.
The book came, I paid p+p as it worked out cheaper than posting it back.
2 weeks ago I get a parcel with 4 huge hardbacks in i have never heard of. I phoned the number contained in the parcel and you cannot speak to anyone, it is all automated. Anyway I press all of the correct options for someone to collect the parcel for 3quid, thought this was cheaper than posting through Royal Mail and then I could see someone face to face to have this stopped.
Anyway I was advised by way of recorded message that someone would call 'this week'. Great.
So I put in holidays at work and thought after they have been I can cancel holidays and use them later.
You guessed it, noone came! What a waste of bloody holidays!!!
So i still have the books and I have to pay 30-odd quid for them within the next few days!
I don't want the crappy things, but I have never signed anything, or activated a membership at all!

How can they do this? Surely it is illegal??
And more to the point, how can i get out of this mess, without paying for the rubbish books they sent and also stop them from sending more??

It is the Fantsay&SF Book Club in Swindon - but I can find no way of contacting them!!!
Please help me!!

Bossyboots

Try this http://www.bca.co.uk/contact.aspx

This is the parent company of all these wretched book clubs.