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....?!

Hello! I just wanted to let you know that Fodor's does not share your email addresses with any other companies.

Registrants to the site should only receive one email from us---the email confirming their registration. Some may also opt to receive the newsletter.

It is possible to sign up to receive the newsletter without formally registering on the site. These addresses are likewise not shared with any other parties.

On a side note---I think it's crazy when I receive multiple catalogs for someone that lived in my building 5 years ago....

Underhill, why do you say direct marketing site requires your social security number? I don't see anything on the site you gave that asks for that.

By the way, one way to reduce the number of credit card offers you receive in the mail is to call 888-5-OPTOUT or go to www.optoutprescreen.com. It really works. However, you will still get offers for airline cards and offers from the banks/card issuers you currently do business with.

Try marking them "Recipient Unknown. Return to Sender" and dropping them in the mailbox. Maybe if everybody does it, the post office will get on their case.

If you ever lived through an Alaskan winter, you'd welcome all the catalogs the mailman could carry. Granted, I get tired of VBT, etc, also, since as yet I plan my own travel instead of touring. However, long before I went to Europe, the pictures and descriptions in those big mailers by Backroads inspired me.

..send them all back COD...we did that once with a tool company that kept sending phone book size books after repeated reqiuestst to stop were ignored, never had a problem after that.

Not sure what to do but it drives me crazy too!

Wow USNR, I have nothing against "good old Americna Salesmanship"! complaint was about the amount of TS cataloges I receive. One each quarter is enough. An email once a month would be plenty. It seems we get a catalog every few weeks- the same catalog! We are talking a small rainforest of catalogs. I like my mail lady and I don't want to crush her under the wieght.

When I was on the GCT Danube cruise last December the number of catalogues sent out by that company was a standing joke...among the crew.

Do you have the same principle as we do in the UK - if you get mail without a proper stamp on it, you (not the sender) have to pay double the cost? Far be it from me to suggest that returning unwanted catalogues without a stamp on might discourage them. But it's what my dear old mother always believed.

Patrick, our postal rules changed some time ago and mail is not delivered now if there is not sufficient postage on whatever is being sent. I believe the new rule came about because some people were mailing their payments for various bills and not putting postage on the envelopes and so yes to receive the mail the company it was mailed to had to pay the postage. I had a friend whose husband did this..she ended up divorcing him, lol.

The worst - the absolute WORST list to get on is Victoria's Secret. Those catalogs multiply in your mail box. I'm sure some gents here wouldn't mind but I finally managed to outrun that company.

Next time give your neighbor's address and steal one needed catalogue out of his mailbox. Let him deal with the rest :)

By the way, I may be going on a river cruise next year, so ordered a catalogue from Vikings. Instead of sending me one, they sent a survey first with a stamped return envelope, and only after I'd replied, they sent me an actual catalogue. Neat, huh?

To update-
I just received a very polite reply from OAT saying that they would remove me from their mailing list (which will take @ 8 weeks), and that I can access their web site for all trip info.
Trees all over America are cheering!

I keep getting catalogs, letters, brochures from the Church of Scientology. I have called numerous time for them to stop but they haven't. Somehow they have followed me everytime I move.
I get 2-3 pieces of mail from the <b>daily</b>-no kidding!

WOW, can I ever sympathize! We booked a trip with GCT last year, after looking through all the wonderful-looking glossy catalogues we got in the mail every week. When we went to pay the final invoice, we were told that the price posted was incorrect, and that we owed an additional $700 each! Needless to say, we didn't take the trip. After numerous postings of this on a number of travel sites, and a letter to the ombudsman at National Geographic Traveler, who contacted GCT for us to no avail, guess what - we STILL are getting the stupid catalogues. They end up in the trash.

If they would just put some of that money into better business practices, they'd be a lot better off!

We have requested, by phone, and in writing (after a couple particularly shabby experiences with gCT) to be removed from the mailing list. HA HA HA!! Still get several a week..and we mark them 'return to sender&quot;...still they keep comming. To all the folks on this forum who think this company sells a good product, you should remember that YOU (the clients) are paying for this junk, out of their profits, that come out of your pocketbook.! We are going to save them up until we have a few pounds, then ship them COD...wonder if that works.

My husband and I have taken many OAT and Grand circle Travel trips and enjoyed all of them. I guess the catalogs are a tad too many, but we do not care as we own a printing business in DC.

A suggestion for unwanted catalogs - well, perhaps not Victoria's Secrets :)) -

Most primary grades and kindergartens appreciate pictures that the children can cut out and paste up. This goes double for schools and kindergartens for children with special educational needs.

If they want to waste the money, and you don't want to be forever throwing them out, perhaps consider donating them?

I used to be on the Oat/Grand Circle mailing list and I know what you mean. Sometimes I'd get several huge catalogs within one week. I called them and within a few weeks I was removed and haven't heard from them in ages.

Same with an outdoor products company I ordered from once and suddenly started receiving dozens of catalogs. I called them and they removed me.

For years I even included my email address on every post on Fodor's and I have NO reason to believe they ever sold or gave my email address to anyone.

One of the reasons I hate so many catalogs is because I travel so much and have someone who takes my mail in every couple of days. But with all those catalogs, sometimes the mailbox is filled with one day's delivery.

When I told my BF I'd called to cancel some unwanted, unsolicited womenswear catalogs, he replied &quot;oh great, so you just confirmed your address to them!&quot;. Sure enough, after a few months' hiatus, they were ba-a-a-ack.

The worst offender? Willams-Sonoma / Pottery Barn / Hold Everything. I ordered *one item* *online* from HE four years ago, and I get at least one 4-color print catalog each month from *each company*, plus useful items like PB Kids (since I have none). They even followed me to two new addresses - and faster than the bill collectors! Calling to cancel doesn't work...

I do enjoy glossy catalogs, but I'm drowning under the ones I get, to the point where I absolutely avoid ordering anything online or catalog. Now how's that good for the companies' business??