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Restoration Hardware wildly off target in catalog carpet bombing of one well off building
By adamg on Fri, 06/06/2014 - 8:23am
Maureen Rogers reports that of the four people in her building to whom Restoration Hardware addressed its 17-pound catalog bundles, three haven't lived there for years. The fourth does live in the building. With her parents. She's 3.
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Comments
We got the 15lb catalogs too.
We got the 15lb catalogs too. Couldn't believe how heavy they were, but it said it write on the shipping label... what a waste a paper and now the city of Boston has to pay to recycle it. Thinking of dropping it on the doorstep of their Newbury St. store.
A few years ago we called every single company that sent us catalogs around the Christmas season and told them to stop. They all agreed, but 2 years later we're still getting them... in our name and duplicates addressed to people who used to lived here years ago. Total BS.
A catalog Bonfire on RH's
A catalog Bonfire on RH's lawn is looking even better now.
A real life Bonfire of the Vanities!
Anyone know how they got our addresses?
I've never purchased an item from RH. So I don't know how they discovered my existence. I moved to an all cash payment method a couple of years ago. This is the first unsolicited direct marking I've received in a long time.
Public Records?
They could be pulling public records. Are you registered to vote, pay taxes, and/or fill out a town census at that address?
Will a three year old have a public record?
Serious question. I'm a kid free individual.
Town Census
If you add their name to the town census or have certain tax situations, yes.
Right...
Now I remember seeing this on the latest census forms sent out.
What can we do?
Can we call UPS to come and pick them up? Has anyone tried? Our building got two, for people who no longer live here. They came weeks apart, and the deliveries may not be over yet.
No way.
The idea of hauling them all over to the Newbury St. store sounds far more fun.
My RH cinder block went straight to the recycle bin
after I did a couple of sets of curls and removed the shrink wrap.
I did notice one funny thing, however: the "insert" page (outside of the catalogues but in the shrink wrap) went to great lengths to tell us about RH's commitment to sustainability. I have to presume that the person who ok'd that idea is no longer with the company.
On a related note, an earlier comment indicated that now the "city of boston has to pay to recycle these" or some such. I can't believe that is the case - the town of Brookline makes money off its recycling program, and the proceeds are used to defray the cost of trash collection for residents.
One way to opt out of mailings
I haven't had dealing with Restoration specifically, but I've had great success in eliminating junk mail--especially unwanted catalogs--using Trusted ID's free "catalog choice" service:
https://www.catalogchoice.org/signup
After you sign up (and I've noticed no subsequent increase in spam!), you search their database of companies, select the source of the catalog you've received, and add some details from the mailing label. They contact the company with a request that you be removed from their mailing list. You can check back to track the status of your request (e.g., pending, acknowledged by company, etc.). It's worked beautifully for me on everything from those pamphlet-y things hawking nose hair clippers and "kiss the cook" aprons, to the bulky, glossy tomes from IKEA.