ENOUGH WITH THE CATALOGS!
 

I just fired off a furious e-mail to OAT when 3 more catalogs arrived in my mail today..bringing the total of catalogs sent by OAT and GCT to around 30-40 since our trip in June. (yes, THIS June!) Told them to remove us from their mailing list as their abuse of our resources is a disgrace.
Am I the only one who gets crazy from this??
Do you think they'd change if enough people complained?
(also Lands'End...there's another one!)

Good for you.

yeah, I do, and I always complain. I particularly hate it when they share your name with other companies (even ones they own), and now you are getting many different ones. Surprisingly, I get Lands End ones, although I seldom buy anything from the, and they only send me about 3-4 a year. So maybe you are getting a lot because you buy more from them?

Once I asked Perillo Tours for them to send me a brochure on one thing and time period, and they started sending me tons of catalogs even though I never used them. They did stop when I asked, though.

What have you said to Fodors after they sold your e-mail address?

NGail, I went through this for ages. I would call and call and tell the various companies to take me off their mailing list. One day while at the mail box a neighbor told me she use to work for a company in Oregon that sent out catalogues for various companies. She said that when people called the companies to be deleted from their mailing list it would sometimes take up to six months before the company she work for got the notice to delete the person from their system.

How stupid is that?

I have avoided ordering anything from catalogues now due to the constant flood of catalogues that would result from my buying one item. I understand your frustration.

Dukey, are you sure that Fodors sells our email addresses? I go through splurts of spam and it was particularly bad a few weeks ago.

Nina

There is a direct marketing site to call to ask that your name be deleted from catalogues. Unfortunately, doing so requires you to provide your social-security number, something I adamantly refuse to do. But if that doesn't bother you, here's the info:

http://www.the-dma.org/cgi/offmailinglist

But a caution: any company that you've ever done business with still gets to send you stuff.

What's OAT? I obviously don't get that one.

That's what I was going to ask. What's OAT? And how do I make sure they never get ahold of me?
Sometimes I feel like we are the only people on TravelSmith's mailing list.

No, you're not, Sky---after I bought a raincoat from TravelSmith a few years ago they've been insisting at least once a month that I buy travel clothing to wear with it!

OAT is Overseas Adventure Travel - its parent company is GCT - Grand
Circle Travel. I did love my trip to Turkey with OAT and had planned to go on other trips with them, but now I'm really turned off.
Thanks for all the empathetic responses.

I don't think Fodors sells your email address because I've never gotten a single spam on my Fodors-supplied email address related to travel that I didn't know the "other" source of. That direct marketing site is worthless, I've asked them to put my name on their list, etc., and it didn't do a bit of good.

same thing with VBT

Harrrrumph! Harrrrumph! You people surely must have forgotten to take your happy pills this morning.

Look, as others have noted, you CAN get your names off catalog lists. So do it.

If you are so set against good old American salesmanship, I suggest you pack up and go to Albania.

And if you come up with a better way to reach prospects, I sure hope you will give us your suggestions.

Smile! Somebody must think you have the money to qualify as a viable prospect for their services. Be thankful -- it's the American way!

I just object to having to cart all those heavy catalogues, day after day, to the recycling bin.

So start a fire with them. Make yourself a piece of toast.

And someone please explain how knowing an e-mail address translates into knowing a mailing address?

Curious minds want to know...

Best wishes,

Rex

I am not sure its fodors either. Every time I order online from a retailer, I get tons of their catalogs plus catalogs from places i never heard of or used before.

I am now getting some nice catalogs from North Style, Soft Surroundings, Territory Ahead. This all started after I purchased stuff from Coldwater Creek, Travel Smith, and Magellans. And Eddie Bauer. These additional places are not stores that I found online till I got their catalog.

It might be the retailers selling their lists although in this case, it opened me up to the competition so who knows...

Chicagolori - A lot of companies own other companies and I think that is why you get some catalogues from companies that you've never dealt with or heard of. Personally, I think Nestle owns everything in the world :-))

Nina

I try to order catalogues through their 800 number rather than give them my email address on line. I tell them I don't have internet access.

Also, I rarely give my real name. Your name isn't important unless you place an order. When catalogues etc.. start arriving using this ficticious name, I know that they passed my info on. I don't bother to keep track of which name I used with which company.

Nina

Very good point, Rex! Knowing your e-mail address may account for spam, but junk mail....?!