I woke up this morning and made my weekly run down to the “community mailboxes” which my neighbourhood has. You see, I don’t go down every day because I don’t get much mail. I only get flyers. This morning, in one week I received the following.
-34 pieces of advertising for businesses. 34!!!! It’s time our nation got a “do not mail” list to go along with the “do not call” and “do not spam” lists we need.
-5 bills
-6 political notices (not unexpected with a municipal election on Monday)
But what peeves me off more than the fact that the majority of mail is advertising is that even the mail that is not meant to be advertising has a bunch of gobbledygook in it.
Let me explain.
I opened up my Hydro Ottawa bill and inside the envelope was one sheet of paper with my bill, two inserts that were identical telling me to look up (for overhead wiring) before I do any work. For those that know Kanata, you will notice that our residential neighbourhoods have NO overhead wiring. We are an underground wiring community. But on top of the two inserts (one English and one French) I got a copy of this quarter’s Hydro Ottawa’s Currents a mini newsletter with full blown colour photos, information on LED lights, air conditioner disposal, etc.
How many of my electricity bill dollars does it take to pay someone to generate this crap? I don’t pay my electricity bill to keep a marketing team employed. I pay for my electricity.
Next. My Enbridge Natural Gas bill. Inside was one sheet of paper with all my billing information. I like the size of this one as it is small and full of info all on one sheet. But what does Enbridge go and add? One insert asking me “What’s hiding in your ducts?”. Another insert asking me “Who helps you weather the weather?”. Both advertising for services Enbridge offers to clean ducts or tune up my furnace. But it doesn’t end there. I got an insert telling me about my new rate information. I seem to get one of these every month because the rates fluctuate. This one was to inform me of a decrease in delivery charge. (Yes, Virginia, bills go down too). But then the kicker. I also get a newsletter called the Enbridge Pipeline!! Again, a piece of marketing fluff telling me all about natural gas and how Enbridge works with it.
Can’t my mailbox be JUST for my personally addressed mail? Can’t companies just send me my bill and not all the fluff? I am getting tired of compressing all the garbage and turning it into a fireplace log. But on the plus side, it does help keep my Enbridge bill down when I burn these logs.
In light of this, I have created a new poll regarding do not call, email or phone lists.