Ask HN: Is there a better way for me to interact with companies | Hacker News Reader

Ask HN: Is there a better way for me to interact with companies

2 pointsbazsouthafrica4 comments

Hi All

Posting here since this is a community that likes solving problems or (even better) may know of a solution.

I am based in the US (just moved here), and I wonder if there is service (or if I am missing something) that will improve how I currently interact with companies? For example, when I moved apartments, I needed to make contact with all credit card companies, my gas and power, bank (you get the picture) to update my address. If I am lucky, it involves me logging into dozens of sites to update things. If I am unlucky, I need to call them up. In addition, my mail box is constantly filled with special offers and discounts that I don't ask for (some which is actually useful, most is not).

So... hoping someone can point me to a solution where I can manage all this (if it even exists). If it doesn't exist, is someone building something?

Switch to companies that are easier to get ahold of (if your current supplier doesn't allow to change your details online, switch to a competitor that does), and possibly cut down on the number of companies you interact with so the task takes less time.

> In addition, my mail box

Email or physical mail? For email, every time you get receive bullshit, spend a minute to try and unsubscribe. I recommend not using the link and instead logging into the website and unsubscribing from all their mailing lists, where as the unsubscribe link would usually only unsubscribe you from one of their mailing lists.

For physical mail if it's a company you have an account with I guess you could do the same and see if there's a way to opt-out (I imagine they would want to save costs and not spend money mailing out physical spam to someone that isn't interested). For the rest sadly there isn't much to do, but if any spam arrives with prepaid envelopes just put their garbage in there and send it back to them, just to waste some of their money.

Thanks. It seems like such a waster of time and money to do this all the time. For mail, I meant physical mail (email I always unsubscribe). I just can't get rid of all this physical mail.

Question: Do people actually read all this "physical mail spam". I assume they do, otherwise companies wouldn't bother us.

I think that's just how things are. I'm 23 and haven't found a better way yet!

Oh no. I was hoping that this would not be the case. In your opinion, is there any service that can do this for me? I mean, I am sure other people have this problem as well, someone must be solving it?

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