JUNK MAIL UPDATE: 1 YEAR LATER
[image error]Sometime in the fall of 2016 we realized that the hundreds of pieces of mail my father received daily were not only junk, but junk that was coercively (and misleadingly) soliciting donations. Unfortunately, for many reasons, he was not well-equipped to discern the truly coercive pleas of disreputable organizations from the very few solicitations of “reputable charities.”
Several actions over the last year or more contributed to the eventual slow-down of junk mail addressed to my dad:
HE MOVED–and instead of forwarding his mail to his new apartment we had it forwarded to our house. We did not do a true change of address of any kind. Amazingly, it wasn’t long before we were receiving mail addressed to my dad at our address in addition to forwarded mail from his old address.
PHONE CALLS–for some reason I hate the phone. So my wife (THANK YOU JULES)made phone calls to the “charities” and organizations that were soliciting with junk mail. She made calls (sometimes multiples) to over 800 distinct entities. Some took all of my web search skills to find phone numbers as it’s not uncommon for junk mail to have no phone number (“phone numbers are so old skool!”) on their letterhead. This was the most effective at stopping the flow of junk.
EMAILS–for those for which we couldn’t find phone numbers I sent emails, Facebook messages or submitted forms on their websites.
SNAIL MAIL–when we were particularly outraged or when the other methods seemed not to work we used their pre-paid reply envelopes to send passionately scrawled replies imploring them to stop–sometimes we just raged and other times we tried to appeal to their humanity.
Extreme measures? It was an extreme (but not uncommon) case.
[image error]Today, on most days we receive less than six pieces (down from 50-100) of mail addressed to my dad. I don’t expect that we will ever be completely free of his junk mail–but at least it is no longer going to his mailbox! One of my lawyer friends tells me that their office still gets mail for clients that have been dead for years. But it is nice to know that ours has finally trickled down to a mere annoyance.
The take-home on a personal level? Be nosey. Be present. Be strong in confronting parents or grandparents about this kind of thing. Ruffle their feathers. Confront them. Don’t be passive.
The take-home on a broader level? The government–senior agencies, post office etc.–is doing little to nothing to address this type of elder abuse and fraud. They don’t have the will or the resources. It’s up to us–you and I–to continue to spread the word.
