How Much Junk Mail?

Like everyone, I receive what seems like waay too much junk mail. So last year (2011) I decided to conduct a little experiment.

For the calendar year, January 1 through December 31, every credit card offer I received I tossed not into the trash, but into a box. (Actually, I never toss them into the trash, I toss them into the paper shredder, for security purposes. But never mind.)

At the end of the year, the box contained 154 individual mail pieces, ranging from ordinary #10 business envelopes to custom chipboard packets.

That's one year’s worth of credit card offers, only – it does not include the similarly-plentiful mailers about switching my phone to the cable company or switching my cable to the phone company or switching my cable to the other cable company or switching my phone to the other phone company.

Nor does it includes all the other “normal” junk mail, such as supermarket fliers, local merchant coupons, driveway paving offers, roofing company mailings... you don’t need me to tell you how long the list can be.

Nor does it include my two favorites, regular mailings from two national organizations to which my wife and I have belonged for several years, inviting us to join.  How much lower might our annual membership cost be if it were not supporting repeated membership solicitations to people like us who are already members?

Anyway, back to the year’s worth of credit card offers. 154 individual mail pieces means that, on average, I received a credit card offer every 2.37 days last year. If we eliminate weekends and holidays, including only business days in 2011, then I received a credit card offer every 1.63 days.

Sadly, if was seeking to document a large volume of junk mail I may have chosen the wrong genre to collect.  I think that the phone/cable mail pieces outnumbered the credit card offers, as they frequently arrived in multiple numbers on a single day.

Earlier this year I started the process of putting all these credit card offers through the paper shredder.  Saving a year's worth doesn't seem like such a good idea any more...

Phone Rage

In our popular culture these days, telephone voice mail systems are the targets of both comedians and critics, for the same reason: It is difficult to connect with an actual living person.

Certain organizations – Verizon comes to mind – are particularly egregious in this regard. And a relatively new wrinkle is the voice mail systems’ attempts to get you the caller to go away by recommending that you visit the organization’s web site. In most cases the reason I have called is because I have already tried the organization’s web site.

But today brought yet another new twist. Today’s call was made to my health insurer, which shall remain nameless but includes the words united, health, and care. The voice mail menu offered an option for callers who were “members” (me) or “physicians” (not me.) I selected the option for members, and was presented with a new set of options that included one for members and one for physicians.

Didn’t I just answer that? It was as if the voice mail was asking if I was really really sure that I was a member.

It got worse. I was then presented with a list of options that included what I wanted, information about referrals. Once I selected that option I was given a new list of options which, you guessed it, included an option for information about referrals.

Maybe the voice mail system is hard of hearing. I SAID, INFORMATION ABOUT REFERRALS!

No wonder people are so on edge these days. The economy is in a tailspin, government is dysfunctional, and you can’t even get a simple answer on the phone.