an end to junk mail for your ears

The CRTC's Do Not Call Registry went live yesterday at 12:01 am.

So many Canadians want off telemarketing lists that 223,000 people had registered for the service by 1:30 pm, and more than one million people tried to access a telephone hotline to register.

"We are victims of our own success," said CRTC spokesperson Denis Carmel. "At one point, 18,000 tried to get through at the same moment. If you would have told me these numbers yesterday, I would have laughed."

The Do Not Call list will prevent telemarketers from calling people who are on the registry. It won't, however, block pollsters or charities.

To sign up for the service, visit the CRTC.

end junk mail

The Canadian Marketing Association's 800 corporate members - including Aeroplan, Sears, TD Bank, Reader's Digest, The Shopping Channel, Bell Canada and eBay - use a variety of ways to sell to you, such as the uber-popular addressed mail.

The CMA offers a "Do Not Contact" service to keep these companies legit, and if you get a lot of junk mail and/or faxes, you can register for free to have your name removed from new contact lists held by their members.

*Note: The National Do Not Call List operated by Bell Canada under contract to the federal government is expected to be up and running in the fall of 2008. At that time, you should register your telephone number with this CMA program as well.

no junk mail please

Last year, so fed up with the amount of junk mail that I was receiving, I posted a discreet sign just under my mailbox – ‘No Junk Mail, Please’. It works and what a difference it has made! No more pesky unsolicited mail or flyers.

The Red Dot Campaign is promoting awareness that Canadians' do have a choice in opting out of receiving junk mail from Canada Post through their Consumer Choice Option.

A couple of easy ways to stop junk mail --> a sample letter is available for download from Red Dot Campaign ... just complete and forward it to your postal carrier or simply post a 'no junk mail' sign near your mailbox or mail slot.

It's as easy as that!