We are writing to say how appropriate was Roy Schwedelson's recent article on mailing (“Delivering the Mail to All the Right Recipients: A Guide,” April 13). There are some business-to-business mailers whose mailing practices have gotten completely out of hand.
We have written several letters to three companies who continue to inundate us with seminar brochures. None has provided us with the courtesy of a response, let alone made the least effort to curtail their mailings to us. Our company — as I am sure many others do — circulates seminar brochures internally, and, therefore, we need only two copies at most, not the average 14 we routinely receive for each seminar. It is a shameful waste, and it is frustrating that these companies will not put a stop to it.
We have written and called each delinquent company on several occasions. They have not responded to written correspondence even though we have threatened to boycott their seminars. After going through a torturous telephone maze trying to reach someone in authority to deal with the problem, the person at the other end of the line inevitably confirms our observations that these companies either do not understand the merge/purge process and the use of suppression files or they do not care about the attendant waste from multiple mailings, or both.
We appeal to DM News to help us publicize the problem of wasteful multiple mailings and to solicit industry advice on how to coerce companies who perpetuate this practice into becoming more responsible mailers. Perhaps an article on Merge/Purge 101 would be useful, too.
Arthur Boni
Direct mail manager
Lee Valley Tools Ltd.
Ottawa
