Smith and Noble apparently sold me out

Dear Smith and Noble,

I am awash in catalogs, and it seems you may be to blame.

In this age of e-statements, digital activity, and online correspondence, I expect very little to arrive via snail mail. And yet my mail is overflowing...with catalogs.

At first the catalogs were a slight annoyance. It was something like you automatically signing me up for your catalog after I ordered some window coverings online. I suppose you wanted to stay "top of mind" even though you clearly were top of mind before the catalogs started coming.

Then the catalogs started reproducing. Suddenly I was getting other catalogs, some of them really thick wholesale catalogs, for no apparent reason. It seemed the primary function of my mailbox was to be a temporary holding place for catalogs as they moved from mail carrier to recycling bin.

Today I learned that it will be nearly impossible for me to stop receiving catalogs, and perhaps you are partially to blame. I called Home Decorators Collection's customer service number and asked to stop receiving their catalog. Seemed simple enough. Then I asked if I could somehow end back up on the list, presumably the same way I ended up there to begin with. She said yes.

Using the Key # on the catalog, she acknowledged that Smith and Noble gave my address to them. And probably countless other catalog companies.

If this is true, this is disgraceful. I buy something from you, and you turn around and sell me out. In fact, you may very well keep selling me out, even back to good ol' Home Decorators Collection.

No more. As I tweeted earlier today:

Apparently Smith and Noble is one of the reasons I am receiving so many unwanted catalogs. I will NEVER, EVER buy anything from them again.

-joanie

P.S. I just called your customer service number to opt out of receiving your catalog. As I was leaving my name and address per your instructions, your system abruptly stopped me and said that it couldn't record my information. Then it hung up on me.

(A longer version of this post appears on No More Catalogs, a blog intended to stop unsolicited catalogs from showing up in our mailboxes.)