Unwanted mailings

sandie3

Hello everyone, can anyone tell me what "rules" mail order companies have to follow in selling/giving customers details to other companies please?
I thought the rules had been changed and you had to "tick" a box to ALLOW this now.
The reason I ask is that my Mum passed away last November at the age of 90. She was more or less housebound and got very distressed in the months leading up to her death by the amount of unwanted sales mailings/phone calls she was getting. I did everything I could to stop this by registering her with the mail/phone preference service, paying for caller phone numbers to be displayed, putting her phone number ex-directory, removing her from the electoral register etc, but it didnt stop it. Due to the amount of the nuscience phone calls she got EVERY day, she at one point stopped answering her phone, this, in turn caused me distress as I called her every day to make sure was she was ok. With no answer, I panicked!
I am amazed at the amount of mail order catalogues and sales letters Im getting via royal mail redirection. They still use the "tick box" where you have to "tick" it to opt out.
I am sending so many emails to get her details taken off their database, I have made a copy ready for the next one so I dont have to re write it every time. Most of the companies have been very good, only one has been "awkward" and insisted on seeing the ORIGINAL death certificate before they would do as I asked.
I am sure there must be thousands and thousands of elderly people out there, who dont read the small print where you have to opt out, this is why I wanted to find out if my thoughts were correct and to bring this problem to everyones notice to pass on to people you know.
Thankyou
Sandie3:mad:

custardy

sandie3 wrote: »

Hello everyone, can anyone tell me what "rules" mail order companies have to follow in selling/giving customers details to other companies please?
I thought the rules had been changed and you had to "tick" a box to ALLOW this now.
The reason I ask is that my Mum passed away last November at the age of 90. She was more or less housebound and got very distressed in the months leading up to her death by the amount of unwanted sales mailings/phone calls she was getting. I did everything I could to stop this by registering her with the mail/phone preference service, paying for caller phone numbers to be displayed, putting her phone number ex-directory, removing her from the electoral register etc, but it didnt stop it. Due to the amount of the nuscience phone calls she got EVERY day, she at one point stopped answering her phone, this, in turn caused me distress as I called her every day to make sure was she was ok. With no answer, I panicked!
I am amazed at the amount of mail order catalogues and sales letters Im getting via royal mail redirection. They still use the "tick box" where you have to "tick" it to opt out.
I am sending so many emails to get her details taken off their database, I have made a copy ready for the next one so I dont have to re write it every time. Most of the companies have been very good, only one has been "awkward" and insisted on seeing the ORIGINAL death certificate before they would do as I asked.
I am sure there must be thousands and thousands of elderly people out there, who dont read the small print where you have to opt out, this is why I wanted to find out if my thoughts were correct and to bring this problem to everyones notice to pass on to people you know.
Thankyou
Sandie3:mad:

add her to the mail preference service

http://www.mpsonline.org.uk/mpsr/

wont stop everything,but may help

The reality is,once your details are out there
it can take years for anything to change
you also have the issue of the details ending up with non UK based companies

LutonGirl

Sandie3, so sorry to hear of your loss. I lost my Dad last July, he too was elderly and in recent years went through a plague of nuisance phone calls and mailings, most of which were from charities. We did everything you did and managed to stem the tide, but only just.

Now he's no longer with us, I have registered his details with the Bereavement Register You can read about the BR here and why it was formed and how it works. I found out about them from the Funeral Director.

I also registered my Mum's death with them at the same time even though she died in 2005, for some reason, she started to get post again in 2012. Proof if any was needed that companies DO sell on their data.

I've also run off some labels on my printer that say "Deceased - return to sender" and slap them on any junk mail that arrives. Between that and the BR, it seems to be working.

Good luck with it all. Just what you don't need at such a stressful time.

sandie3

Firstly Custardly and Lutongirl, thankyou both for your replies.

Custardly, I had already registered her details with all preference services that I could, it didnt make much, if any, difference.

Lutongirl, your reply is very helpful. My Hubby seems to recall our Funeral director telling us something on the same lines, but at that time, it didnt really register with us, but now youve told me I will definately do that. Thank you so much. The mail redirection will stop soon, I already know that her flat has been reallocated (council sheltered accomodation) so who ever goes into it, will probably put it all in the bin. I had thought that the "rules" on how companies sell their customers details had changed, but seeing all this junk mail, Im beginning to wonder, hence my question.

LutonGirl

I worked in the direct mail industry, but it was about 10 years ago so things have changed. It was always promoted as good housekeeping for companies with large marketing databases to screen them annually to weed out the names of any deceased people, but it is expensive to do this, so many don't.

That doesn't explain how your Mum got so much stuff when she was alive though. My Dad had tonnes of it. Weird and wonderful charities mostly who would send him pens, calendars, shopping bags and all manner of "gifts" that he'd feel obliged to send money for. I think as soon as he gave money to one of them, they sold his data on to others. You can see how elderly people sometimes get sucked in. After a lengthy chat with him he used to put all the "junk mail" to one side for me to deal with. Deal with in a bin.

Registering your Mum's details with the Bereavement Register will help. There's so much to think about at a time like this, but it does get easier.

Sending a hug x

sandie3

Lutongirl, thanks again for your reply, I have now registered Mums name on the Bereavement Register, so hopefully it will eventually filter through. Your help is very much appreciated.