DEBRIS.COMgood for a laugh, or possibly an aneurysm

Sears seems to keep their customer lists forever. Move or die, they’ll still send catalogs to every place you’ve ever lived.

I just got three copies of the Spring ‘03 Fashion mailing. One was addressed to the people who sold us this house and moved out of state last Fall. Another was addressed to the people who sold the house to the people we bought it from, in 1997, and have since passed away. Both these copies contain revealing information about Sears’ disrespect for customers’ privacy, in a back-cover blurb that announces what seems to be a reversal of previous opt-outs:

According to our records, your household is not currently receiving promotional notices in the mail from Sears… We are updating our records… If you do not contact us at the above telephone number, you will be placed on our mailing list.

So, sell your Sears stock. Their sales projections are apparently so weak that they’ve decided to send catalogs to a bunch of people who have either previously opted out, or moved, or died. This is not exactly low-hanging fruit.

For the record, I find it despicable that any company would reverse its stance on privacy like this. What Sears is saying, as far as I can tell, is “even though you previously told us you don’t want to receive our junk mail, we’ll start sending it now unless you call us again to ask us not to.”

I bought appliances from Sears last Fall, and if I was given an opportunity to opt-out then I certainly would have. (I don’t remember.) If I was given an opportunity to opt in — that is, to request to be on the mailing list — I absolutely, without question, would not have, which is why I assume that the catalog victims in households “not currently receiving promotional notices” must have previously opted out, because clearly Sears never waited for an opt-in in the past.

It’s interesting that the catalog they sent in my name contained no opt-out information. In that sense I’m fortunate to have received the other two copies, because it gave me the opt-out telephone number, which I’ll share with you now.

To opt out of the Sears junkmail list, call 1-800-510-2396.

(If that number ends up getting cancelled, try 1-800-366-3125 or one of the numbers on Sears Catalog Contacts page.)

You may still run into a roadblock, although whether it’s due to Sears’ unwillingness to help customers leave the mailing list, or its inability to manage its database, is unknown at this time. The mailing with my name on it had no “sequence number”, so we had to search by name and ZIP. That search pulled up my old address, even though the catalog was sent to my new address. So it seems that I can’t be taken off the mailing list, because I’m not on it, never mind the Sears catalog in my hand that proves otherwise.

Here’s another direct-marketing list broker that sells your name and address data: GETKO Hotline

If you’re a new homeowner, call Getko at 800-642-8732 opt out. Their reps will mislead you by saying you should call the DMA to opt out, but I know Getko isn’t using the DMA’s opt-out list — if they were, I wouldn’t be getting mail from people who bought my name from Getko.

Don’t forget to call Homedata too.

The AP reports:

President Bush on Tuesday signed legislation creating a national “do-not-call” list intended to help consumers block unwanted telemarketing calls.

The bill allows the Federal Trade Commission to collect fees from telemarketers to fund the registry, which will cost about $16 million in its first year. The do-not-call program should begin operation by summer.

Telemarketers say the registry will devastate their business.

So it seems that the telemarketers not only will be forced to comply with this new law — they’ll also have to pay for it. Ha!

The new law is unfortunately not comprehensive, because the FTC has only limited authority over some industries. I understand this to mean that the new DNC law may not affect telcos, airlines, and banks. Also, the law exempts charities, surveys, and politicians. But for all of these low-lifes, who think their right to call you at home against your will is protected by the 1st Amendment, there is still Steve Rubenstein’s “hopeful hold.”

Comprehensive or not, this national DNC system is a huge step in the right direction. Citizens’ time and privacy are now protected by federal law. US States that have already implemented DNC lists can presumably shave those costs back out of their budgets as they transfer control to the federal system. And as a telemarketing victim, you no longer need to plead with each individual telemarketer to be removed from the calling list — you can simply opt out one time.

I’ll enjoy watching the DMA squirm over this one.

Check out the Chronicle’s Year in Pictures — 12 galleries of their best shots from last year.

(You might wish to resize your browser window to obscure that horrible flashing advertisement on the right side.)

Small world syndrome: the owners of the restaurant where I spent three nights last week just bought an old Mercedes diesel for $1500 and outfitted it to run on vegetable oil (for $800 more). They’ll get free fryer fat from neighboring restaurants. The point is, being “part of the solution” in this case does not represent a huge investment, as might, for example, buying a new hybrid. (While I think hybrids are an improvement over traditional internal-combustion-only vehicles, they still burn refined fossil fuels, and thus are inferior to, not to mention more expensive than, biodiesels.)

British correspondent Ade Rixon wrote in to describe a roadblock to the greasecar movement in the UK: the government taxes fuel, and considers it a serious crime for citizens to burn any fuel that has not been taxed: Sniffing out unusually fragrant exhaust fumes, highway patrols have already collared several dozen offenders, who save more than 40p a litre by diverting oil from the kitchen cupboard to under the bonnet. So you can burn cooking oil, but you risk spending seven years in prison if you do.

I know of no such laws here in the US, although I would not be surprised to learn that it’s buried in the so-called Patriot Act, which among other surveillance measures gives federal agents access to customer data from bookstores and libraries, as if domestic terrorists could be identified by their reading lists.

Anyway, bitter sarcasm aside, I had a depressing email exchange with someone last week on the topic of alternative energy sources. It started with that message that’s been bouncing around about boycotting oil companies that buy from Iraq. I responded that I’d rather they drill in the middle east than offshore California (e.g. 15 minutes from my house) or in an Alaskan wildlife preserve — and that the best solution, in my opinion, is to reduce consumption because then we need not worry so much where the oil comes from. She wrote back to accuse me of being a nimbyist (“not in my back yard”) which is true enough, but still an easy condemnation for her considering she doesn’t live anywhere near a proposed drilling site.

She continued, “But the fact of the matter is that gas/oil is a necessity. I wish that it were not, but it is. I hope there will come a day when we don’t rely on it for our transportation or to heat our homes. However, that day will probably not come in my lifetime.”

That’s just so wrong. Certainly the easy solution for her is to drive a gas-powered car and use oil-based heating, but by no means is that a “necessity.” I suggested a number of alternatives, e.g. electric heat, solar power, wind power, motorcycles, diesels, hybrids, electric cars, Segways… and she wrote back, “You must be living in a different world than I do.”

Well, I guess maybe I do. At least I’m looking for answers rather than trying to convince others, in the face of the evidence, that no answers exist.

What scares me about this is her blindness to facts, her closed-mindedness to the death spiral we’re in due to dependence on (foreign) oil, the damage to the environment we do every day with these “easy” answers, and of course the fact that she votes.