Post office can help you keep adult material away

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Updated: April 16, 2011 4:46AM

Dear Fixer: Is there a site or source to access in order to remove one’s name and address from unwanted and unsolicited U.S. mail from companies promoting sex-related materials, movies, etc?

Thanks for your help.

Mary Stachovic, Park Forest

Dear Mary: The Fixer totally understands that not everyone really looks forward to finding an explicit advertisement for “Debbie Does Dallas . . . Again” in the mailbox. Lucky for you, the U.S. Postal Service has a way to help prevent this, though it’s strictly for porno material, not ordinary junk mail.

It’s called Form 1500 (Application for Listing and/or Prohibitory Order) and you can find it here: usps.com/forms/_pdf/ps1500.pdf. You will need to attach the original, opened offending mail with your application and take it to any post office.

Filling out the form will help stop sexually oriented advertisements coming through the mail to your home or business. You also can list minor children on the form if any of the offending mail is addressed to them.

And if you also want to stop ordinary junk mail, there are ways to reduce that as well. A good start is ecocycle.org, where you can click on the “Stop Junk Mail” tab and get some good tips, such as:

Register with the Direct Marketing Association’s Mail Preference Service at DMAchoice.org or send your name, address and a $1 check or money order (made to “DMA”) with a request to be removed from promotional mailing lists to: DMAchoice, Direct Marketing Association, P.O. Box 643, Carmel, NY 10512.

Cancel unwanted catalogs by name at CatalogChoice.org.

If your business is getting junk mail for an employee who doesn’t work there anymore, go to ecologicalmail.org to remove the person’s name from direct mailing lists.

Avoid getting on more mailing lists. If you fill out a form for a warranty, subscription, raffle, customer information card, credit card application or membership, write “Please do not rent, sell or trade my name or address” on the card.

If you get unwanted junk mail from a company with a toll-free number, call and ask to be removed from their mailing list. Or mail the piece back to them with the same request.

To eliminate offers from credit card companies, register at OptOutPrescreen.com.

Dear Fixer: I, too, am sick and tired of hearing about automated phone menu changes. (Do they change them daily?) I am also offended when I have to tell the stupid machine that I speak English.

My cable company is a chief offender. You go through a full menu of choices that leads to another full menu of choices, etc. Almost makes me feel they train their personnel to answer one and only one question, so they have to guide you to Suzy who has the answer, but not to Larry or any of the hundred other “associates” who haven’t been trained to answer “that” question.

Generally I’ve found that once I get through the games, the human I finally talk to is very pleasant and tries to help answer the question. Most really try.

Jim Guthrie, North Aurora

Dear Jim: For a nod of agreement, press one . . . For a sympathetic smile, press two . . . For another way to handle this, read on . . .

Dear Fixer: I’ve now taken to “going viral” when I can’t get good customer service. I post problems or questions online on Twitter and use #customerservice and #(company name) in the tweet. I’ve gotten responses! The Twitterer needs to remember to check in @Mentions to find the response.

I also post when I’ve gotten good customer service, so people know I’m not a cranky person.

Beth Lisberg Najberg, Chicago

Dear Beth:

Promises, promises: Seeking a match online

Valentine’s Day can be a real downer for people who’ve recently broken up or gotten divorced.

Lots of those folks are turning to dating Web sites or matchmaking services, as statistics from the Better Business Bureau attest. The local BBB says it got 5,358 inquiries about matchmaking services last year, up from 2,696 in 2009.

But while dating services and Web sites can work, The Fixer wants all you singles to be careful out there.

According to the BBB, the most common consumer complaints include not getting the number of dates they were promised, being matched with people who didn’t meet their criteria (i.e., a smoker or a person who lives far away) and high-pressure sales tactics followed by poor customer service.

Consumers need to read every word of the contracts they sign and be wary of vaguely worded limitations and exclusions, says Steve J. Bernas, president and CEO of the local BBB. One consumer told the BBB she was promised 33 matches with “high-caliber” men, but the dates the matchmaking service sent her were “anyone alive and moving. One guy showed up for dinner with no teeth and gummed his food.”

Illinois law does allow you to cancel a dating services contract within three days, but that won’t help if the problem is discovered later. It’s best to check out any dating service first — at BBB.org and at other online complaint websites.

Also, be careful of auto-pay arrangements and contracts that allow the dating service to re-subscribe you automatically after the first year.

And then there are the online scams. Last fall, The Fixer wrote about Lise-lotte, an attractive, smart, professional woman from the suburbs who’d posted a profile on Match.com. When a handsome U.S. Air Force pilot contacted her, she was over the moon.

They developed an e-mail relationship off the site, and he poured his heart out about his first wife’s death, his sick 3-year-old child, his service in Afghanistan and his desire to start a charter aircraft business with his pilot buddies. Liselotte did what she could to help, eventually sending him a total of $23,000.

Only later did she find out he was a scammer in Nigeria posing as an American airman.

It’s too bad there are shady people willing to make a buck on other people’s desire for love. The Fixer’s advice this Valentine’s Day is to keep your heart open . . . but your head attuned to scams.