Opting Out of Phone Book Delivery
I am working on cleaning up one of my cupboards and as I was placing our many large phone books into a box to be taken to a recycling bin down the road, I got the crazy idea to call QwestDex and ask them to take me off of their delivery list altogether. We receive roughly 4+ phone books each year from QwestDex and Yellow Book. And these are monstrous sized books since Denver is such a large area. On top of those huge books we also receive a couple smaller phone books that contain just our general area of the city. We never use the phone books since everything can be found online, which I find to be much more convenient anyways. So by removing our name from their delivery list, I figured I would be not only doing myself a favor (less clutter/garbage to dispose of) but that I would also be doing them a favor by allowing them less production and delivery costs. Not only that, it would be good for the environment.
However, when I called QwestDex (not to be confused with Qwest’s regular telephone service), you would have thought that I had just asked for the most impossible request in the world. The lady hemmed and hawed, not sure quite what to do with me. Finally I was given a different number for their delivery service, which I found odd since, according to the phone book, the QwestDex delivery service was whom I had just called. Whatever.
So I called the second number. After listening to the longest messages in the world before I was given any options to press on my touchtone phone (“0” didn’t work – I tried), I realized that the number that the lady had given me was completely incorrect. I asked the gentleman who answered the phone, “I was given this number by QwestDex to remove myself from their phone book deliveries, but it sounds like that you are just recruiting people TO deliver the phone book?” The man on the other line confirmed that I was correct. ARGH.
So I called QwestDex back. They tried to give me that other phone number again. When I told them what the other number was really for, there was a pause. Then the lady said, “Let me check to see how I need to handle this request.”
After a brief moment, she took down my information. I wonder if I should take bets on whether or not I will receive next this next year’s phone books or not. I am not holding my breath on my request really getting taken care of.
*I do need to note that the customer service people were friendly when I called. Just not sure what to do with me. Someone not want a phone book? Inconceivable!
I had fun getting people at work taken off the catalog lists for our vendors. One place I called had about 10 people from work on their mailing list, when we are so small that we really only need one catalog. I kept telling her to take names off and by the end she said “well, does ANYone need our catalog?” If only it were so easy for you to get off the phone book list. They probably don’t get many requests like yours b/c people don’t want to mess with it and just stash the books on their already overflowing shelves. btw, good to see you yesterday! Sounds like you’ve had a fun weekend! 🙂
People are really thrown by stuff like this. That reminds me of the time I called our phone company conglomerate to drop a few features of our plan to reduce the bill. The lady finished the call with the following conversation:
“We have bundling services with internet and television. Do you have cable or satellite?”
“No.”
“What? Do you currently have cable or satellite?”
“No.”
“I’m sorry, which do you have?”
“Neither.”
“Oh, you don’t have tv??” *totally aghast*
“No, we have TV.”
“Ok, so cable or satellite?”
“Neither.”
We use rabbit ears. Totally blew her mind. Good for you for making the effort to reduce waste!
Hey,I always love reading the entries about what Adrianna is doing. She is talking so much. I bet it’s so cute and funny. Ethan only has about 15 words (im not worried though) but they are so cute when he uses them.
One or two of those big phone books maybe could be used as a booster seat for Adrianna to sit up at the table. And your blog change is really cute!
Yeah Zach have that problem too, only i am SURE our phonebooks aren’t half the size of yours. Our neighbors deal with this problem not by simply taking the book from their mail box to the dumpster, but by just setting the stupid book on top of our block of mailboxes until it is soggy and gross. Guess who ends up putting the soggy mess into the dumpster? ME! So I not only have to throw MY extra phonebooks away, I have to throw away the neighbors too…What a waste.