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Bugged by U-T Litterbugs
I feel your outrage. For over two years, I would get this useless litter on my plants and driveway. The delivery folks would gladly let them stack up when I was on vacation. I made many phone calls to stop this practice. I spoke with 10 or more people in their India call center (all with randomly assigned anglo first names to make you feel at home). Each of them would apologize and promise most sincerely that the deliveries would stop, "but it may take some time". That promise was maybe good for a week, if that. The call center did log my calls (they could cite my prior calls), so I suspect they did their part. The disconnect seemed to be back here in SD. Once I figured that out, I spoke with "Oscar". I forget his title, but his promise to stop deliveries was also ineffective. I became too busy for awhile until the recent U-T campaign of giving everyone they had already pissed off, a complementary subscription to piss them off even more! These papers were being dumped randomly with more than half out in the gutter. Eventually I counted more than 10 papers in front of a vacant house down the street. At that point I sent an email from their website explaining THEIR littering problem. My 'complementary' subscription stopped immediately. Maybe the word 'litter' has more clout than other words? The jury is still out on the community values paper which still appears. My conclusion is that they do not maintain subscription lists for these circulars, and they do not give a rat's behind about the litter, or who they piss off. They are going to continue as they have as long as the advertisers pay, and the costs stay the same. So what to do? I doubt that even one in 10 of the circulars is ever read, and you and I are footing the bill for the disposal costs. To make it worse, every delivery is wrapped in environmentally unfriendly plastic (rain or shine), too much of which ends up in our food chain. Maybe if the advertisers understood how un-green and unwelcome the practice was, and had to pay those costs, they would opt for a more targeted approach. When you see papers piling up, have U-T come out and collect them. Its THEIR trash. Make them pay those costs too. If there is no effective way to opt-out from this U-T litter, my vote is these circulars are opt-in subscription only, or banished to the racks at the grocery store, coffee shop, etc. Better yet, stop the printing altogether!. Email distribution is a fraction of the cost, it doesn't increase the cost of trash collection, it does not pile up in anyone's yard, and it is easy to dispose of. OK, vent it here: http://mail.sandiegouniontribune.cust-serv.com/— February 18, 2012 12:12 p.m.