No Junk Mail sticker ignored by political parties

Mulder00

I have a "No Junk Mail" sticker on my front door and I do my best to try and get companies to actually respect my wishes (this usually involves me running after deliverymen in my gown and slippers or whatever else I can find that's okay to wear in the street). If I can't speak to the delivery person, I also have sent emails to companies if it's a single leaflet that finds it way into my post box.

Yesterday, yet another piece of unsolicited political A3 sheet folded in half, pretending to be a newsletter, but just another "vote for our party because we saved a local cat" type thing. (This to me is the same as the local estate agency writing an article about the fact that spring is coming to the local area and distributing it as a "circular" rather than junk mail).

Took to Twitter and the convo went something like this:

@Me: Big "No junk mail" sticker at my post box, but @LocalPoliticalParty seem to think that this doesn't apply to them. #straighttorecycling
@LocalPoliticalParty @me Our deliverers think carefully about these signs. Most ppl mean 'no advertising'. Sorry to have offended.
@Me: @LocalPoliticalParty Yes, I also mean no advertising. What else is a leaflet praising everything the Local Political Party do? Its just another ad...
@LocalPoliticalParty @me R leaflets contain local/nat news. Paid4 & delivery by volunteers, written by them 2 oft. DM ur address & will try 2avoid in future
@Me: @LocalPoliticalParty If I want the news, I'll buy a newspaper. Rather thn single out 1 address, it wld b easier 2 respect all "No Junk Mail" signs
@LocalPoliticalParty: @me We do respect such signs; these are not junk. If sme1 says no political leaflets or no free newspapers they don't get one.
@LocalPoliticalParty:
@me From experience, the vast majority of ppl with such signs don't mean them how u do. Sorry you are inconvenienced.

Now that last one really got me - am I the only person in the country who don't want to put up 4 different stickers to ensure that I don't get what I thought was covered by the blanket term junk mail? (The sticker is actually provided by the council and they only provide a single one which says "No junk mail").

A bit of an internet search says that technically this doesn't apply to political parties as they don't provide a commercial service. To me though, this is just an unsolicited attempt at getting a vote - everywhere else, they would have to PAY for an advertisement (taking space in a newspaper, this would be classed as an ad, on a TV station, it would be classed as an ad, but for the purpose of junk mail, they are excluded).

The political party takes an even more interesting view, because they say that this isn't junk, because it's a newsletter. The ENTIRE "newsletter" consists only of articles saying "Party A is great because they did X"; "Party B is evil because they did Y"; "Party A & Party C want to do good, but Party B is bad".

According to this view, the local pizza place should be welcome to drop leaflets through my door, AS LONG AS they have something which vaguely looks like a few paragraphs put together saying why their pizza is so good and where they source their cheese from and another saying that they found rats in the kitchen of the opposition. Then it's okay.

Should political campaign newsletter fall under the classification of junk mail?

wealdroam

Mulder00 wrote: »

Should political campaign newsletter fall under the classification of junk mail?

An interesting question, but is there a consumer rights issue here?

Perhaps your question would be better asked in The Moneysavers Arms.

Techhead_2

I think the vast majority of people understand the difference between junk mail, leafleting and political/election communications. If it upsets you that much then put a sticker on your letterbox saying 'No junk mail, leaflets, catalogues, free newspapers or political communications'

MamaMoo_2

I have a no junk mail poster that states "no junk mail, no advertisements, no free newspapers, no political publications. If in doubt, don't post it.", after having had a similar problem to yours. It's much more effective than the simple "no junk mail" sign.
Whilst I appreciate that they aren't offering a commercial service, I don't want their stuff pushed through my letterbox. If I want to read about a party, I shall do my research on the internet, at a time to suit me, usually around the time of an election.
I regularly used to get a newsletter from the Green Party. Always about the "great stuff" they were doing, in an area that wasn't mine, by candidates that weren't standing for election in my ward. Very irritating, and a shocking waste of paper from the Green Party

Country_Cousin

It is very difficult trying to categorise all the "junk" that gets pushed through the door. How about a "Please do not post anything through this letterbox that does not have name and address printed on it"
Although I swear most people don't stop a second to read the sign in any event because they post and scuttle off quickly.

unholyangel

MamaMoo wrote: »

Very irritating, and a shocking waste of paper from the Green Party

Made me laugh a few weeks ago when receiving marketing crap from BT and on the reverse was the recycle sign along with the text "together, we can reduce paper consumption" or something to that effect. The reason I laughed is because if they didnt waste paper in the first place sending their junk, there would be no need to recycle it.

As for political leaflets....personally I class them as junk mail. They might not class them as junk, but they're tossed in the bin like any other junk.

Mulder00

It just annoys me that something that is clearly unaddressed, unsolicited, completely biased junk, is okay because it's a "newsletter".

In my mind, junk mail should generally cover anything that is unaddressed and unsolicited and a political newsletter basically saying "vote for us because the other parties are useless" definitely fall under that. Now I'm going to have to get another 3 stickers (or make one really long one), which won't be our council's standard sticker and confuse the delivery people even more - because now they actually have to classify what they deliver even more.

And then, once I have my 4 stickers on my door, some political party will come along and find a reason why their campaign letters don't fall under any of those classifications and I'm back to square one.

I don't understand why I have to do so much to go out of my way to make sure that I don't get something I didn't want in the first place.

Junk mail should encompass EVERYTHING, unless I list exceptions.

(The only reason I haven't yet put a sticker on saying "No unaddressed mail", is because it's not our council's standard sticker and most of the delivery people I have tried to speak to, don't speak English to start with - so anything non-standard would probably not have the desired effect).

Fire_Fox

I had a row with Royal Mail a few years ago about junk mail. According to one member of staff nothing they deliver is 'junk mail', the rubbish I don't want (and that on occasion the postie has littered the carpet with next to the mail boxes) is all simply 'unaddressed mail'. :mad: If that is still RM's position it makes no sense for your council to be using that terminology.

custardy

Fire_Fox wrote: »

I had a row with Royal Mail a few years ago about junk mail. According to one member of staff nothing they deliver is 'junk mail', the rubbish I don't want (and that on occasion the postie has littered the carpet with next to the mail boxes) is all simply 'unaddressed mail'. :mad: If that is still RM's position it makes no sense for your council to be using that terminology.

well done on a pointless argument

they were right
if you dont want unaddressed items,then opt out

Fire_Fox

custardy wrote: »

well done on a pointless argument

they were right
if you dont want unaddressed items,then opt out

Well done for leaping to incorrect conclusions simply because you are obsessed with defending your own industry: I already had opted out, they mucked up ... repeatedly.

Do you think it's acceptable that a lazy postie doesn't bother putting the junk mail in the post boxes but chucks the entire stack (sometimes complete with red rubber band) on the carpeted floor? I can assure you it was Royal Mail unaddressed rubbish not someone else flyering the building, it is not open access and RM confirmed they were paid to deliver by the relevant companies. I can also assure you it wasn't residents dumping mail on those occasions it was enough junk for the entire block.

I don't personally think it's acceptable for anyone to litter inside my property, whether they be a tradesman or a resident. And I did get a result after the second or third complaint so I don't see the exercise as pointless. Would you be happy if your postie used your garden, car or letterbox to get dispose of all the stuff he was too lazy to deliver?

custardy

Fire_Fox wrote: »

Well done for leaping to incorrect conclusions simply because you are obsessed with defending your own industry: I already had opted out, they mucked up ... repeatedly.

Do you think it's acceptable that a lazy postie doesn't bother putting the junk mail in the post boxes but chucks the entire stack (sometimes complete with red rubber band) on the carpeted floor? I can assure you it was Royal Mail unaddressed rubbish not someone else flyering the building, it is not open access and RM confirmed they were paid to deliver by the relevant companies. I can also assure you it wasn't residents dumping mail on those occasions it was enough junk for the entire block.

I don't personally think it's acceptable for anyone to litter inside my property, whether they be a tradesman or a resident. And I did get a result after the second or third complaint so I don't see the exercise as pointless. Would you be happy if your postie used your garden, car or letterbox to get dispose of all the stuff he was too lazy to deliver?

lol,you really do need that hug