How to Stop Phone Book Delivery in 4 Minutes
A couple weeks ago I came home and saw a phone book sitting in front of my front door. This has happened many times in the past. As usual, I put it right in the recycling bin, slowly shaking my head as I pondered why they keep sending phone books out to people when most people never even open them. It’s a big waste of paper and precious ink, not to mention the gas it takes to deliver phone books nationwide each year. So I did a lil’ research, and found out how to stop phone book delivery once and for all…
Call 1-(877)-243-8339
I just called this number to test it out, and within about 4 minutes I had opted out of getting phone books. The person on the phone was friendly and helpful, although a bit confused at first (she thought I wanted to get MORE phone books delivered to my house). So call that number, and in less than 4 minutes, you won’t have to worry about getting any more phone books. Huzzah.
P.S. To see where to recycle your old phone books, go HERE and optically scan the provided information.
P.P.S. Here’s a funny prank done by some hoodlums with phone books.
Hey! I’m not a hoodlum!
Maybe a no-goodnik, or a trickster then.
Joe,
Interesting post! This is the great thing about just having a cell phone, as I don’t even get any phone books!
You can opt out electronically at http://www.YellowPagesGoesGreen.org. Just fill in the sign up form and http://www.YellowPagesGoesGreen.org will contact the publishers to stop the madness. This is a free service for the consumers. http://www.YellowPagesGoesGreen.org to sign up.
I collect the phone books of my friends family and neighbors when they are done with them. I shred and compost them for my garden and I also use them along with my chimney started for getting charcoal going. You can do this with newspapers and most paper products. For those interested in composting office paper and junk mail I recommend researching vermicomposting.
I used my MyJunkTree account to stop all the phone books. It was quick and easy and all I had to do was click a button. In a few days I received an email confirming my address was off of the delivery list, pretty easy. I have my account to Remove Junk Mail and the phone books was an added bonus. Between the phone books and catalogs I could have built a fort. It is nice to be done with this.
I’ve called the number, I’ve written letters. I’m not sure that the people who are delivering our telephone books care who gets one. They even deliver to homes with no telehone!
I happen to be one of the owners of MyJunkTree and as a new company I search the web to see if we are getting any visibility out there and it seems the word is getting out. Thanks for the support.
We launched the company because we were tired of all the junk mail we were receiving and we personally did not want to bounce all over the web to contact all the different companies to stop it all. First and foremost we wanted to let people choose what they wanted to let come to their home knowing that some people really do like some of the coupons and catalogs. So our clients choose what they want stopped.
We also had to provide a service that is different than the other services out there, so here is what we offer:
1. We have a database of over 1300 catalogs that you can choose to stop.
2. We have over a 2000 charities/Non-Profits that you can stop solicitations from.
3. Stop the delivery of the national phone directories.
4. Stop the delivery of the weekly coupons.
5. Stop the general credit card offers as well as the ones from your own major bank.
6. Stop the miscellaneous junk mail from the data brokers.
7. You can register on the National Do Not Call Registry from the website.
8. You can order your no strings attached free annual credit report right from the website.
9. We plant trees with every new membership.
And, yes we are a paid service and yes you can do everything that we do for free, if you want to do all the research and spend the time contacting the companies yourself it can easily be done. We have just done all of the legwork for our clients and feel there is value in the service we provide.
I can't afford your service but it's a great idea.
You can't afford $7 a year?
Thanks for the post.
You can also sign do not mail petition (like Do Not Call National Petition)
I did some search online and this is the best resource so far available online (correct me if I am wrong). I have done this 5 months ago and my mailbox is literally empty ( I have paperless billing and also opted out from various mail lists) I check my mail twice a month now. It is beautiful.
I even took the letter from samples provided and wrote it to a local Chinese restaurant that keeps putting fliers in my door. They stopped too in the whole subdivision.
http://awakening.weebly.com/stop-junk-mail.html
I even opted out from the yellow book. What do I need it for, since the internet is right here.
Maxym, thanks for that link. That page really does have great tips for keeping junk mail away, also, I heartily endorse Weebly.
If you want to do more than just Stop Junk Mail that comes to your home, this site might also be of interest to you. Stopping Free Papers. It is a free service and they help you stop the delivery of all the free papers that are thrown in your driveway. The site is sponsored by MyJunkTree and it is totally free!
Some interesting sites for those who'd like to see us move to an opt-in system for phone books. Been doing some research (will be updating on my site <http://albertideation.com>
http://www.stopthephonebooks.com/
http://www.productstewardship.us/displaycommon.cf…- current legislation
http://www.yellowpagesgoesgreen.org./movement.htm…- state of the movement
Check out Eco Yellow Pages for additional tips and info on stopping the unsolicited delivery of phone books. Our belief is that printed phone books provide a valuable service for those who want them, but are nothing but a waste for those of us who do all our local business look-ups online. Thanks for bringing attention to this issue!
Telephone Books are not all bad, my husband got laid off 2 months ago and that's how we are feeding our family.
Can you share some of your telephone book recipes?
i smoke telefone books
Verizon/idearc – regular directory + little useless business-only book. Two copies of each = 4 books total.
Yellowbook – Business-only book. Useless.
CommunityPhoneBook – little local book.
LocalTel – little local book. Duplicate effort of the previous local book.
This is what I get here every year! I wouldn't mind ONE regular Verizon/idearc book every couple of years. But even they screwed it up with all those books every year!
You should start building a book fort. Sometimes there's a number on the phone book you can call, then you can just ask them to stop sending you phone books. Check it out.
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Another good post. Home based businesses is becoming quite a phenomenon around the USA.
I found your blog searching bing for phones sites and came across your site.
Very good post. I’ve found your site via Yahoo and I’m really glad about the information you provide in your articles. Btw your sites layout is really broken on the Chrome browser. Would be really great if you could fix that. Anyhow keep up the great work!
I don’t understand why people have such a hard time with phone book delivery. There are a lot of americans employed by these companys and support their family by delivering the books. why not just accept the new one and recycle the old so it can be use in making the next issue. If you take away all the jobs the phone book company support, all of those people would have to live off the government. Is that what you would like to see happen?
There is something you can do. Get involved online, and show these companies that we don't want these things anymore!
http://www.facebook.com/group.php?gid=11410411526…
Dang, good job on that group. I just joined it, hopefully we shall see the death of phonebooks in our lifetime.
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Almost always I manage to dispose of my junk sensibly but it is oftentimes depressing when I consider just what some other countries are doing to our beautiful planet!
Suggest SlotGuard for also doing this. They stop junk mail and phone books and a bunch of other stuff too. Pretty good.
That costs money, but if it's worth it to people, that'd be a good way to go.
iT'S IS NOT RIGHT yOU ARE PUTTING ME OUT OF BUSINESS i HAVE A FAMILY AND A FATHER TO TAKE CARE OF AND BILL YOU PEOPLE ARE WRONG!
What do you mean by, "you people" ?!
Dis N!gga dEB no wasap. i like my fone books cuz. aight den
I have to check out the yellowpagesgogreen.org. I work from home, so I've actually been able to tell some of the delivery folks to take the phonebooks back. The phonebooks in our neighborhood hang for so long that I had to write about it here:
http://roadsidezombies.com/2010/08/05/eliminating…
Good for you, stepping up and asking the delivery people to take those books back. I've canceled my book delivery a few times, but still seem to get them every once in a while. Maybe I need to put a sign up…
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I call all the services EVERY year, and they NEVER stop. Every year I see the same worthless phonebooks on my doorstep. I don’t think whoever delivers them gives a crap about who has opted out. They just throw a book on every doorstep regardless because they get paid for each they deliver.
Maybe if you put a dead phone book on a stake in your front yard as a warning, they'd stop?
Phone books provide jobs for people. I understand most of you don't like getting them but is it killing you to accept them? Probably not since your writing about it here, lol. Not everyone is a technology person (elderly, etc.) if you don't want them why not give them to someone who could use them? Or find other purposes for them? Please don't be mean to the people who deliver them. We are just trying to support our families like you. I do phone book delivery full time, year round in different counties to take care of my 3 year old son who's dad was killed in Iraq so please consider the lives of others before you rant and rave.
I'm sorry but we have far bigger concerns than the few jobs in the phone book delivery business. This is an inexcusably wasteful practice and also annoying to have to get rid of 2 or 3 phone books per year that never should have been printed in the first place. Everyone should have the right to decide for themselves what comes to their home!
By the way, I don't mean to be insensitive, but we all have our own set of challenges to deal with. I have been unemployed for 2 years and cannot find a job. Bottom line, when I come home to find yet another phone book on my stoop, it just frustrates me even more. Incidentally, I used to deliver phone books back in the days before the internet and the pay was crap.
Also, I'm not defending the careless, irresponsible delivery people but I personally take great concern as to who I deliver to and try to use best judgement if a house looks vacant, etc. I work hard and fast but I know there are others who do not have an ounce of integrity so please don't think I am defending them.
Misty, the problem is maybe 10% of people use phone books. The other 90% are immediately chucked in the recycling bin or, even worse, the trash can. Good job on not delivering them to abandoned houses, though.
And just because people have a job delivering phone books doesn't mean we should keep doing that forever. People should have jobs if the job needs to be done.
I think the reason people get upset about the phone books is cause they don't want them, and they tell the companies they don't want them, and they still get them. It's just a waste.
I opted out months ago. Got a letter today saying, " our records indicate that your address is on our do not deliver list. UNFORTUNATELY, your address falls on a mailed route and postal regulations prevent us from stopping delivery of our phone book. However, we have sent your information to the local Postmaster asking them to not deliver our phone book.
We hope this effort results in the non delivery of our phone book to your address. If not, please know that our phone book is 100% recyclable and can be recycled through your local recycling options. Any questions, please call 800-243-0219 ".
This makes me see red!!!
Geez, that is crazy. Whose house doesn't fall on a mail route??
Maybe if you put up a big sign saying "NO PHONE BOOKS, THIS MEANS YOU", then a picture of your mailman on it, they'd get the picture. Did you try calling that number?
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