I keep a rather large corral of pet peeves. Mostly, I pet them, forget them, but some need to be whipped, beaten, exposed for the distress they cause humanity — and me!
One such pet peeve is the unsolicited appeal for money, whether for charity or some commercial scam. Yeah, the operative word is “scam”. It’s bad enough when they come for me, but I also get them for an uncle who died in summer of 1992, a father who died in November 2008, and a mother who died in January 2013.
Oh no! The 1996 Plymouth Breeze Mom and Dad sold to me when they stopped driving and I traded in on a new Chevy Impala in 2009 may be past its three year manufacturer’s warranty that expired in 1999. Pardon me if I don’t feel a need to do something about that! There literally is no vehicle left to inspect or insure!
Then I imagine a personal note I want to write across the mailing, were there room: “LOOK DUMBO! IT REALLY, REALLY, REALLY DISTRESSES ME THAT YOU CONTINUE TO SEND MAIL TO MY [name relative], WHO, AS I HAVE TOLD YOU OVER AND OVER, DIED [repeat date of death]. WISH AS YOU MAY, THEY’RE NO LONGER IN THE MARKET FOR [charitable giving/ products/ services]. STOP SENDING THESE MAILINGS, NOW! REMOVE [name of relative who died] FROM YOUR MAILING LIST!”
One needs to remain calm and be subtle, however, so I just write “DECEASED” on the mailing and remail it. Grrr! It needs to stop. Mark my word, if we let them conduct business from the cemetery, next the deceased’ll demand to vote!
I guarantee this same outfit will send Mom another notice about her car warranty. I will handle it with grace again — and stuff it down the gaping maw of my cross-cutting paper shredder. This pet peeve requires annihilation to be calmed.
I get the unwanted emails from dell who I used to buy computers through til I got my mac.
Dell and I have a long-running fued. I bought something through them, they didn’t give me credit for the payment, and for years I’d get these notices about owing them money for something, though they never told me what. I finally called Dell Finance, the scam part of their operation, to try to resolve the issue at the point they were threatening to take me before the Supreme Court over a $20 bill. (I barely exaggerate.)
I asked them to just send me a bill for whatever I “owed” them, noting what I “owed” them for because I was unawre of buying anything from them. The only Dell product I had was a monitor that I bought through Staples!
When the bill came, it wasn’t for $20, but for $100, and they claimed I hadn’t paid for a Logitech webcam I’d bought on line three years earlier. Made no sense: Logitech – Dell??? That is to say, I bought it with a credit card on line…!
I’d shredded any credit card statements that old back when I saw the payments were made from my bank account, so didn’t have any immediate accountability or realization I might be able to get that information from the credit card company. (Maybe.) Never mind. I just paid the “bill”, which I still regard as extortion money, gave my Dell monitor to my sister (it was a good monitor, but it was a Dell), ands purchased a $500 super monitor made by HP to replace it.
I resolved to pass on the word about Dell’s predatory finance branch and encourage people only to buy their competitor’s products. I HAVE NO SENSE OF HUMOPR WHEN IT COMES TO MONEY! …good morning, Ruth! Glad to know you went Mac and not back to Dell.
Hahaha…I remember this happening to us when my mom stayed with us. We moved a couple of years after she passed on. No more mail….feel like moving?
Shoko and Kali’s mom
Actually, my uncle who died in 1992 contoinues to get mail at my address, and he “moved” here in 2004 from my old address. I didn’t put in a change of address for him, logically thinking someone dead 12 years probably wasn’t interested in the mail anyway. “You can run, but you can’t hide.”
Oh, I agree on this. And as far as the solicitation goes, I do not give to anyone who solicits over the phone anymore. I figure, if they’ve got an operating budget to keep a bank of callers – they don’t need my dollars! Woof!
Charities that send me frequent appeals get the same treatment you give phone solicitators. I stopped answering any phone call that doesn’t come with a local telephone number or caller ID notice. Anyone who needs to contact me can use the mail or e-mail if I ignroe their phone calls. I suppose I could miss calls I need to answer, but I’d have to answer dozxens of spam calls to get to that one of importance. Ugh! I won’t do it!
Yes, I agree it really is annoying to keep getting mail of this type. We keep getting mail for the previous property owner’s deceased wife, who has been dead for many, many years now. We’ve lived here almost 11 years now, and she was long gone before that, so I am at a loss myself as to why this keeps happening.
People who make lists should bear some responsibility for updating them. If I paid for a list so I could send a mailer to potential customers, I’d be very unhappy if half were dead and a quarter living somewhere other than where listed.
That is tough. So far I have hardly ever been successful to stop unwanted mail.
It is being ignored that peeves me. If they want to feed my shredder, well, keep on sending your crap!
Obviously, I guess, same with me! The one for my uncle who died in 1992 is particularly perplexing since it’s for an organization he supported financially and with dues. Surely someone must have thought, “Hey, this guy hasn’t paid his dues or contributed a cent to our cause since before 1992! Maybe he’s a. dead, or b. no longer interested, or c. moved and this isn’;t his address.” Unfortunately, mailing lists have the halflives like U238!” [i.e. 4.468 billion years or so….]