![\"user-pic\"](\"/mt-static/support/assets_c/userpics/userpic-1526432-100x100.png\")
You nailed it. Lazy paper carrier is the issue here. I get random copies of our local rag now and then. Never subscribed. Sometimes it shows up, sometimes it doesn't. IT just depends on who's delivering that day and whether they're paying attention or not.
The newspaper doesn't care because it's all just cheap advertising for them. Kind of like trying to unsubscribe from an email list. Good luck.
![\"user-pic\"](\"http://consumerist.com/assets_c/userpics/userpic-348996-100x100.png\")
This Email, sent to the heads of the circulation department and all the other departments, seems to have worked fine:
\"Greetings:
In the past, I have contacted The [local paper] at least twice to request that you stop delivering the weekly bag of advertisements to our lawn at [our address]. Each time, it stops for a while, and then it starts up again.
We don’t want Crossroads, and this time it is not a request: I demand that you cease and desist – permanently – from throwing this unwanted marketing material onto our property.
Effective today, if I ever see a bag of ads from The [local paper] on our property again, I will immediately take costly legal action against The [local paper] and anyone involved in its circulation. If we catch a driver delivering it, we will seek to have him or her arrested and charged with defiant trespass.\"
My wife is a lawyer, so the next bag of s**t they deliver will hit the fan.
![\"user-pic\"](\"/css/images/default.gif\")
Oh get over yourself. You are the reason people hate lawyers. If this is the MAJOR issue in your life, you really need to take some prozak. Littering is like speeding. It is met with a fine for the person who did it. YOU would get nothing. The newspaper company did not trespass. The carrier did. If you want to put a carrier out of work or fine him, while he does know where you live, you are one of the most ignorant people ever.
![\"user-pic\"](\"http://consumerist.com/assets_c/userpics/userpic-83027-100x100.png\")
If you live in my town there's a real risk that having these things tossed on your lawn every week would cause you to be fined by the borough.
In this town if your grass is a quarter inch too long they fine you for it. For a while they were putting what my family called \"rat out your neighbor\" forms in the borough newsletters that allowed you to anonymously gripe about any little thing about your neighbor's property that bothers you. There have been people who have gone away for a week on vacation and gotten fined because their grass dared to grow while the weren't there to cut it.
In a town like this having your carrier not abide by your request to stop delivery can be more than just an issue of littering or trespass, as it can lead to fines of about $50 -$100. My town is evil.
It's a major security risk if they are delivered and left to build up into a pile while he or she is on vacation or out of town.
![\"user-pic\"](\"http://consumerist.com/assets_c/userpics/userpic-22777-100x100.png\")
If the pile gets high enough, zombies could crawl up and get into the upstairs windows.
You people are not seeing the big picture!
Good to hear from the Internet Tough Guy.
Go pound sand, johnjamesthree... or go deliver your papers, whatever.
![\"user-pic\"](\"http://consumerist.com/assets_c/userpics/userpic-248249-100x100.png\")
Typical \"you're a lawyer, so I automatically hate you and disagree with anything you say\" attitude. Remember how much you hate lawyers when you're sued for something stupid or charged with a crime you didn't commit.
If it's not a big deal, then why is it on this website? And if you don't think it's a big deal, why are you reading it.
What's really annoying is people who read Consumerist, then make comments that it's no big deal. If you don't think the issues the Consumerist posts are big deals, direct your browser elsewhere. The rest of us don't like people littering/dumping on our property, and either do most states, as I know it's punishable by jail in both Washington and Idaho.
Call the police and tell them you want the guy who left a newspaper on your lawn arrested and jailed for 'dumping'. Let us know how that goes.
![\"user-pic\"](\"http://consumerist.com/assets_c/userpics/userpic-318831-100x100.png\")
The carrier is an actor on behalf of the newspaper. As such, the newspaper has liability for actions said actor takes on behalf of the newspaper. If an employer orders an employee to trespass on private property, then the employer is liable as is the employee (and in fact, if the employee is told he/she has a right to go on the property, when he/she does not have any right to do so, liability for the trespass may fall solely on the employer).
Refusal to stop littering is indeed a valid tort, as is refusal to stop trespassing. How is using the remedy prescribed by law for such a violation of property in any way misuse of the legal system?
And this matters why? They do not put trespassers in jail;. You seem to think anything an employee does while performing their duties is a CRIME. IT IS A CIVIL matter. Sue the newspaper. Now prove damages. You spent 1 minute a day 50 times a year picking it up. Cash your $10 check. Lawyers are worth something when there are BIG issues, not this petty bullshit. And it is PETTY BULLSHIT. It is why this site is ruined because REAL issues get pushed aside and this is the best that is offered. If his wife is actually an attorney, then I would bet she could spend her time doing something more evaluable. I think the fact that he wants to sue and send people to attorney us and threaten the paepr shows he is the one who is a bully. Also, as an attorney, they will need to prove the paper was put there by them. Maybe a neighbor threw it in their yard. It is a reasonable defense. NEXT MR Tough Guy asshole
To a point your right, all we used to do is fine a new carrier. You and your wife would be just wasting your time in sue them.
These kind of papers are not deliver by a route person. They are deliver by person that is paid once a week to deliver them. If there is a person you will see them coming to your house each week. If not you will miss weeks.
Yes they are told to stop and in most case most do. There is no list and the next person that takes the job was never told about you.
All the paper has to do is show the Judge they did tell the carrier (at the time) to stop it. Yes I used to be a ZM for the OC Register. I never had to keep track of this kind of stuff yet. We would get calls to stop them. We told them to stop (the 3rd party). An they did, till a new person took over. There are no route cards/list for these. Why I do not recall what they called it. Its falls under the samething as the Pennysaver (Calif). I hate that, I do not want it in my box. Yet week after week they keep putting it in. Why? It was paid to be put in and they have to do it.
![\"user-pic\"](\"/mt-static/support/assets_c/userpics/userpic-1238020-100x100.png\")
Wouldn't it also be considered littering?
![\"user-pic\"](\"http://consumerist.com/assets_c/userpics/userpic-86246-100x100.png\")
This letter will also prove useful for other unwanted flyers. I was able to stop delivery of our unwanted phonebook by returning it. I gave it back and told the receptionist \"This was delivered by accident.\" I then demanded a credit on my phone bill for my inconvenience and they gave me one.
Perhaps if the OP went to the publisher and returned the ads? How about if a lawyer made a quick call to the publisher? Rational people would be able to solve this. Since the publisher isn't rational, it's time to think creative!
![\"user-pic\"](\"/mt-static/support/assets_c/userpics/userpic-1523408-100x100.png\")
I don't even have a home phone and I get phonebooks from two different companies twice a year. It's insanity. They go right from the front steps to the recycle bin.
I feel bad for that phone company...I mean very few people enjoy bags of unwanted ads on their lawn, but I bet the never thought in a million years that someone would get in such a huff over a PHONEBOOK, an item that many people despite the internet and blackberries and such still use to look up numbers, that they would march down to their office and \"demand\" a credit for their \"inconvenience. What a jerk move on your part, honestly. It's worlds away from a company throwing trash on your lawn to have a phone company deliver you a phone directory once a year.
![\"user-pic\"](\"/mt-static/support/assets_c/userpics/userpic-1004377-100x100.png\")
I've never looked through the sheet of actual \"newspaper\" of the free version of the Tennessean to even consider there might be an unsubscribe option. Figured it was part and parcel of having my own street address as opposed to an apartment.
I agree, the carrier may never bother looking at any \"Do not Deliver\" list. But that would elicit loads of complaints from subscribers returning from vacation too I'd think. However, I think the free version is delivered by someone other than the regular newspaper carrier, as ours often arrives in the afternoon.
Perhaps a letter documenting the exact days you've requested unsubscription, the responses you've received, if speaking to a CSR, their name, etc. Would a \"cease and desist\" letter mean anything to a publisher without an attorney's letterhead? If you really wanted to play hardball, set up video monitoring of your property (apps can work with your webcam and motion detection, etc.) Get a description of the carrier's car, and even their picture, and complain to your State DMV that said person is littering on your property about once a week, get contact info, and send a C&D to them too.
![\"user-pic\"](\"/mt-static/support/assets_c/userpics/userpic-461138-100x100.png\")
My husband accidentally received Playboy in the mail for several years. I know everyone says \"sure it was 'accidental' he probably paid for it and just wouldn't tell you\" but really he didn't. We laughed about it for a long time. I wouldn't have cared if he had, and didn't mind him 'reading' it. The magazine is fairly tame and harmless. I actually read quite a few of the articles over the years, which were interesting. (He said \"Sure you read it for the articles!\"
The only think we can think of, is he ordered me some rather flimsy lingerie from their magazine, either from a single issue he got or from the website (we don't recall which) that was intended for me to wear on our honeymoon. We suspect when he placed this order, it somehow accidentally got him on the subscription list.
We never received a bill or subscription renewal card in the mail. We never got a credit card charge for it. We knew it wasn't a \"gift\" from someone. It came in the mail for about six or seven years.
However, we were hesitant to call and ask them to stop sending it, because we were afraid they'd say \"Oh, we're looking at your 'account' and you owe $300.\" Eventually it just stopped coming in the mail. Someone must have noticed the error and stopped it.
Playboy used to have a sort of secret plan where they handed out free subscriptions. I had one for more than 10 years. First I was a paid subscriber. When that ended, I got a very terse, almost postcard-like notice in the mail that they were giving me a complimentary subscription. I think it may have even said \"for life\" or something.
I have NO idea why they picked me of all people, but what the heck. If they want to send me a free mag, who am I to argue?
And they did exactly that: I got free Playboy for a very very long time. They never once contacted me again about it. And I never contacted them for fear of getting that back bill. I hope they meant it when they said it was complimentary.
Only recently did it stop, which is OK. I know the company is having financial issues.
I have been getting Time magazine in the mail for 5 years now and I have no idea who's paying for it. It's definitely not being charged to me. I think it was originally a gift from my grandfather, but he has since passed away and I'm still receiving it.
I'd rather have received Time than Playboy. I personally would have gotten more use out of it. My husband did not mind it though, I am sure! ;-)
Anything sent to you in the mail that you did not order is a gift to you. It's a violation of federal law to later apply a charge for such free gifts. The burden is on the publisher to verify their mailing lists, not the recipient.
Even if it says \"keeping this free issue enrolls you in our service\" they still can't charge you, since you didn't order it. Beware of things like ordering a \"free\" issue or cashing a \"check\" someone sends you however, since they often have fine print that makes the follow-on charges borderline legal.
![\"user-pic\"](\"http://consumerist.com/assets_c/userpics/userpic-472416-100x100.png\")
I seem to have a revolving, never ending, subscription to Maxim and Rollingstone that I cancelled YEARS ago. They stopped sending bills, but still randomly send magazines. I use call and cancel every once in a while, but since they don't seem to mind sending me free mags I gave up. I think both of them are delivering to non-subscribers to bolster subscription numbers, which looks good to advertisers. Since the magazine content is almost an after-thought, it's all about ads anyways.
![\"user-pic\"](\"/mt-static/support/assets_c/userpics/userpic-129735-100x100.png\")
But with Playboy, I would suspect that the \"content\" is primary and the advertising is secondary.
![\"user-pic\"](\"http://consumerist.com/assets_c/userpics/userpic-1240476-100x100.png\")
Same here! I started to get Maxim in the mail again one year after my subscription ran out and these people keep calling to get me to answer some questions about my subscription and despite telling them \"I didn't order this or any other magazine and no I don't want to order more.\" they still called for a good couple of months. Nothing like having to screen my home phone because these people who can't speak straight english won't get a clue.
Interesting theory! That would make sense.
This happened to me several years ago. I kept trying to do it via the unsubscribe method listed in the paper but it never worked. Finally I called the paper and asked for the circulation manager and politely but firmly told him to stop all delivery to my home. They came out and put a special sticker on my mailbox post for the delivery person to see that we refused delivery. It worked. Another thing to try is to wait at the street for the delivery person if you have some clue as to when they deliver. But that could be a long, cold wait...
![\"user-pic\"](\"/mt-static/support/assets_c/userpics/userpic-389492-100x100.png\")
i've run into the local trash-paper delivery person at about 4:30 am when my dog really needed a walk. that would be an awful wait for most people
![\"user-pic\"](\"http://consumerist.com/assets_c/userpics/userpic-237394-100x100.png\")
I delivered an \"Advertiser\" paper for 2 years when I was 12-14. I never remember getting instructions about people unsubscribing, but by the end of the two years half the route had asked me not to deliver. Which was great because I still was paid for those papers. KillerBee is right, though. That would be ruined by turnover if that's an issue.
Having lived in Baltimore for 8 years I can say there is no way to get them to stop delivering. Some of my neighbors have resorted to posting signs on their door clearly stating they don't want these papers and still will have them show up on their doorstep. Could small claims court work? You can sue telemarketers for continuous unwanted solicitations why not these guys.
While some states only permit a citizen's arrest for felonies, some states (Washington does, I don't know about Maryland) allow citizens arrest for minor crimes. If your state allows it for minor crimes, do this: Cancel the \"subscription\" with the paper, then wait for the next delivery. Tell the delivery person you've canceled, and will consider any future unauthorized \"deliveries\" to be trespassing and littering. The next time it happens, place the offender under citizen's arrest and call the police. Odds are criminal charges won't go anywhere, if the prosecutor bothers with the matter at all, it would probably be a fine. But I can guarantee that delivery person won't ever deliver unsolicited ads to you ever again.
![\"user-pic\"](\"http://consumerist.com/assets_c/userpics/userpic-1032933-100x100.png\")
I'm not sure which paper is doing in here, but we get the same sort of thing every Sunday sitting on the end of the drive. Luckily, our town does curb-side recycling every Monday.
![\"user-pic\"](\"http://consumerist.com/assets_c/userpics/userpic-427477-100x100.png\")
Our local talk radio station organized its listeners to drop off their unwanted adverts at the newspaper's offices. For weeks people would drive by and throw them into the parking lot. The newspaper looked pretty silly when they started complaining about people littering and threatened to sue the radio station. Eventually, all the bad press got them to be more responsive.
I delivered these things for a while when I was out of work. If I noticed one was still there from the previous week, I would skip the house. We also had lists that told us which houses to skip. If we got complaints, they affected our pay.
I suggest getting the circulation manager's cell phone number (ask for him or her to call you before the offices open in the morning and get the number off caller ID). Most of these managers have to be there when the papers are being delivered to make sure all the carriers show up, re-deliver missed houses, train new carriers, etc. In our area, they work from 3am til about 11am. Call them in the early afternoon if the problem persists (this is most likely when they will be sleeping) in order to drive home the point.
Oh man, that would be hilarious.
Any chance there's pictures of the \"redecorated\" parking lot floating around anywhere? I'd love to see it if there are...
I had this happen and went through normal channels (Email, phone calls) to stop delivery. I travel on work and nothing says to a thief I'm not home like a newspaper sitting in your driveway not picked up for 3 days.
Eventually, I collected about 5 weeks worth, went down to their office and proceeding to return their newspaper one sheet at a time thrown at random in their lobby. It worked - they finally got the message and stopped delivery.
![\"user-pic\"](\"http://consumerist.com/assets_c/userpics/userpic-24240-100x100.png\")
I live in Carroll County, MD, just northeast of Baltimore. We have like 3-4 free papers within a week between all the different ones. People have \"No Free Papers\" signs by their mailboxes. It's annoying frikken littering. I pick mine up at the end of the driveway every Tuesday night, as I drop them as-is into the recycle bins. But this way they can claim their subscriber numbers are higher and charge more for people too dumb to use CraigsList.
![\"user-pic\"](\"/mt-static/support/assets_c/userpics/userpic-1524892-100x100.png\")
I read on here once to take all the unwanted crap out of your mailbox (stuff that was put in from a person, like free newspapers and fliers), save it for a month or 2, then drop it all in a big blue mailbox. It will get returned to sender for insufficent postage/no address to mail it to. If the advertiser or newpaper complains, then they will have to explain why they were putting things in people's mailboxes (as opposed to mailing them).
Get everybody who hates the stuff to demand to be unsubscribed from it. If it keeps coming...
Get together with your neighbors, and collect all the unwanted crap. Sort it by which company sends it to you, and when it gets to a large pile, get a couple pickup trucks and return it to sender.
Bonus points if you can block the front door of their building so they have to use the back door until they clean up the mess.
![\"user-pic\"](\"/mt-static/support/assets_c/userpics/userpic-53958-100x100.png\")
I had a related problem with the local rag. I bought a \"Fri-Sat\" subscription (they don't publish on Sun) - all we wanted was the Friday flyers and the Saturday features. Trouble was, the carrier started dropping every day. Each morning a paper at our apt door.
I called, verified they got the subscription right and was told \"We'll let the carrier know.\" No luck, every morning SMACK the paper appeared.* I called a couple of time more and got the same thing - \"No, you're being charged for weekend service. We'll send him a message.\"
We let the subscription lapse when it expired 6mo later and the papers continued to arrive for a solid month - again with us calling to verify they'd closed the subscription.
Some time later I was speaking with a coworker whose son had a paper route. He told me the boy regularly gets 5-10 papers more than his route requires and it told to drop them where he \"sees fit.\" He said my carrier probably ignored all message except \"start at this address\" and \"(eventually) stop at this address\" and just assumed we were a daily subscription.
* For the io9'ers in us, no it wasn't the NEXT day's paper and our cat didn't help us find the story that we had to keep from happening. (grin)
![\"user-pic\"](\"/mt-static/support/assets_c/userpics/userpic-1524851-100x100.png\")
This happened to me, only I had a Saturday, Sunday and holiday subscription. The carrier would routinely skip my house on Sunday, which is the only paper I really care about and I would have to call. After a while, they outsourced their customer service and I would call and get someone out of state. This kept happening, until I finally got fed up with the lousy delivery and canceled the paper.
It still kept coming for probably three months, and was right on time every weekend, but they never sent me another bill. Finally it stopped. Then just yesterday, I went to the grocery store and a guy at a stand hawking a new Sunday-only, $1-a-paper-for-a-year special told me that it wasn't true that I had to get Saturday Sunday and holiday. He said whoever told me I couldn't get Sunday only was full of it. I was considering this new offer, but now I'm not so sure.
Also, they are only going with paying up front for the year, or an automatic withdrawal and I really don't want to do the latter. If they can't even keep track of my subscription to the point where I get three months of free papers after I cancel, then how can I trust them to not mess up my bank account? I'm planning to call the local office tomorrow and tell them I will start it again ONLY if they can send me a bill. If not, then tough tits.
If newspapers would quit this shit, maybe they could hold on to their subscribers.
The local rag does the same thing, and they completely ignore my requests to stop it. So, I take photos of the growing pile of papers in the snow and email to the advertisers asking them if this is what they wanted.
![\"user-pic\"](\"http://consumerist.com/assets_c/userpics/userpic-56987-100x100.png\")
I had an issue with the Los Angeles Times, not exactly similar but sort of a strange comment on the newspaper industry as a whole.
I got an amazing offer to subscribe to the Thurs-Sun for $26 a year. All paid in advance. When the year was up, I started getting bills to continue the paper, which I really didn't want so I didn't pay the bills that started coming, especially since the paper never stopped coming. Eventually the paper stopped coming so I called customer service and told them to stop sending me bills because I didn't want the paper.
Well now, I want to start up the paper again but I hesitate to start a new subscription because they think I have some balance due for the papers I received after my first year was up. So because of that, I probably won't resubscribe.
I hate the LA times. I haven't subscribed to them for years, and a month ago they started calling me three times a day. Finally I told them to stop. That'll last a few months, and then, it'll start right up again. I don't even live in LA County anymore.
The local weekly shopper paper cleaned up their act after the city threatened to take some sort of major action against them. They would toss their paper everywhere. Abandoned houses, entire bundles in apartment lobbies. It was actually becoming a major littering problem. One of our kids did a route for them after the paper had gotten in trouble. They had a strict delivery and do not deliver list and told the carriers they had to abide by it.
I noticed the weekly free paper (bag of ads) that our local paper was dumping last year stopped when the snow and bad weather hit. I don't know if they stopped it due to cost cutting or got a clue to quit dumping papers in people's snowbanks.
![\"user-pic\"](\"/mt-static/support/assets_c/userpics/userpic-147328-100x100.png\")
If that bundle got into the blades of a snow blower, they could either jam the auger or explode into a cloud of shredded newsprint, going everywhere.
![\"user-pic\"](\"http://consumerist.com/assets_c/userpics/userpic-191367-100x100.png\")
We get a free abbreviated portion of the paper every Wednesday as a tease and it annoys the crap out of me - not because I have to pick it up and recycle or trash it but because a large number of my neighbors DO NOT.
So in short, our local paper is contributing immensely to litter in our community. Maybe it's time for a letter to the editor.
I get something similar here in the Philly area. The Philly Inquirer distributes a \"newspaper\" full of nothing but ads (many of which are job scams or massage parlors) and \"stories\" that are really just advertisements. Hardly anyone reads them, and I'll see them sitting on (lazy) neighbors' driveways for weeks. (The only good thing is, they have been putting one of the coupon inserts in them lately, which means double sets for me when I get my Sunday paper).
after living in our apartment for about 2 years, we started receiving the Sunday paper (the whole thing, not just this bag of advertisements). They delivered it to our back door (2nd floor apartment) & no other apartment had a paper at their back door. We ended up calling them probably 10 times & of course they had no record of us ever having a subscription, but the girl that lived here before us had one TWO YEARS AGO. it took months for them to finally stop delivering.
Just go out and buy a parrot or a cat and USE those newspapers! Hundreds of trees are being destroyed for you. Appreciate it.
![\"user-pic\"](\"http://consumerist.com/assets_c/userpics/userpic-25844-100x100.png\")
If you really want to spend the time to go nuclear on the paper, start contacting the advertisers. Contact their advertising department, and explain to them (calmly) that you'd love to try their product, but unfortunately you won't because the newspaper that they advertise with (make sure you name it) keeps delivering their ads on your front lawn against your wishes.
It's a real tragedy, isn't it? Thanks, Consumerist, for taking to task yet another corporation to protect this helpless consumer from...a free newspaper.
Let us know when this guy sues the Sun for causing him to split the seam in his pants from bending down to pick up the paper.
![\"user-pic\"](\"http://consumerist.com/assets_c/userpics/userpic-1227429-100x100.png\")
It's certainly true that unwanted advertisements let everyone know when you're not home. I came home from vacation to find different ad packets on the porch, on the driveway, on the sidewalk, and in the yard. So yes, it is a big deal.
Also, one newspaper in one yard is a small thing. But think about the problem in aggregate. There are hundreds of houses in your city getting a weekly serving of unwanted paper. And now aggregate up to the year, and the number of houses in the country. That's a lot of waste. This situation creates a \"demand\" for needless killing of trees - a shame - and not everyone recycles the papers.
![\"user-pic\"](\"/mt-static/support/assets_c/userpics/userpic-918136-100x100.png\")
Hey dimwit! It IS a big deal to some people.
When I was single and regularly traveled for extended periods I would put a hold on my mail so I wasn't piling up and having some idiot throw this crap all over my front lawn, steps and porch just sent out a huge red flag that I wasn't home. I took great lengths to set timers on lights, have my grass cut, and have someone stop over every other week or so just to make it look like I was home. All of this was undone by the free ads and coupon papers.
Next time you post, take a minute to actually think through the possible issues.
![\"user-pic\"](\"/mt-static/support/assets_c/userpics/userpic-1523089-100x100.png\")
Send the paper a bill for cleaning up of the litter. Call all of the advertisers that in the trash on your lawn and complain to them. Tell them that you have tried to stop this and that you are now going to stop doing business with them because of this. Tell them you are getting neighborhood organization to boycott their businesses.
The issue is that the newspaper tells advertisers that their promos will be delivered to a specific number of homes and they do not have enough subscribers to make this true.
Lazy Carrier. It is easier to deliver a paper to every house than it is to remember which house wants it and which house doesn't.
If he wants to make a statement, make sure that he has documented in writing that he does not want the papers delivered. Then save up all of his papers for several months, then drive to the circulation center (with your 55 gallon trash bag of paper) dump it out in ther reception area place a note on the reception desk that says \"Stop delivering these papers to [address]\" and walk out. If anyone says anything, tell them that you are returning Baltimore Sun property that was left on your lawn. If they call security, make sure that you have your paper that documents in writing that you wanted the papers stopped so when they call teh Police you can simply say that you were returning their property, and if they stop delivering the papers to your house, they will stop returning them to their \"house\".
![\"user-pic\"](\"/mt-static/support/assets_c/userpics/userpic-1426948-100x100.png\")
Long time ago when we delivered a free newpaper, we were told DO NOT DELIVER TO xxx because they have threatened legal action, so....
Your best bet is to talk to a manager or supervisor in the circulation department, and threaten legal action if they continue to deliver paper.
![\"user-pic\"](\"/mt-static/support/assets_c/userpics/userpic-82555-100x100.png\")
That is what I was thinking - Document everything - every time you have requested to stop - and let them know the next time they litter in your yard, you will be calling the police to report it - and will do everything in your power to prosecute to the fullest that you can.
And once it shows up, see about reporting it as littering - and that they do it often and get the police involved.
My dad has been battling the SF Examiner for a few years now. He used to pay for it. He wants it to stop. They aren't charging him, and they haven't for at least a couple of years, but they keep delivering. He called everyone he could, and eventually gave up.
Besides being a huge waste of paper, he dislikes it because he goes out of town a lot. A pile of newspapers in the driveway is a huge red flag to anyone looking for a house to rob.
http://circulation.sfexaminer.com/examinerintranet/stopdeliveryreq_sf.cfm
I used the above site to stop delivery to my address. I had to do it a few times when delivery re-started a few times, but we have been free of the Examiner for about six months. I even gave this address to about ten of my neighbors, so I think someone took notice that a group of us didn't want their \"news\" paper.
I don't know if I would mind. Our local paper is so bad that I just want the coupons and the ad circulars but I don't want to pay for the paper....
![\"user-pic\"](\"/mt-static/support/assets_c/userpics/userpic-1524805-100x100.png\")
If it wasn't for the dog, I wouldn't subscribe. We only get it 3 x week thurs, fri, sun. Didn't get it last Sunday. Said to myself, it it isnt there today they are history. Bummer, it was there. Is it really worth it in super cold, snowy, or rainy weather to head to the mailbox? I also routinely get up at 5am and its supposed to be there, but I wait till 7am. I feel that if I cancel, the paper will fold. I figure it will anyways, so they'll cancel me. My dog's 11 so I wont need paper much longer.
The Baltimore Sun has an active Twitter presence. If you yell on there, I'm sure somebody could probably hear you.
![\"user-pic\"](\"/mt-static/support/assets_c/userpics/userpic-373245-100x100.png\")
Here in Madison, a few months ago, our free twice-weekly ad paper started being delivered by tossing it in a plastic bag onto my driveway. Prior to that it was delivered by USPS and the postal carrier, so it was put into the (letter section) curb-side mailbox.
The two final straws for me were 1) we had a big snow storm and when I went out to snowblow the driveway, a partially-frozen plastic-wrapped newspaper, buried under 2 feet of snow got sucked into the snowblower, taking me almost an hour to clean it out and 2) I went away for a week, came home to four papers in my driveway - excellent way to advertise NOBODY HOME.
I called the Capital Times (publisher) twice, asked them to put the ad into the very convienient newspaper slot on the mailbox. Nothing changed. Then suddenly about a month ago the ads started coming via letter carrier again. I suspect other complaints started rolling in, including lots of \"DO NOT DELIVER\" addresses being added tot he list.
I like getting the ads. There are good coupons in there for the local grocery, so I didn't really want to have them STOP, just put it in the fraking newspaper slot on the mailbox instead of the middle of my driveway. *shrug* problem is resolved for now, hopefully they don't revert come springtime or I will need to get very nasty.
![\"user-pic\"](\"http://consumerist.com/assets_c/userpics/userpic-1955-100x100.png\")
Unfortunately, there is a Federal \"mailbox restriction\" law which makes it illegal for delivery people to use the mailbox; you're asking them to do so doesn't change that. I see, in suburban and rural areas, a lot of mailbox posts with a second \"box\" labeled with the name of a newspaper, presumably to avoid having it tossed at random on the lawn or drive.
Actually he says there is a newspaper slot on the mailbox. I take this to mean it's an integrated mailbox-and-newspaperbox combo, like those chunky plastic Rubbermaid-looking ones. The mail goes in the part with the door, and the paper goes in the open compartment below it.
![\"user-pic\"](\"/mt-static/support/assets_c/userpics/userpic-101310-100x100.png\")
I have exactly the opposite problem, where I do subscribe to the Chicago Tribune (at my fiancee's request, though I find it a waste of money. Compromise, right?) but they can't seem to deliver my paper on the right days. We have a Wed, Fri, Sun delivery, and after the first week we stopped receiving the Wed, Fri. They have automated phone and web missed-delivery systems, which never make a difference, so I stepped it up the chain of customer service and it seemed to work... for 2 weeks. Now this past week we didn't receive Wed, Fri again. I wonder how many of their low readership woes would be solved if they could actually consistently deliver the paper to those who actually paid for it?!
I wonder if the Chicago Tribune and the Boston Globe have the same circulation department. At one point, I paid for a 6-month 7-day-a-week subscription to the Globe. By the time I got done complaining about all the missed papers, that 6 month subscription had run for 9 months. They had no problem with cancelling me at the end of my subscription.
A year or so later, I decided I'd give the Sunday-only subscription a shot. After receiving exactly zero papers in the first 4 Sundays, I said forget it. I now run out to the supermarket Sunday morning to pick up my paper.
In both cases, I'd call, they'd say \"sorry\" and give me a credit for the missed paper. After a while, they said they'd escalate to the local delivery manager. Never did get those calls, and they had my mobile number so \"we tried to call and you weren't home\" wasn't a viable excuse.
![\"user-pic\"](\"/mt-static/support/assets_c/userpics/userpic-449511-100x100.png\")
When you call the subscription department find out if you are calling the paper or an outsource service.
My local paper has outsourced it's subscription department to a company in another state. Since then it has become very unresponsive and, despite customer friendly assurances, doesn't actually result in a credit or replacement of missing or soaked newspapers.
![\"user-pic\"](\"/mt-static/support/assets_c/userpics/userpic-1523730-100x100.png\")
My local paper does this about once a year, but with the full paper. One morning I was tired of looking at the stack of 45 local papers sitting on my front lawn, I caught the delivery guy and dumped all 45 of the papers back into his car and told him to never, EVER, come to my address again. He hasn't been back since, but my neighbors are getting tired of throwing away papers they don't subscribe to.
So, if they do it once a year, and you had 45 papers on your lawn, that means you let the papers SIT THERE for 45 years!? Weren't the oldest ones rotted by then?
No, once a year they deliver to damned near everyone for 3 months.
That's a dick move in addition to not being true.
So, asking someone to pickup their trash that they tossed into your yard is \"a dick move\"? Good to know that you're inviting the entire planet to dump their trash in your house, care to post an address? As to your other assumption, you're full of shit with your head up your ass. ;-)
![\"user-pic\"](\"/mt-static/support/assets_c/userpics/userpic-578479-100x100.png\")
I suspect this is a money-maker for the Sun, and it's in their best interests to send as many unwanted papers as possible. Advertising rates are set by circulation; the big box stores and coupon companies don't care whether people read the articles as long as they receive the ads.
I rather wish our local paper offered something like this. They entice newsstand buyers by trumpeting the cumulative dollar amount of the coupons, and they now offer two Sunday editions bundled together for $3.50 \"with twice the coupons!\"
If you have a subscription and you go on vacation you can put your delivery on hold and they credit your account for the undelivered newspapers.
So the solution is: start a subscription, then call and tell them you're going on vacation and you'll call when you want to restart delivery.
They'll stop delivering and you never actually pay for newspapers.
And this does highlight a problem with leaving unwanted newspapers - if they happen to leave it when you are away on vacation it is a big red flag telling everyone who passes by that you are away.
![\"user-pic\"](\"/mt-static/support/assets_c/userpics/userpic-782863-100x100.png\")
A little bit of pedantry here:
I'm sure you've picked out the problem, but I'm not sure the adjective \"lazy\" applies. It takes a certain amount of work, even if a small one, to figure out who's not a regular subscriber then deliver each such household a \"Sun Plus.\" A better description of the deliverer's actions here is not \"lazy,\" but rather, \"inattentive,\" i.e. not paying attention to the \"do not deliver\" list.
![\"user-pic\"](\"http://consumerist.com/assets_c/userpics/userpic-126307-100x100.png\")
At one time the Examiner newspaper chain did a decent free Baltimore Examiner. They delivered everywhere, and was ad sponsored.
That said, they didn't follow up on \"stop delivery\" requests until someone notified, notified, and then sued to stop delivery. The Examiner settled soon after the lawsuit hit, and stopped delivery.
So yes, if the Baltimore Sun repeatedly does not honor delivery requests, send a Delivery-confirmed letter demanding stoppage of the SunPlus to your house under threat of lawsuit. Next time it happens, sue. You will be amazed how quickly they pay attention in court.
A side note, though: The Examiner folded Baltimore operations a few years ago. Shame, it was a good paper.
![\"user-pic\"](\"/mt-static/support/assets_c/userpics/userpic-53212-100x100.png\")
If you figure this out, let us know!
Maybe we can also apply it to the phone companies that insist on delivering those monstrous phone books. X-[
![\"user-pic\"](\"http://consumerist.com/assets_c/userpics/userpic-6561-100x100.png\")
The free \"rag\" is called TMC, Total Market Coverage. The advertisers pay to run it the insert. No subscribers pay directly. It's supposed to go to non-subscribers, hence total market. Good luck stopping it, i've gotten the same thing for years even though I subscribe to the same Sunday newspaper that delivers it.
if they'd put the coupon ones in the slot on my mailbox that's designed for it i wouldn't mind so much. i can always cut out the coupons i want and use the rest as kindling.
but usually i find out that a free coupon/advertising paper has been delivered when my dog tries to bring the soggy bag in from where he found it in the yard after it's been rained on for a few hours and the bag did nothing to keep it dry.
The Examiner in SF does this too... The issue is ironic that the \"free\" paper thats delivered isnt having anywhere near the financial problems that the pay news paper \"The Chronicle\" is having...
Wanna know what I do?
I dont bother to read the paper, or put it in the recycling bin, oh no, I kick it into the street gutter, and let the city deal with it. If the city finds an \"excessively large amount\" of trash in the streets by any company, they fine the company, or so Im told... So thats my hope, to get them to get fined so much they stop.
Try and catch the delivery guy. Chances are it's the same person (routes around me around generally run by the same people unless someone quits/is fired). Ask that person if they have a do not deliver list, and ask them to skip your house. Might have some success down that avenue, if you're ever home when it gets delivered.
Try to find out what audit bureau the Sun is using for that particular publication. They probably use the Audit Bureau of Circulation for their main product, but for free products, they might use another company. It's possible that the circulation department knows who this company is.
Call the audit bureau and tell them what's happening. See, audit bureaus are the organizations that track a publication's circulation, so that advertisers have a reliable way of knowing a publication's true circulation. So the audit bureau will file this complaint as a questionable practice and it might go into the publication's audit.
I've unsubscribed numerous times (San Francisco Examiner -right wing rag) and the paper still arrives but as a bonus it's now throw directly at my garage door (thump) at 3am.
I'm sure if I actually get them to stop delivering the paper, they'll simply replace it with a rock through the window.
I give up.
![\"user-pic\"](\"http://consumerist.com/assets_c/userpics/userpic-352646-100x100.png\")
Here in New York City, you can have a sign on your property that no unsolicited paper is to be left on your property. My mom has one (it's courtesy of one of the local politicians) and from I what I see when I visit, there's nothing left on her stoop or lawn. No more fast food menus, etc.
If there are no politicians offering such signs by you, make one up and plant it in yard and on your door. And yes, it's going to have to be a large-enough sign so that it can by read from the sidewalk. I think my mom's is the standard one they give out here, so even though it's in English only, my guess is that if a delivery person who cannot read English sees it, s/he knows what it means.
As for vacations and other times when you might be away for a few days, ask one of your nice neighbors to keep an eye on the place. Or one of your relatives could come by every day to check on your mail and the house.
Good luck.
Decades ago, when I still lived in the Central Valley, I reached a point where I would just take the offending paper, hold onto it until the next morning, and then hurl it at the paperboy as he approached. This came after a month worth of conversations with random service people at the paper, with the paperboy himself, and with the parents of the paperboy. Hardly legal, but in the end it was both cathartic and effective.
Not something I would recommend in this day and age. If I had to deal with the same scenario today, I'm not sure what I could safely do while still being branded a crazy unapproachable person who should never be solicited to.
I had the same problem at our old house. So far, been in the new house 6 months and not a single one has landed on the lawn. Yet.
I'm no lawyer, but I bet you could file a claim against them in small claims court. I'm sure there is some law they could be accused of breaking. Harassment, littering, causing mental distress, etc.
If the carrier walks on your property to deliver it, I'm sure you can have him arrested for trespassing since you've notified them that you do not want their service.
And if for some reason your house gets broken into because they were leaving these things on your lawn while you were away for vacation, I'm sure they could be held responsible for that.
Unfortunately, sometimes it takes a lawsuit to get a company to listen.
It's funny....I had a very similar conversation with the Yellow Book folks when I told them to get their junk off my lawn.
A combination of offering to send them a bill for their portion of my trash bill and a threat to file littering charges finally got them to come get the book and put me on the do not deliver list for good.
I had a similar problem with my local paper. We have anti-soliciting laws so from the point I asked them not to deliver they became finable for each paper left.
When I pointed this out in writing, they stopped immediately.
They also had an irritating habit of standing at store entrances asking if I wanted a free paper. When I said no they asked why...I told them and everyone else for the next five minutes.
When I was a kid I had a route for a local \"total-coverage\" paper. You were supposed to deliver to all the houses on your route, and then go to the houses at the end of the month and try to collect money. The majority of houses didn't want the paper and wouldn't pay. Occasionally you'd get some cranky guy who would yell at you, threatening violence or police if you left the paper there again. Didn't matter; you were supposed to leave it anyway.
Everyone learned not to deliver to the angry guys, as a matter of self-preservation, but a lot of the paperboys would take it further and just deliver to the houses that paid, dumping the rest of the papers wherever they wouldn't be found; dumpsters, vacant lots. Back then we did the routes on a bicycle or on foot, and carrying extra papers for people who didn't want them was a lot of extra work, well worth the effort of remembering who wanted the paper and who didn't. I did that for a while but my conscience got to me and I resumed delivering to all the houses (except the angry guys). I would never go back trying to collect from anyone who said they didn't want the paper, though.
The biggest jerks were the rare ones who knew the system and gamed it; you didn't get a lot of them, but once in a while you'd go to collect and someone would tell you, \"No, I won't pay, but I know you're supposed to deliver it anyway. So you keep on delivering it to me or I'll call the office and complain I'm not getting my paper.\" Just one of those could be the negative counterbalance to a whole block of nice people who paid and tipped you.
![\"user-pic\"](\"/mt-static/support/assets_c/userpics/userpic-1523386-100x100.png\")
is there a way you could get them prosecuted for littering? i imagine if the paper got a ticket in the mail for $200 or whatever a littering fine is, that they'd knock it off.
![\"user-pic\"](\"/mt-static/support/assets_c/userpics/userpic-1527123-100x100.png\")
Wow how much do I hate the SUNPlus??? Let me count the ways,
It is just trash to litter my driveway, where I have to stop, get out of the car, pick it up, only to put it directly in the recycle bin
Thanks for reminding me that I have to get this to stop, too....
![\"user-pic\"](\"http://consumerist.com/assets_c/userpics/userpic-414590-100x100.png\")
Thank God, I thought I was the only one that kept getting the Sun Plus, I don't read it, it goes right in the trash, It's nothing more than a waste of their money.
This cracks me up. I have tried to subscribe to the local paper (Sunday only, pls) at least a half dozen times in the 2 1/2 years I've lived here. I just want the coupons, I read the news online. The newspaper will send me bills for subscriptions, but the delivery person NEVER delivered an actual paper. So I never paid any bills. When customer retention called to ask why I didn't pay, I said I never received the product. They promised it would begin the coming Sunday. It never arrived. Lather, rinse, repeat.
All cities have anti-litter laws, and unsolicited materials placed on your private property (and the public right-of-way for that matter) are considered litter. Contact your city's community standards unit (if there isn't something by that name, call the police non-emergency number and ask who handles litter violations)--provide them with the actual paper, file a formal complaint, and follow up. In my city, if the offender persists, they are fined.
An easy way to get them to stop delivery. After cancelling several times and continuing to get the paper. Call them one last time and tell them that if the delivery person does not come back and pick up the newspaper you will call the police and press charges for littering on your property. If they deliver the paper again you will press charges. I did it three years ago and have never gotten another paper delivered. Your other option is to collect a few hundred newspapers and follow the carrier home and drop them all over their yard.
![\"user-pic\"](\"/mt-static/support/assets_c/userpics/userpic-1537594-100x100.png\")
Such a liberal newspaper, too. I thought they were all about the \"environment\" (as you can tell just by looking around Baltimore). ;)
After two attempts to unsubscribe from the SunPlus I am tempted to collect the some 20-30 bags of crap from the yards of my neglectful neighbors and redeliver them back to the Sun. Can we get organized and launch a campaign against this blatant littering and disregard for the environment? Who is with me?
Having worked at several papers, I've found that he's done all he can, short of going up the chain of command. And while that might work to get this current delivery person to stop, the turnover rate is high and the next person will start it up again.
Circulation is often filled with people who have the attitude of \"You're not paying for it. Why are you complaining?\" Don't talk to that person if you can help it. A person who gets it might not be able to help, but a person who doesn't get it won't even bother.
We had a free weekly that kept hanging papers off a hook on the mail box. Every time I removed the hook they would replace it. Every time I asked not to get the paper the would agree and keep on delivering it. Finally I wrote them a letter saying that there would be a $50 clean up fee for each paper left at my house. The next week the hook was replaced with a strip of red duct tape reminding the carrier not to leave a paper. Five years now and no paper.
This happened to me once. I waited until several had piled up in the mud and rain. Then, I grabbed a few extras from my neighbors who also didn't want the trash, and I drove down to the newspaper office with a large pile of muddy trash.
I walked in, smiled, put them on their pretty greeting counter and said, \"Hi, I believe these are yours. I don't want it in my yard, but I don't mind bringing it by yours.\"
I got dirty looks, but they stopped giving me their papers.
If anybody actually has such a low sense of self-preservation as to say \"You're not paying for it, why are you complaining?\" to me, I'd gather up a few copies, and deliver them to the newspaper owner's house. A couple dump truck loads wouldn't cost much at scrap paper rates, and ought to make a nice point. Include a note with a request to unsubscribe, and the name of the guy who refused to let you...