Hacker News Reader

Comment by logfromblammo | Hacker News Reader

The workaround is to do a temporary change of address, and contact each company that sends you mail forwarded from your old address individually, to update your address record. When the mail stops forwarding, you stop getting mail from anyone that you didn't explicitly inform of your new address.

The permanent change of address triggers advertising that targets new residents. Restaurants want to try to snag your regular business before you find other options on your own. Hardware stores expect that you might be doing some post-move remodeling. Insurers might try to sell you on a new homeowner or renter policy. Cable and phone companies offer you limited-time deals for new customers.

It's a one-time deluge that tails off pretty quickly. The USPS makes a lot of their revenue from periodicals (2nd class) and marketing (3rd class) mail.

View on HN

It's also one of the best ways to get the vaunted Bed Bath and Beyond 20% off your entire purchase coupon. Depending on how much stuff you're buying after you move, that can be worth a little junk mail

i have never found anything at bbb that wasn't already 20% cheaper on amazon/other site

They’ve already started piloting an annual subscription that gives you a permanent 20% off every purchase, every time, with a barcode pre-loaded on your phone. It cost me $29 for the whole year. I buy a ton of stuff at BBB for my company and it paid for itself in the first hour. And no paper coupon needed!

Agreed, that's how I have gotten that coupon too.

It's time to share the Three Secrets of the regular 20% off one item and $5 off a $15 purchase coupons that BeBo (that's what we call them here) mails out:

0. Ignore what it says on the coupon!

1. The coupons do not expire. No one looks at the expiration date, they just scan the barcode and it always works.

2. You can use any number of coupons in a single purchase as long as they are on different items.

3. If you don't have a coupon with you, you have 30 days to come back with a coupon and your receipt and get the discount refunded.

>The workaround is to do a temporary change of address, and contact each company that sends you mail forwarded from your old address individually, to update your address record. When the mail stops forwarding, you stop getting mail from anyone that you didn't explicitly inform of your new address.

This is a real dick move. Someone will have that address after you and you leaving your junk behind for them to deal with on an ongoing basis is straight up douche baggery.

> leaving your junk behind for them to deal with

This assumes the spam through mail is yours... it is the company's.

The dicks are the ones sending out the junk. Don't blame the victims.

The remedy for the next guy is to use a "return to sender: moved, left no address" notation or ink-stamp (or just "refused"), and to leave the articles in the mailbox. If they keep coming, a form 3575z (reason: MLNA) is a little more work, and the postal employee has to submit it, but is like a permanent change of address to /dev/null .

> The remedy for the next guy...

Again, you're leaving your problems for someone who has no connection to you. It should be you who files those forms to stop the mail you don't want to receive, not the poor person who happens to move in after you.

Realistically, the junk mail is based on a list that likely already contains that address. Most mail advertisers have switched to using "Current Occupant" or "X or Current Occupant" to get around the "Does not live here" workaround (as the current occupant always lives there).

Once again, it's the junk mail originator, and a postal system that readily accepts and delivers said junk mail that is truly at fault here. Everyone else is a victim, and everyone basically gets the same set of junk because practically every address is on several lists at this point.

The 3575z has to have a reason listed, and the only valid reasons all reduce to "that person isn't here". The postal employee won't take the form if you are the addressee.

Again, stop blaming the victims, and start assigning responsibility accurately: to the postal service and to the senders.

The USPS makes too much money from unwanted mailings to make it easy for the recipients to block it.

Besides that, the new resident can always just toss the mail addressed to you in the trash, and the postal service would probably never notice. You only have to jump through the bureaucratic hoops if you are afraid someone might come after you for mishandling mail that isn't yours.

Reply on news.ycombinator.com