6/03/2012

Updating your address list is not always sensible

I can't stop pay-to-play in Houston if I don't live there anymore.
I moved away from Houston more than two years ago. When I registered to vote in my new home county, I formally dropped my Houston voter registration. That is why this recent mailer related to a primary merits a Fail for List. It is a waste of money to reach someone who can't even vote.

Let's say, for the sake of discussion, that I continued to vote in Houston even though I moved away. It would still not be worth the cost to mail to me because Standard Rate mailers like this arrive too late to send an absentee ballot.

Political organizations aren't the only ones allowing their mail to follow me even though I live over a thousand miles away. The YMCA in my old Houston neighborhood would like me to become a member again so I can exercise at the local facilities. That would be going a bit out of the way for a workout.




Leisure Learning Unlimited of Houston continues to send me a schedule for local classes on boating, cooking, and stained glass making. I don't think I'll make the trip to learn to windsurf in the Gulf of Mexico when I can do that in the Atlantic Ocean.
What typically happens is that mass mailers run their mailing list through the USPS National Change of Address database. When the USPS informs the mailer that the recipient has moved, the address is updated and the mail goes to the new address.

That does not make sense for Leisure Learning, YMCA, or the Houston Realty Business Association, but it does make sense for appliance manufacturer Whirlpool, which sent me this package offering a warranty extension. But if they are updating their mailing list to reflect my new address and assume I still have the refrigerator I purchased in Houston, why bother addressing the forwarded correspondence to "Marc Davis or current resident"?

Lesson: There are times when address updates are useful, and times when they are not.  Consider removing people from your business's mailing list if they no longer live in your metropolitan area.